Be An Informed Voter

By Susan Braunstein, Programming Librarian

I love the month of October. It is that in-between time where it can be 70 degrees one day and below freezing the next. People are preparing for winter, gathering their harvest, decorating for Halloween and trying to find those lost snow boots from last year. It is also the time of year that reminds us – as if we could forget with all the political advertising – that Election Day is just around the corner.

Whether you are a candidate or voter, it takes time and research to investigate all the pertinent resources you need to find the truth about issues that concern you. In the past, information was obtained mainly through local newspapers, television and radio. Now, we are also bombarded with internet resources, blogs and other social networking.

The staff of the Rapid City Public Library can help you sort through this maze of election information. We have an election display in the library that includes copies of the ballot issues, the general election ballot, and information relating to voting including a map of polling places.

By going online, either using your home computer or one of the library’s public, you can also check out relevant websites to find information about the elections. Pennington County’s website at www.votepennco.com includes information on voter registration and local polling places; the South Dakota Secretary of State’s office, www.sdsos.gov, 1-888-70-Elect, or 773-3537, offers a 2008 ballot question pamphlet, other voting information and will post election results November 4th. Election and voting resources are also available at the library’s del.icio.us bookmarking web resource: http://delicious.com/RCPL/bundle:2008_Election.

If you want to learn more about local candidates, www.votesmart.org will give you insight into the biographical background and their opinions on many of the relevant issues. You can enter your zip code to see the candidates in your district.

Another way to find information is through the myriad of blogs used to communicate opinions and facts about politics and the elections, especially on the national scene. One of them, http://www.politifact.com, is a project of the St. Petersburg Times and Congressional Quarterly; their intention is to help voters find the truth in the presidential campaign world by providing fact-checking information about statements made by politicians, interest groups, or the media. Every day reporters and researchers from the Times and the Congressional Quarterly analyze the candidates’ speeches, TV ads and interviews and determine whether the claims are accurate. They post something called a Truth-O-Meter that rates a statement with true, half-true, false or “pants on fire”. They also have a Flip-O-Meter that tells you who has flipped from their original statements. It is not a commercial site and it presents some interesting facts.

In an article called, “Best Blogs on the US Election 2008,” Mo Zilla, who writes for the website www.helium.com, chose his own top four election blogs including: Swampland: http://time-blog.com/swampland from Time magazine, using a six member team with equal coverage of their insights on the campaigns; Tales from the Trail, http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08, has original news reporting from Reuters; The Field, at http://ruralvotes.com/thefield, is from political reporter Al Giordano, who explains polls and is an expert on recognizing patterns in certain demographic groups; and Political Wire, http://www.politicalwire.com, which is a fact-filled blog that also offers quotes from candidates and supporters.

Other interesting websites include www.publicagenda.com, www.hyerstandard.com, and www.cqpolitics.com, which includes “Greg’s List” with a multitude of links for political information. And South Dakota’s own Denise Ross gives some well-thought out political insights on her blog, http://hoghouseblog.com.

When it comes to voting, we have a choice. We can let others make decisions about our future, or in the words of Walter H. Judd, “People often say that, in a democracy, decisions are made by a majority of the people. Of course, that is not true. Decisions are made by a majority of those who make themselves heard and who vote – a very different thing.” Make time to vote this Election Day.