Pierce College Library: Election 2004 Starting Points

Election 2004

2004 Elections in General (National and State)
Presidential Candidates
Major Campaign Issues (National and State)
Ballot Issues (National and State)
Election and Campaign Finance Reform
Voter Registration

See also Political Science Links in our Social Sciences Starting Points. Here you'll find links to information about where candidates find money, which organizations support which candidates, history of U.S. elections, and much more!
See also Government Links in our Reference Starting Points.

2004 Election in General

National
PollingReport.com: If you're looking for results of any polls or surveys about voting behavior, check out this site! It provides lots of results and is nonpartisan and independent. (Maintained by The Polling Report, Inc.)
America Votes 2004: Presidential Primary Preview: This CNN Special Report strives to maintain current information about candidates and also includes state primary descriptions, an election calendar/timeline, and a monthly poll tracker. (Maintained by CNN.)
League of Women Voters': This web site isn't just for women - it's for any voter who wants be informed. The site describes itself this way: "whether you're interested in voter information, civic participation, or current public policy issues such as election reform, campaign finance reform and health care, you have come to the right place." (Maintained by League of Women Voters'.)
opensecrets.org: This organization and web site are devoted to sharing information about money and American politics. From the site you can type in your zip code and find out how much money is donated to political candidates and issues from your area, find out which candidates receive the most donations from your area, and more! View statistics and information about the money that each candidate has spent recently. (Maintained by The Center For Responsive Politics.)
Project Vote Smart (PVS): Project Vote Smart is "a citizen's organization dedicated to serving all Americans with accurate and unbiased information for electoral decision-making." Here you'll find "backgrounds, issue positions, voting records, campaign finances and performance evaluations" on thousands of candidates, local and nationwide. (Maintained by Project Vote Smart.)
Road to the White House: A variety of candidates are listed (and linked to) from this C-SPAN page. (Maintained by C-SPAN.)
Salon.com: Articles about the upcoming election published by Salon are gathered here. On Salon you can read articles that present opposing (and frequently extreme) points-of-view. (Maintained by Salon Media Group, Inc..)




Washington State
Washington Voter: If you need any kind of election information, this is THE site for you. Some of the features you'll find useful are the online voters guides from the Secretary of State (just like the print ones you get in the mail); audio and video of live events produced by TVW (Washington's public affairs channel); information on campaign finance from government monitoring agencies and citizen watchdog groups; and an "issues grid" with candidate debates on issues at the presidential, congressional and statewide levels and on local issues in King, Kitsap, Pierce and Spokane counties. (Maintained by League of Women Voters of Washington Education Fund.)
Elections (Washington Secretary of State): Election information galore! Some of the subjects included are: Candidate Filings; Election Calendar ; Initiatives & Referenda ; Campaign Finance Disclosure ; Election Laws ; Election Reform Reports ; The Help America Vote Act of 2002 ; and MUCH more. (Maintained by Secretary of State of Washington.)
League of Women Voters of Washington: This web site isn't just for women - it's for any voter who wants be informed. The site describes itself this way: "whether you're interested in voter information, civic participation, or current public policy issues such as election reform, campaign finance reform and health care, you have come to the right place." (Maintained by League of Women Voters of Washington.)

Presidential Candidates

Multiple Candidates Discussed
Presidency 2004: Major players AND minor players are covered on this Politics1.com site. While the author attempts to be a "non-partisan public service" site, but do make a note of his biases on the "About Us" page. (Maintained by Politics1.com)
Salon.com articles about the candidates: Frequently, Salon.com includes articles discussing the current candidates. (Maintained by Salon Media Group, Inc..)
SelectSmart.com: This is an awesome site that quizzes you on your opinions about certain issues and then tells you which candidate(s) share your views! Great idea, huh? Check it out and be amazed. (Maintained by SelectSmart.com.)
Rhetorica Network - Presidential Campaign Rhetoric 2004: I promise that this site's content isn't not dull. A university professor and former journalist, Cline provides his detailed analysis of rhetoric used in specific speeches by President Bush and some of the Presidential candidates. You can select a speech, see sections highlighted by Cline, then read Cline's analysis of the statements. Current and budding activists will be awed by this site! (Maintained by Andrew R. Cline.)
Project Vote Smart (PVS): Project Vote Smart is "a citizen's organization dedicated to serving all Americans with accurate and unbiased information for electoral decision-making." Here you'll find "backgrounds, issue positions, voting records, campaign finances and performance evaluations" on thousands of candidates, local and nationwide. (Maintained by Project Vote Smart.)


Candidates by Party
Remember: there are many more parties than we link to below. Use search engines to search for parties you're interested in, or look for them on the lists at lii.org or townhall.com.

American Party (official American Party site): If you're looking for any information produced or spun by the American Party, this is the site for you. Remember the bias here: pro-American Party and anti-everything else. (Maintained by Constitution Party.)

Constitution Party Candidates (official Constitution Party site): If you're looking for any information about the Constitution Party Candidates or other Constitution Party information produced or spun by the Party, this is the site for you. Remember the bias here: pro-Constitution Party and anti-everything else. (Maintained by Constitution Party.)

Democratic Candidates (official Democratic site): If you're looking for any information about the Democratic National Committee Candidates or other Democratic Party information produced or spun by the Party, this is the site for you. Remember the bias here: pro-Democrat and anti-everything else. (Maintained by Democratic National Committee.)

Greens/Green Party USA (official Green Party site): If you're looking for any information produced or spun by the Greens/Green Party USA (G/GPUSA), this is the site for you. Remember the bias here: pro-Green and anti-everything else. (Maintained by Greens/Green Party USA.)

Libertarian Party (official Libertarian site): If you're looking for any information about the Libertarian Candidates or other Libertarian Party information produced or spun by the Party, this is the site for you. Remember the bias here: pro-Libertarian and anti-everything else. (Maintained by Libertarian Party.)

Natural Law Party (official Natural Law Party site): If you're looking for any information produced or spun by the Natural Law Party, this is the site for you. Remember the bias here: pro-Natural Law Party and anti-everything else. (Maintained by Natural Law Party.)

Reform Party (official Reform Party site): If you're looking for any information produced or spun by the Reform Party, this is the site for you. Remember the bias here: pro-Reform Party and anti-everything else. (Maintained by Reform Party.)

Republican National Committee (official Republican National Committee site): If you're looking for any information produced or spun by the Republican National Committee (GOP), this is the site for you. Remember the bias here: pro-Republican and anti-everything else. (Maintained by Republican Party.)

Socialist Labor Party of America (official Socialist Labor Party site): If you're looking for any information produced or spun by the Socialist Labor Party (SLP), this is the site for you. Remember the bias here: pro- Socialist and anti-everything else. (Maintained by Socialist Labor Party of America.)

Independent Candidates
Presidency 2004: Many of the independent candidates are listed on this Politics1.com site. Links to web sites about the candidates are also featured. (Maintained by Politics1.com)
Ballot Access News: Here you can track third party & independent candidates, and also read about restrictive ballot access laws in the United States. (Maintained by Richard Winger.)

Major Campaign Issues

National
Iraq - Bush Administration Position: This is the official White House web page that gathers information about the Bush Administration's involvement in and relationship with Iraq. (Maintained by White House.)
Iraq - Democrats Speak Out on Iraq: Documents on the official Democratic National Committee web site that high-ranking democrats have written. (Maintained by Democratic National Committee.)
Taxes - President Bush's 2004 Re-election Tax Scheme: Want to read the Democratic point-of-view on the tax plans of the Bush Administration? Here it is! (Maintained by Democratic National Committee.)
Taxes - Tax Reform: The Bush Administration has made some radical moves when it comes to using your tax dollars. Read the official White House documents about this issues. (Maintained by White House.)
Health Care Reform - Alliance for Health Reform: Information on this web site is provided by Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that "believes that all in the U.S. should have health coverage at a reasonable cost."
Health Care Reform - Public Citizen: Brought to you by another nonprofit, consumer advocacy organization founded by Ralph Nader in the early 1970s. This site also includes information on prescription drug costs & patents.

Washington State

Ballot Issues

National
Ballot Access News: Here you can easily find information about issues and laws that will and won't appear on your ballots in November. (Maintained by Richard Winger.)






Washington State
Ballot Issues at Washington Voter: Here you'll find links to information about issues on the ballots. (Maintained by League of Women Voters of Washington Education Fund.)

Election and Campaign Finance Reform


Election Reform
Elections Reform Reports (Secretary of State of Washington State): A multitude of links to reports on election reform are here. Some of them are: "An Agenda for Election Reform" by Brookings Institution ; Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project ; National Commission on Federal Election Reform ; "How to Make Over One Million Votes Disappear" by the House Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives ; and more. Take a look! (Maintained by Secretary of State of Washington State.)
What is the Electoral College?: This is a brief overview of the Electoral College process. Also look at the Electoral College 2004 - List Of States And Votes page.(Maintained by Project Vote Smart.)
Federal Election Commission: This site describes the Electoral College system and provides several pages of information about it. (Maintained by Federal Election Commission.)
Electoral College: This is a collection of statistics (and other information) on presidential elections. (Maintained by Office of the Federal Register and U.S. National Archives & Records Administration.)
Election Reform (Google): This leads you to a list of sites about election reform issues. You can also browse by sub-topics like Electoral College, Term Limits, and Voting Systems. (Maintained by Google.)

Campaign Finance Reform
Federal Election Commission: Be sure you understand current election finance rules, processes, and issues - stop by this web site first. Their purpose is to "administer and enforce the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) - the statute that governs the financing of federal elections." (Maintained by Federal Election Commission.)
Campaign Finance Reform (Google): This leads you to a list of sites about campaign finance, some non-partisan, some with obvious political slants. (Maintained by Google.)
Buying of the President 2004: There are a LOT of statistics and information about individual candidates' campaign finances on this site. Be prepared to be shocked by the numbers you find here. The owner of this site is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, tax-exempt organization. (Maintained by Center for Public Integrity.)

Voter Registration

Register to Vote: If you need to register to vote, or change your voting status (to a new location or to register for absentee voting), this web site has the applications you need. Voter Information Guides are also available here. (Maintained by Office of the Secretary of State of Washington.)
Rock the Vote: This self-described organization's goals are "to increase youth voter turnout" to which end it "mobilizes young people to create positive social and political change in their lives and communities." A lot of issues are covered by this site, not just presidential elections.


Questions/Comments about this website to: Lynn Olson, lolson@pierce.ctc.edu. Last Revised 8/10/2004.