knowyourvote

Know Your Vote

An issue-by-issue guide to the 2008 Presidential Candidates

Back in the Mix--with a Caveat

After seeing that the hits have continued even though the updates have ceased, we've made the decision to republish Biden's page, remove Clinton's and hopefully get some stuff up on Palin soon. Please note that the information does not reflect the revelations of the general election campaign, such as the recent financial crisis. Not much has changed in terms of actual positions, though additional details might not be included. As always, if you're interested in writing about a person or position, send an email to knowyourvote@gmail.com. Happy reading!

What is it?

Know Your Vote is a non-partisan (meaning we’re not taking any sides) group that wants to cut beyond the media madness of the 2008 Presidential Campaign. We deliver clear summaries of the big issues and the candidates’ views on those issues. We like to think that we’re targeting the 18-30 year-olds, but we’re definitely not checking ID.

You'll notice that in the spirit of non-partisanship, we've avoided attaching political parties to candidates (though we've been known to lapse on occasion). As the October 23rd, 2006 issue of Time Magazine points out, we may be more of a nation of purple than red and blue. Not only are we geographically integrated (none of this "red-state" "blue-state" stuff) but our opinions often fall among the two camps. So rather than pushing the party, we are pushing the policies. You might be surprised by what you'll find.

How Does It Work?

Our dedicated writers choose a topic, do all the research, find out how this issue might affect our generation, track the candidates’ positions on the topic and write it all up. We post in two ways--on our website and through user-circulated eProfiles.

Why “eProfile?” And What Is It?

For one, it looks kind of like all those Mac names out there, so we thought it might be a connection with the iPod generation...

Seriously though, an eProfile is like one-stop-shopping for campaign issues. Dedicated to one topic only, it contains a summary of the topic, whether there’s controversy and what the controversy is, and how the issue might affect our generation. It finishes with each presidential candidate’s position on the topic.

The best part about eProfiles is that they find their own audience. Rather than being in a static place, like a website (though we do post all of the summaries online), eProfiles are circulated from friends to friends via email networks. If you read something you like, you can forward it onto your friends. So rather than sending a link that they might not check, you can send the actual summary right into their inbox, hopefully increasing the number of voters we can reach.

Please Note: The company that we are set up to use for sending eProfiles had to temporarily shut-down their operations due to spam abuse. We will start sending eProfiles once the site is up and running again, most likely mid-January. Please continue to subscribe--there are many months until the final election in November.

How Do I Keep Track of all the Info?

To make sorting through all the information easier, we've published our "So, Who Do I Vote For?" chart. As you read, you can check off which candidates you like for each issue, and even parts of issues. While we believe that more than a checklist goes into deciding whom to vote for, it certainly helps. There is a page dedicated to the issue charts, and each chart is posted under the "links" section in its corresponding issue page as well.

Why Are You Doing This?

The idea started because we couldn’t find one place that explained the issues and the candidates in an organized fashion. Sometimes we would come across profiles of each of the candidates, but they would address different issues. Sometimes we would find an issue, but it would only mention some of the candidates. We wanted a place where we could read about an issue and then read what each of the candidates was saying. At heart this is a selfish endeavor.

Can I sign-up to Receive eProfiles?

Definitely. Send an email to knowyourvote@gmail.com or use the subscribe function at the bottom of every page.

How Can I Get Involved?

We are always looking for writers, fact-checkers, web gurus, critics, and commentators. If you'd like to do any of the above, send us an email at knowyourvote@gmail.com. This is especially important if you find any errors in content. We do our best to ensure accuracy, but changing news and the wealth of information make it difficult. Please let us know if you feel we've gotten something wrong.

About Us

Issues

Abortion

Foreign Policy

Human Rights