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The Voter’s Speakeasy featuring unbiased reporting and insight into life at Vote Smart from our staff, interns, and volunteers.

June Common Ground E-Newsletter

2012 June 12

How Is Your Elected Official Rated?

Pinpointing where your representative stands on a particular issue can be a painstaking process filled with contradiction and rhetoric. Inside Project Vote Smart's Research Department, we are working every day to get you the facts you need to make this process a little bit less frustrating. Each year, we go through our database of over 1,300 national and state special interest groups and collect their evaluations of elected officials and candidates. These scorecards are from all special interest groups that provide them, regardless of issue or bias. While the majority of interest group ratings are inherently partisan, they can be invaluable in showing where an incumbent has stood on a series of votes in the past one or two years, especially when ratings by groups on all sides of an issue are compared.

Right now, we're updating our database daily with ratings from the most recent legislative sessions on both the state and federal level. Check out the links below for a small taste of what's available at our website.

Abortion Issues
NARAL Pro-Choice America 2011 
National Right to Life Committee 2011 

Budget, Spending, and Tax Issues
National Taxpayers Union 2011 

Environmental Issues
League of Conservation Voters 2011 
 
Gun Issues
Gun Owners of America 2011 

Senior and Social Security Issues
Alliance for Retired Americans 2011 



Voting Smart in 140 Characters or Less

Project Vote Smart's members, volunteers, interns, and supporters have long held the conviction that our democracy requires informed voters (sometimes it ...

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Will your candidates show political courage?

2012 May 23

Every election year, Project Vote Smart uses the Political Courage Test (PCT) to measure the willingness of candidates to provide their positions on key issues. Find out now if your candidates are currently being tested. 

Candidates Running in 2011 Lack Courage

2011 October 17 - Darren McDivitt

“It shouldn’t take courage for a politician to complete a survey regarding positions on issues. Yet seemingly it does.” – South Bend Tribune

New Jersey State Legislative Candidates Lack Courage

2011 October 13 - Carly Griffin

Congressional Beginnings

2011 October 06 - Carly Griffin


2009 Spending/Tax/Bonds Ballot Measures: Reviews and Results

2009 November 14 - Stefan

2009 Environment/Energy Ballot Measures: Summary and Results

2009 November 13 - Stefan

Analysis of the 2009 General Election

2009 November 13 - Kristen Vicedomini

Maine Medical Marijuana Ballot Measure: Summary and Results

2009 November 12 - Stefan

Same-Sex Unions 2009-- Follow-Up

2009 November 06 - Kristen Vicedomini

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