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The Voter’s Speakeasy featuring unbiased reporting and insight into life at Vote Smart from our staff, interns, and volunteers.
December Common Ground E-Newsletter
2013 December 17
Introducing: Key Speeches
by Katy Dupre
Politicians like to talk. A lot. They like to talk about what they have accomplished, what they hope to accomplish, how others have failed to accomplish and how the other side is threatening former and future accomplishments. Vote Smart is working on a program that will make it easier for voters to actually follow those public statements. Vote Smart's research department collects every press release, statement and speech from every federal and gubernatorial politician. Our new Key Speeches program sifts through all of those public statements and identifies the most informative, interesting and useful ones. Following a strict list of criteria, key speeches allow voters to quickly identify what is being discussed on Capitol Hill, where politicians stand on hot topic issues and it raises awareness for the topics that rarely get airtime. The statements we highlight could be a number of things. We may decide to highlight a speech that will stand the test of time, which explains a complex topic in an easy-to-understand format, that could drastically change policy, or that highlights an issue that not many people know much about. Ultimately, we want you to know what is being discussed on Capitol Hill and help voters to understand the current status of important policies. Check back for more developments with our new Key Speeches program!
Winterns!
by Kylie Hannas
Every winter on the ranch we see our intern numbers start to dwindle. During the summer we have upwards of ...
