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We have a primary election in Minnesota today. Following the lead of Publius <http://www.publius.org> in Michigan and Smart Voter <http://www.smartvoter.org> in California, volunteers with Minnesota E-Democracy have built <http://www.myballot.net>. See the press release below. Led by David Stein with design help from Jason Gohlke, MyBallot.Net provides a simple address-based look up of your ballot choices (in Minnesota). Visit the site <http://www.myballot.net> and use the examples to generate a test ballot. From the ballot you can do nifty pre-set Google searches which demonstrate how to leverage the always evolving content on the Internet. We also have hundreds of candidate and campaign information links at <http://www.e-democracy.org/2002/> along with details on our partner <http://www.e-democracy.org/2002/edem2002myballotpartnerletter.doc> model. We basically trade links with government and media sites and allow sites to integrate MyBallot as their own enhanced service if they mention/print it a number of times in their traditional medium. For example <http://wcco.com/politics/> and <http://news.mpr.org/collections/campaign2002/>. Stay tuned for more. Steven Clift Democracies Online Board Chair, Minnesota E-Democracy P.S. David and I were guests on the hard rock 93x radio "Half-Assed Morning Show" the other day promoting the site. They gave it the big thumbs up to their youthful audience. In response to their suggestion that "we ought to have pictures of babes on our site" to attract their listeners, I regretfully mentioned that our's was essentially a "text-only" site, to which another host piped in, "what was that, a 'sex-only' election site." Hmmm. That may have to wait until 2004. ------- Forwarded message follows ------- From: "Steven Clift" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: MyBallot.net - The Primary Voter's Online Sample Ballot Source - Press Release Date sent: Fri, 6 Sep 2002 15:06:37 -0500 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - TIME SENSITIVE Friday, September 6, 2002 MyBallot.net Set to Give Primary Voters What They Want: Information MINNEAPOLIS - September 6, 2002 - Minnesota E-Democracy announces the launch of MyBallot.net, a site devoted to informing Minnesotans on their Election Day voting choices: http://www.myballot.net MyBallot.net is a featured service of the E-Democracy 2002 partnership made up of leading media and civic organizations promoting awareness of election information via the web. E-Democracy 2002 provides links to candidate web sites and sources of quality election information, news, and discussions: http://www.e-democracy.org/2002 With a few keystrokes and clicks on MyBallot.net, Minnesotans can conveniently bring up a sample ballot displaying the candidate names they will see upon entering the voting booth during the upcoming primary and general election (1). Each name is linked to an information search about the candidate, allowing voters to make informed choices and not be overwhelmed by unfamiliar names on the ballot - a key factor in undervoting. "This is a powerful tool in the fight to make elections relevant to everyday citizens," said Steven Clift, Minnesota E-Democracy chair. "Far too often people don't vote because they're unfamiliar with their choices. They might recognize the major candidates, but never have heard of others. MyBallot.net helps level the playing field for citizens and candidates alike." The brainchild of David Stein, an E-Democracy volunteer, MyBallot.net was conceived in after the 2000 election in the hopes it would serve as a force to inspire more people to exercise their right to vote. "I really wanted a web site that would quickly provide people with their ballot choices and polling place along with information from different sources about the candidates," said Stein. "I've found that unbiased information on candidates, especially state legislative candidates, can be really tough to find. The information MyBallot.net provides, and the ease with which it does it, will hopefully drive people to vote in record numbers this year." About Minnesota E-Democracy Minnesota E-Democracy, established in 1994, is a non-profit, non- partisan citizen-based organization whose mission is to improve participation in democracy in Minnesota through the use of information networks. More information at: http://www.e-democracy.org/about.html Media outlets and civic organizations with non-partisan election content are encouraged to join the E-Democracy 2002 Partnership and/or link to these sites. More information is available at: http://www.e-democracy.org/2002/ (1)The sample ballot generated by MyBallot.net includes candidates for the U.S. Congress, statewide office, the state legislature and judicial races. It will not include local races this election season. Contact: Richard Goldsmith Steven Clift 612-522-7879 612-822-8667 [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Edem-vol mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/edem-vol ------- End of forwarded message ------- ^ ^ ^ ^ Steven L. Clift - W: http://www.publicus.net Minneapolis - - - E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Minnesota - - - - - T: +1.612.822.8667 USA - - - - - - - ICQ: 13789183 *** Past Messages, Discussion http://e-democracy.org/do *** *** To subscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** *** Message body: SUB DO-WIRE *** *** To UNSUBSCRIBE instead, write: UNSUB DO-WIRE *** *** Please forward this post to others and encourage *** *** them to subscribe to the free DO-WIRE service. *** *** Please send submissions to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ***
