List, I love the idea of myballot.net. I have been looking for a resource to provide friends of mine who are not yet engage in politics. Unfortunately myballot.net is not yet that resource -- but it could be!
The best thing about myballot.net is that it does let you know which House, Senate, County and Judicial races you will be voting in. This is nice; of course you could already get this at the Secretary of State's or Hennepin County's sites. I check four addresses. The first two had significant problems and the other two found the ballot correctly. Based on past experience, it seemed as though the engine for this was the same one that Hennepin County has. There are challenges, mentioned on this list before, with the Hennepin County database which have not been cleaned up or resolved. More importantly is instead of integrating the links to the candidates web site, or issue-based links compiling information from the candidates on the different issues -- it simply forwards the user to a Goggle search of the candidates name and the identified issue. For incumbents with a record, press and listings from interest groups this works sometimes. For Jean Wagenius on the issue of Environment Goggle's top choices were links to environmental organization proclaiming Rep. Wagenius' strong environmental leadership. For Greg Gray the first link on the issue I picked sent me to a far right wing group that had an editorial labeling Greg Gray as a racist for supporting gun control as a legislator. Other places in the site listed Dick Gephardt as a communist subverting the constitution and Franklin Delano Roosevelt as their top pick for Racist of the Month. For challengers it is even more difficult. For none of the challengers that I clicked were any of the top ten offered links actually about the person in question. This was especially true for people with common last names -- like Johnson. For a political novice or someone without my addiction to the internet -- this would be frustrating and result in not learning about the challengers. On the other hand I did learn that an Andrew Koebrick who may or may not be the same person as the Green Party Secretary of State Candidate appealed a City Council action to build 88 units of Senior Housing on July 24, 2002. Most disappointing there is no way to look at comparisons between the candidates on issues. Either in their own words -- or some type of translation. I urge every one of our overactive list users to check the site so constructive comments can be forwarded to the great volunteers trying to make this happen. Perhaps a couple of us should also volunteer to help. So I will do that as well! Joseph Barisonzi Lyndale, Ward 10 _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
