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CONTENTS OF THIS PAGE
  • FEATURES
  • HOW DATA GATHERED
  • PROJECT DISCLAIMERS
  • YOUR PRIVACY
  • HISTORY of PROJECT
  • BROCHURES, BOOKMARKS, etc
  • ABOUT LWV

    • Smart Voter (http://www.smartvoter.org) is produced by the League of Women Voters of California Education Fund, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, to:

    • Provide voters with comprehensive nonpartisan information about the contests on their ballot in an easy-to-use presentation.

    • Provide a means for candidates to publish information about themselves and their candidacy directly to voters.

    Smart Voter, first produced for the November 1996 election, covering Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties in California, was the first Web site to offer personalized election information based on a voter's address. Voters in five major elections have praised the site. Read what users said about us during the last major election. Smart Voter has received international awards.

    Designed to help voters understand their choices better including local contests, Smart Voter offers extensive background information on candidates in participating counties as well as information on state and local ballot measures.

    KEY FEATURES

    The Smart Voter site allows users to find their custom ballot and polling place by entering their street address and zip code. Users may access "home pages" of each participating candidate that include their biography, endorsements, top priorities if elected, and position papers. All candidates in the participating counties are invited to participate. Each page about a contest includes links to relevant news or analysis articles written by online local media organizations or other nonpartisan information.

    HOW WE GATHER INFORMATION

    The underlying information required to generate personalized ballots sometimes including the location of the polling place based on a voter's address was gathered from:

    • the Election Officials in each of the fully-participating counties. The state or county Elections Officials also provided the official data about races and ballot measures. (California, Westchester Co., NY, Hamilton Co., OH)
    • the Census database of the U. S. Government plus other data available locally (all other locales). Volunteers from the associated Leagues of Women Voters obtain official lists of contests and candidates from appropriate Elections Offices.

    All candidates in the fully-participating counties were invited by letter to provide data for their free web pages. All information about candidates was gathered from the candidates themselves either by entering the data on a web form or by filling out a hard copy form and mailing it to us.

    A small percentage of counties have a partial implementation of Smart Voter features. In some counties, not all contests are included. In others, the ballot lookup feature and/or polling place locator are not implemented. Sometimes candidates were not invited to supply information for a Smart Voter web page. The choice of level of implementation is made by the League of Women Voters and the local elections officials and is usually a function of available people resources.

    PROJECT DISCLAIMERS

    The League of Women Voters of California Education Fund and its Smart Voter Project partners are not responsible for errors or omissions. Read our full legal project disclaimer.

    PRIVACY POLICY

    Smart Voter does not use street addresses for any purpose other than retrieving a customized ballot. The addresses will not be disclosed or used in any analysis or report. Read more about our privacy policy.

    HISTORY OF SMART VOTER

    Smart Voter began in November 1996 when technology and procedures were originally developed by Smart Valley, Inc. in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties in California. Since then the technology has evolved to support the goal of building each new election in an automated, decentralized way.

    Read the detailed history of Smart Voter.

    Meet the Smart Voter Team.

    For a description of elections and counties supported starting in 1997, please consult our Archives.

    BROCHURES, BOOKMARKS, and MORE

    We have examples of publicity tools used by the League of Women Voters to spread the word about Smart Voter. See "Publicity for Smart Voter" to read about things to give to people and ads in public places.

    THE LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS EDUCATION FUND

    The League has two separate and distinct roles.

    The League of Women Voters of California Education Fund, which conducts our voter service and citizen education activities and sponsors Smart Voter, is a 501(c)(3) corporation, a nonprofit educational organization. Donations made to this organization are tax deductible by law.

    The League of Women Voters of California, a membership organization, conducts action and advocacy and is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) corporation. This organization does not fund or in any way contribute to Smart Voter.

    The League of Women Voters of California Education Fund:

    • Builds citizen participation in the democratic process
    • Studies key community issues at all government levels in an unbiased manner
    • Enables people to seek positive solutions to public policy issues through education and conflict management.

    The League neither supports nor opposes candidates or political parties.

    <http://www.smartvoter.org/>       Privacy Policy      Legal Disclaimers
    Copyright © League of Women Voters of California Education Fund.
    The League of Women Voters does not support or oppose candidates for public office or political parties.