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Ten Reasons to Visit Your Library This Election Season
The historical mission of the public library is to enable the free
exchange of ideas and information. In this way, an individual’s lifelong
self-education benefits not only the individual, but also America’s democratic
process. In a very real way, libraries are a cornerstone of democracy – and a
citizen’s doorway to information about voting and elections.
Call numbers to browse
Subject headings to search
This list of reasons
to go to your library during election season is borrowed from Your Vote Matters,
a Web site cosponsored by Working Assets long-distance company with the American
Library Association. The resources included with each reason are ones available
through the Onondaga County Public Library.
Register to vote
Find absentee ballot information
Find your precinct and polling information
Get informed about candidates and issues
Learn about the electoral process
Find out where candidates, from presidential to local, stand on issues
Learn about local ballot referenda and initiatives
Find out your elected officials' voting records and how to contact them
Attend a community forum on current issues
Connect with local and national civic organizations and get involved
1. Register
to vote.
Most libraries carry voter registration forms provided by the
county Board of Elections. OCPL
branches and members also give patrons access
to Web sites offering online registration. These sites often provide
information about candidates and issues as well, and may allow you to locate
state and county candidates and other local election information. Please note,
however, that while voter registration can start online, eventually the form
must be printed so that you can sign it and mail it. Here are some sites
offering registration and voter information.
Agency-Based Voter Registration
The
National Voter Registration Act of 1993 made registering to vote easier by
providing “motor voter” registration at motor vehicles
departments, mail-in registration, and agency-based registration, which
requires offices of public-assistance and state-funded agencies to offer voter
registration forms and help. This Web page lists these agencies.
Black
Entertainment Television (BET)
Scroll to the bottom of the page to
“Register.”
Congress.org
League of Women Voters
Onondaga County
Board of Elections
The county’s voter registration page links to
the state form and lists eligibility requirements, registration deadlines
and ways to register.
Project Vote Smart
PVS has
official voter registration pages in English and Spanish.
A number of organizations target young people and first-time
voters. Here are some:
Citizen
Change
Started by rapper Sean “P. Diddy” Combs.
Declare Yourself
Nonpartisan, nonprofit project to reach first-time-eligible
voters.
MTV’s Choose or Lose
Rock the Vote
World Wrestling Entertainment’s Smackdown Your
Vote
2. Find absentee ballot information.
Federal Election Commission
The National Mail Voter Registration form allows voters to
register from anywhere in the United States. This is especially useful for
registering college students.
Federal Voting Assistance Program
Provides registration information to U.S. citizens overseas and in
the military.
Onondaga County Board of Elections
Project Vote Smart
Get information about who can vote with an absentee ballot and
how.
New York State Board of Elections [PDF]
Absentee Ballot Application from the New York State Board of Elections [PDF].
3. Find your precinct and polling information.
After you have registered to vote, you will receive a post card
notice before each election in which you are eligible to vote telling you the
election date, and your polling place and hours. Hang on to this! If you lose
the post card or for any other reason, you may call the Onondaga County Board of Elections directly,
435-8683, or go to its Web site below:
Onondaga County Board of Elections
The county’s voter registration page links to information about
candidate names, polling addresses, and maps showing election districts for
federal, state, county and city representatives. You may need to call the board
to find out your specific polling place.
4. Get
informed about candidates and issues.
Fact Check
The Annenberg Political Fact Check service researches what’s fact
and what’s fiction in statements made by candidates and public officials.
Federal Voting Assistance Program
Provides information to U.S. citizens covered by the Uniformed and
Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act. Also links to the Voting Information
News, with information about upcoming elections to help ensure out-of-country
citizens can vote.
League of Women Voters
LWV backs up its voter-information pages with an extensive
database, called Vote411.org, on candidates, issues, and elections at federal
and, to a limited degree, state levels. It also links to county and city Web
sites, where contact information for officials can be found. The higher the
position, the more information is available; little information is available on
local candidates.
National Coalition on Black
Civic Participation (NCBCP)
"NCBCP Unity ’08 Black Campaign is a non-partisan civic engagement
initiative designed to inoculate (promote & protect), motivate, and mobilize
Black voters across the country to participate in the 2008 Presidential Election
Cycle."
National Conference of State Legislatures—State and Federal Issues
For each broad topic, an overview page highlights study groups,
conferences, papers, briefs, etc. Click on narrower topics for articles from State
Legislature magazine, executive summaries of books, enactment summaries.
Project Vote Smart
PVS provides tools for learning about candidates and issues,
tracking legislation, and comparing voting records and campaign finance
sources. It also has links to government and political resources and educational
materials for classrooms. It is a longtime OCPL partner in providing
election-year information in multiple formats: electronic, print (The Voter’s
Self-Defense Manual, 2004 edition), and by phone (Voter’s Research Hotline,
1-888-VOTE SMART).
Public Agenda
Nonpartisan opinion research
organization for understanding critical issues. Provides results of many polls,
along with analyses of trends in public opinion, discussion guides on issues,
and research study reports.
Especially for the younger demographic (18 to 30 years old):
Declare Yourself
Nonpartisan, nonprofit project to reach first-time-eligible
voters.
MTV’s Choose or Lose
Links to Public Agenda’s issue papers and Project Vote Smart’s
candidate information.
Rock the Vote
“Everything you need to know to piss off a politician by voting.”
Despite the slogan, it’s an unbiased resource, with links to information on how
and where to vote, candidates, issues, events.
Smackdown Your Vote
World Wrestling Entertainment created The 18-30 VIP online
issues paper, with responses from the presidential candidates and others. Also
links to the Project Vote Smart and League of Women Voters’ Vote411.org
databases.
To learn who’s getting campaign financing and who’s giving it, try
these sites:
Federal Election Commission
Campaign finance reports and data for candidates, parties, PACs,
committees and individuals.
FEC Guide to Researching
Public Records
Follow the Money
Searchable databases and research from the National Institute on Money in
State Politics.
OpenSecrets.org
The Center for Responsive Politics’ guide to federal money flow in
U.S. elections.
Follow the news and interact with others through blogs (Web logs).
Two to check out are:
Noteworthy Events in the U.S.: U.S. News Blogs
One of many blogs on
a host site that aims to “provoke an unmuffled, ungagged, and unsilenced
generation of world citizens into speaking up.”
WatchBlog: 2008 U.S. Election News & Opinion
Multiple editors manage three separate blogs joined in one Web
space: Democrats & Liberals; Third
Parties & Independents; and Republicans and Conservatives. Something for everyone.
5. Learn
about the electoral process.
You can browse the OCPL collection of books and videos in the
catalog as well as in person. If you like to browse the shelves, concentrate on
these call numbers, in the adult, children’s, and media collections:
320 Political systems and philosophy,
governments
320.473
American government, democracy, political process
324
Political issues, process and history
324.63-.65
Electoral college, electoral process
324.78 Campaign financing
324.973 Elections, voting, campaigning
Some subject headings
to try include:
Campaign funds
Elections – United States
Electoral college – United States
Lobbying – United States
Political campaigns – United States
Political participation – United States
Political parties – United States
Voting – United States
Federal Election Commission
The FEC is an excellent resource for anything related to
elections. It explains the American federal election system, electoral college,
and voting systems; provides dates of elections and caucuses; publishes voter
statistics; and offers access to public records relating to campaigns.
New York Public Interest Research Group
NYPIRG explains the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002, which
requires states to improve election and voting procedures, and what it means
for New York citizens.
U.S. Department of State
The State Department publishes an online publication, U.S.
Elections 2004, for people unfamiliar with American government. It’s
available in multiple languages, with a glossary.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, online encyclopedia. You may enter search
terms from any page. Try terms such as American government, voting, democracy,
elections or political campaigning. Each entry leads to hundreds of links, so
you can follow the information trail whichever direction you want.
At the state level, the Web sites of the New York Senate and
Assembly are a wealth of information, not only about officeholders, but also
for locating and tracking bills and laws, finding out who serves on what committee,
reading legislative reports, watching live feeds of the houses in session and
obtaining educational materials for children.
New York State Senate
New York State Assembly
6. Find out where candidates, from presidential to local, stand on
issues.
For presidential
candidates, most of the voter information sites listed under Reason 4 will
provide information in a variety of forms. An additional online resource is:
How Stuff Works
A special section, Election Issues Explained, provides a balanced
explanation of various issues and the presidential candidates’ stands and
voting records on each.
Voter information sites also provide information on U.S. senators
and representatives and at least names and contact information for state
senators and assembly members. Additional resources for state legislators are
the Web sites for each house, which also link to legislators’ personal Web
pages:
New
York State Senate
New
York State Assembly
For county and city
representatives and districts:
Congress.org
Provides links to contact information for Onondaga County,
Syracuse, and the townships of Camillus, Cicero, Clay, DeWitt, Geddes,
Lysander, Manlius, Onondaga, Salina and Van Buren. You can search local officials
by entering your zip code.
Onondaga
County Legislature
Syracuse Common Council
For local officials’
and candidates’ stands on issues and voting records, you’ll probably need to
call their office or find information through local newspapers. Try these news
resources:
NewsBank
The repository of Syracuse
Post-Standard articles, dating from 1986 to the present, is licensed for
in-library use from any branch or suburban library in the system. When the
databases are opened, choose Newspapers, then Syracuse Post-Standard.
Use simple Boolean search strings (and, or) to find articles about
representatives or house actions. For newspaper information before 1986, the
Central Library (447 S. Salina St., 435-1900) maintains a comprehensive
microfilm collection of the Syracuse Newspapers from 1850 to the present.
Syracuse.com
This site houses local
news and information, much of it from the Syracuse Post-Standard. Under
the News+Biz heading, look for Politics & Elections. This leads to a page with links
to local and national news stories, news alert signup, chat forums, and more.
7. Learn about local ballot referenda and initiatives.
National Conference of
State Legislatures—Ballot Measure Database
Look up upcoming state
and federal referenda and initiatives. You can also look up ballot measures
back to 1990. For county or city
ballot measures, your best bet is to call the Onondaga
County Board of Elections
or the Syracuse City Clerk's
Office. According to the Syracuse deputy city clerk,
each city clerk advises the county of referenda. For city measures, ordinances
and laws, the city clerk can provide information only on those that have
passed. While they are still under discussion, call your councilor for information.
Find contact information in your phone book or online at: Congress.org. You
can search local officials by entering your zip code.
8. Find out your elected
officials’ voting records and how to contact
them.
Congress.org
Sign up for MegaVote,
a weekly e-mail summary and alert of your congressional representatives’ votes.
League of Women Voters
Click on Candidates to reach the Congress.org database.
Project Vote Smart
Locate your
representatives, track their votes and campaign funding, find out how different
interest groups evaluate them; some have results from the National Political
Awareness Test showing where they stand on issues. Voting records currently
exist only for congressional representatives.
9. Attend a community forum on current
issues.
Watch the Syracuse
Post-Standard for calendars and news briefs announcing events.
Onondaga County Public Library
Click Events
Calendar to check current month’s
listing of events at all 30 OCPL libraries. Also, check
bulletin boards in each library for community event fliers.
Syracuse University
Find
out about the day’s calendar, search for planned speakers and forums, subscribe
to Campus Hot News to get daily e-mail alerts of campus events.
10. Connect with local and national
civic organizations and get involved.
Green Party
The Syracuse office is
located at 2617 S. Salina St., Syracuse, NY 13202; telephone/fax: 474-7055.
League of Women Voters
The Syracuse chapter
office is located 930 James St., Syracuse, NY 13203; call 422-9797.
MoveOn.org
MoveOn is a catalyst
for progressive grassroots involvement. When there is a gap between broad
public opinion and legislative action, MoveOn builds electronic advocacy
groups. Once a group is assembled, MoveOn provides information and tools to
help individuals act effectively.
Onondaga County Legislature
407
Court House, Syracuse, NY 13202 Phone: 435-2070 Fax: 435-8434
The Legislature
meets on the first Monday of each month (other than holidays) during regular
session. Additional special sessions may be called when pressing matters cannot
wait for the next scheduled monthly meeting. Meetings are open to the public.
Onondaga
County Democratic Committee
246 E. Water St., Syracuse, NY 13202 Telephone: 422-0345
Republican Committee
375 W. Onondaga St., Syracuse, NY 13202 Telephone: 471-2020
Syracuse Common Council
314 City Hall, Syracuse, NY 13202 Phone: 448-8466 Fax: 448-8423
The Common Council
meets approximately two Mondays a month at 1 p.m. Study sessions meet at noon
on the Wednesday before a council meeting. Both are open to the public. A
calendar is published online. Agendas for upcoming council meetings are
published online a day before each study session and are updated with decisions
the day after a council meeting.
Townhall.com
Conservative
news and information in an online community.
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Last updated
April 15, 2008