October 19, 2000 | Read Time: 4 minutes
By NICOLE WALLACE
As the Internet changes the way politicians run for office, it is also influencing the way nonprofit organizations conduct their voter-education and advocacy activities.
- Web White & Blue (http://www.webwhiteblue.org), a project of the John and Mary R. Markle Foundation, in New York, features an ongoing cyber debate among the presidential candidates.
The campaigns of seven presidential candidates have been asked to answer a question of the day every day between October 1 and Election Day. The questions are submitted by visitors to the Web White & Blue site and to the 17 major news and information sites — such as USAToday.com, ABCNews.com, and Yahoo — that are also carrying the debate.
The campaigns may submit their answers in any form: text, audio, video, or links to their campaign Web sites. They are also allowed to submit a message of the day and rebuttals to their opponents’ comments.
Web White & Blue also points visitors to information about the elections taking place in their home states. For each state, the site lists the number of Senate, House, and state legislature races, as well as the number of statewide measures on the ballot, and provides links to state election agencies, campaign-finance data, and nonprofit voter guides.
- Earlier this year, BeAVoter.org (http://www.beavoter.org) allowed visitors to complete voter-registration applications online. Three telecommunications companies — America Online, MCI , and Time Warner — teamed up with AARP and the Close Up Foundation to sponsor the site.
Visitors to BeAVoter.org could not use the Web site to register directly. Instead, after selecting the state in which they wanted to register, users were asked the questions found on that state’s voter-registration application. Two weeks later they received a paper copy of the application in the mail, with the information they supplied at the site typed in so all they had to do was check the form and send it in.
Because many states’ deadlines to register have passed or are approaching, the site is no longer accepting applications. It does, however, list each state’s registration deadline and provides details on where to go to get a voter-registration form.
- GenerationNet.org, a new nonprofit organization in New Haven, Conn., is using the Internet to engage young people in public-policy discussions. Members of the organization — which has no official age limits, but tries to appeal to people born after the baby boom — use the group’s Web site (http://www.generationnet.org) to discuss issues that are important to them, such as abortion, education, the environment, and health care.
In September, members selected campaign-finance reform as their top priority for this fall’s election season. The group’s lobbying arm is now urging Congressional candidates to sign a pledge to support a ban on “soft money” — contributions to political parties — and other measures to overhaul the campaign-finance system.
- Several nonprofit organizations are building online repositories of information on candidates.
FreedomChannel.com (http://www.freedomchannel.com), supported by the Freedom Forum and the Robert Wood Johnson and Markle Foundations, provides video clips of presidential, Congressional, and gubernatorial candidates discussing their positions on policy issues, as well as copies of the candidates’ television advertisements.
The League of Women Voters Education Fund is working with Grassroots.com, a company in San Bruno, Calif., that provides online services for political campaigns, on the Democracy Network (http://www.dnet.org), a Web site that allows candidates for local, state, and national office to post information about the issues that are important in their races. So far, more than 11,000 candidates have posted information on the site.
Visitors search the site by zip code for information on the races in their areas.
- Many charities have prepared online voter guides and advocacy tool kits.
The Council on Foreign Relations presents all of the major public statements George W. Bush and Al Gore have made on foreign policy on its Campaign 2000 Web site (http://www.foreignpolicy2000.org).
The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and the League of Women Voters Education Fund have prepared a guide (http://www.kff.org/content/2000/1574) that discusses health-care issues that have come up in the campaign.
The McAuley Institute is making its guide for housing advocates available online (http://www.bhconline.org/voice-tools.htm). “Unlocking the Door: Keys to Women’s Housing” provides research and statistics that activists can use to educate politicians and community groups on how topics such as displaced homemakers, domestic violence, and pay equity affect housing.
The American Arts Alliance’s “Decision 2000: Educate Political Candidates on the Arts” (http://www.artswire.org/aaa) offers tips on how activists can emphasize the importance of the arts to candidates.
