About whatsyourvote.org

What’s your vote is a question each of us will be faced with when we step into the voting booth. Do we step in blindly and simply vote party line, or do we research the candidates and their positions on issues; issues that are important to us as individuals and as a country?

This site is structured as a vehicle for presenting the opinions of all candidates for President, Governor, U.S. Senate, and U.S. Congress in the 2008 election. Whatsyourvote.org was conceived by Mary Gillis, the creator of a national award-winning site for the 2004 Presidential election; a featured voter tool on msn.com Election Guide and recipient of the HotSite Award from PoliticsOnline. Whatsyourvote.org is an all new design that provides voters, press and candidates with an unprecedented level of real time accuracy and comprehension, providing up to the minute tracking of all major elections from this point forward.

The goal of whatsyourvote.org is to inform voters and inform campaigns. The undecided voter, as well as the decided voter, and committed party advocate all can benefit from the unbiased presentation of candidate opinions presented here. Offered without the detritus of campaign mudslinging or the time demands of sorting through numerous web sites or periodicals for comparative analysis, whatsyourvote.org is a nonpartisan presentation of what candidates have to say on pertinent issues of our time.

All candidates have been invited to share their views on this site, regardless of party affiliation.

In February 2004, the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet released a study, Political Influentials in the 2004 Election, which demonstrated that people involved in presidential politics through the Internet were almost seven times more likely than average Americans to act as opinion leaders among their friends, colleagues and families.

Online media is trusted by under 24s more than television as a source of political news, according to a YouGov America survey of 3,500 Internet users in the week before the 2004 Presidential election. The same survey also revealed that the over 65s were more active in visiting political Web sites than the under 24s, and about 12% of Americans who had access to the Internet sent an e-mail about the presidential elections. We believe these figures are only going to increase as more and more people turn to the Internet for election information.

Mary Gillis is a graduate of Pratt Institute and New York University. A fine artist by profession, her interest in politics has grown from personal inquiry and a desire to be an informed voter to the creation of whatsyourvote.org, her second voting site. She lives and works in Birmingham, Michigan.

By offering candidate opinions on issues head-to-head with opposing candidates, whatsyourvote.org

• Provides instantaneous candidate comparisons
• Is quick, easy and fun
• Engages users through interactive participation
• Rewards users with succinct answers
• Indulges in no negative campaigning

Whatsyourvote.org was implemented by Mediascape, a Southfield, Michigan design company. In addition to informing voters, whatsyourvote.org is also a comprehensive polling source for campaigns. As site visitors cast their votes, their responses are coupled with their demographic input and up to the minute reports are made available to candidates and their campaigns. Through these reports, candidates get a pulse on their constituency and that of their opponents.

We believe that voting and knowing more about each other in this manner contributes to the best of what our country stands for: a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.