Presidential candidate comparison tools available free for affiliates who sign up before spring primary.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK (FEBRUARY 9, 2004): e-thePeople.org is offering free online profiles of presidential candidates to media outlets using Voter Guide Toolkit (VGT). With this new feature, VGT helps online editors present important, issue-oriented information about the Democratic candidates in states where interest in the primary is growing.
Papers with state and local primaries in the spring can also use VGT to create online and print voter guides for their share of the more than 75,600 state and local elections also taking place this year.
"The race for the Democratic presidential nomination has been driving up voter turn-out in primaries all over the country. People are following the race intently and more and more of them are doing so online," said Scott Reents, President of e-thePeople.org. "Our presidential profiles will help local news sources capture this interest and create equally compelling coverage of local races."
With Web-based VGT, newspapers can create their own election resources—filled with information about candidates and issues—in just weeks, and present the information on co-branded Web sites hosted on e-thePeople.org servers. Voters visiting a paper's guide can find races by ZIP-code, compare candidates side-by-side and record their preferences on a personalized ballot. Newspapers using VGT can also export their data to print guides.
Early interest in VGT from papers across the country is exceeding expectations. As of Jan. 31st, VGT affiliates already include:
- The Houston Chronicle
- Dallas Morning News
- Seattle Post-Intelligencer
- Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
- West Virginia Media Holdings
- Corpus Christi Caller-Times
- Reno Gazette Journal
- El Paso Times
- Lodi News-Sentinel
In 2003 more than 1300 candidates participated in VGT guides in 8 cities.
e-thePeople.org aims to offer more one hundred local voter guides this year and is seeking newspapers, television and radio stations interested in providing their users with election content. Media organizations interested in using Voter Guide Toolkit can contact:
Scott Reents
President
aguy@e-thepeople.org
646-536-9305
To learn more about Voter Guide Toolkit or to sign up for a free trial, visit our website at:
http://www.thevoterguide.org
States with March Primaries include:
March 2nd: California, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Vermont.
March 9th: Florida, Mississippi.
March 16th: Illinois.
March 20th: Alaska, Wyoming.
