Elections & Voting

Top Picks

Voter Registration Forms are available in at the library first floor reference desk and lower level service desk.

For the Fall 2012 election, voter registration applications must be postmarked no later than October 12th and received by the board of elections no later than October 17th to be eligible to vote in the General Election.

NY Board of Elections http://www.elections.ny.gov/VotingRegister.html
Responsible for administration and enforcement of all laws relating to elections in New York State. Website includes voting information, political calendar, election results, campaign finance information, and information on running for office.

U.S. Election Assistance Commission http://www.eac.gov/voter_resources/default.aspx
Established by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA), the EAC is an independent, bipartisan commission charged with developing guidance to meet HAVA requirements, adopting voluntary voting system guidelines, and serving as a national clearinghouse of information on election administration. EAC also accredits testing laboratories and certifies voting systems, as well as audits the use of HAVA funds.

Rock the Vote http://www.rockthevote.com/
Register to vote, find voting information, read research. Rock the Vote uses music, popular culture, new technologies and grassroots organizing to motivate and mobilize young people in our country to participate in every election.

Includes resources for the U.S. as well as other nations.

National Political Data

American National Election Studies provides data from its own surveys on voting, public opinion, and political participation. ANES is a collaboration of Stanford University and the University of Michigan, with funding by the National Science Foundation.

Extensive online collection of papers, speeches (audio and video), and documents relating to United States presidential elections and presidents.

Nonpartisan, nonprofit policy and education organization. The Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress (CSPC) regularly publishes books, reports, and newsletters concerning the Presidency that are of interest to policymakers, scholars and the general public.

Current reports on contemporary issues with comprehensive, nonpartisan analysis. Features pro and con arguments by experts. Coverage begins in 1991.

Tracks money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy. Comprehensive resource for federal campaign contributions, lobbying data and analysis. 

Founded and published by Ron Gunzburger, Politics1 is published as a non-partisan public service to promote fully informed decision-making by the American electorate. 

Volunteer driven, non-partisan site for voter information. Comprehensive data on national and local candidates and issues

General and state-specific information on the election process. Includes state election guides, registration and voting information, election dates, ID requirements, polling place locations, and factual data on candidates in various federal, state and local races.

Congressional Report Cards - evaluate members of Congress http://www.vis.org/crc/default.aspx

Congress and the Nation http://library.cqpress.com/catn
This well established series from CQ Press offers comprehensive and signature coverage of Congressional action from 1945 to 2008. With the online edition users can quickly navigate through nearly 60 years of coverage of politics and policy, browsing by topic, tables of contents, as well as an alphabetical cumulative index. Users can also view tables of Key Votes for the House and Senate.

Congressional Election Data from the Office of the Clerk 
http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/index.aspx
Official vote counts for federal elections from the official sources among the various states and territories. Coverage from 1920 - 2010.

Primary Sources

The Nation's Forum Collection consists of fifty-nine sound recordings of speeches by American leaders from 1918-1920. The speeches focus on issues and events surrounding the First World War and the subsequent presidential election of 1920. Speakers include: Warren G. Harding, James Cox, Calvin Coolidge, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Samuel Gompers, Henry Cabot Lodge, and John J. Pershing. Speeches range from one to five minutes.

Extensive online collection of papers, speeches (audio and video), and documents relating to United States presidential elections and presidents.

The Atlas is a free internet resource providing results of U.S. Presidential Elections. Data is collected from many official sources and presented here in one convenient location.

Interactive Electoral College map for 2012 and a history of Presidential elections in the United States. 

The Record Of American Democracy (ROAD) data includes election returns, socioeconomic summaries, and demographic measures of the American public at unusually low levels of geographic aggregation. The NSF-supported ROAD project covers every state in the country from 1984 through 1990 (including some off-year elections).

Voting and registration data have been collected biennially since 1964.

State and Local

An independent, nonpartisan, civic organization of members who promote good government and advance political reform in the city and state of New York. Citizens Union has served as a watchdog for the public interest and an advocate for the common good, working to ensure fair elections, clean campaigns, and open, effective government that is accountable to the citizens of New York.

Published by Citizens Union Foundation of the City of New York, Gotham Gazette provides independent coverage of the important issues facing New York City and state and the policies and politics that shape life for the city's 8 million residents.

Directory of candidates, elections, political parties and daily state news resources.

NY1 News is Time Warner Cable's 24-hour news channel in New York City. 

News Resources

A project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, FactCheck.org is a nonpartisan, nonprofit “consumer advocate” for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. FactCheck.org monitors the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases.

Headquartered at the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, FlackCheck.org is a video-based counterpart to APPC’s award-winning program FactCheck.org. FlackCheck.org uses parody and humor to debunk false political advertising, poke fun at extreme language, and hold the media accountable for their reporting on political campaigns.

Founded and published by Ron Gunzburger, Politics1 is published as a non-partisan public service to promote fully informed decision-making by the American electorate. 

Blogs

The blog is devoted to rigorous analysis of politics, polling, public affairs, sports, science and culture, largely through statistical means. In addition, FiveThirtyEight provides forecasts of upcoming presidential, Congressional and gubernatorial elections through the use of its proprietary prediction models.

FiveThirtyEight was founded by Nate Silver in March 2008, and was licensed by The Times in August 2010. It is produced in conjunction with The Times’s graphic and interactive journalists and its team of political editors, correspondents and polling experts.
         

Coverage and analysis of Congress, the White House, politics and lobbying.

News, investigative reporting and analysis