Election 2008 Resources

Welcome to our second posting on Election resources! This post comes from Liya Deng, our Government Documents Librarian. She's put together some great resources. Did you know that YOU can find the following information in Government Documents?

According to the United States Constitution, a presidential election is to be held once every fourth year. The process of electing a President was set up in the United States Constitution. The 2008 Presidential Election is scheduled for Tuesday, November 4, 2008. As Election Day is closer, the library has set up a display for Elections 2008. Here are some government online resources about elections for voters and people who study elections.

USA.gov, the U.S. government's official web portal, has one section of Voting and Elections offering information about voter registration, contact elected officials, and volunteering and contributing to the election process, etc.
Voting and Elections at USA.gov

U. S. Department of State (DOS) provides a comprehensive list of links and articles on the 2008 Elections, including election process, election calendar, public opinion polls, role of the media, election trivia, and mainstream media blogs, etc.
2008 Elections at www.State.gov

Federal Election Commission (FEC) provides Presidential Campaign Finance data by state via Campaign Finance Maps.
Campaign Finance Map for Presidential Election at FEC.gov

U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) provides information about 2008 presidential election, how electors vote, electoral college calculator, historical election results, and FAQS, etc.
2008 Presidential Election: U.S. Electoral College

There are some useful additional sites about the elections:
Project Vote Smart - directory of political candidates, calendar of events, voting records, interest group ratings, and issues and legislation.

Election Center 2008 - CNN Politics

Presidential Election 2008 - Yahoo News

Voting America United States Politics, 1840-2004 - cinematic & interactive maps, and analysis of the Presidential elections in the US from 1840-2004. This unique resource developed by the Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond focuses on election data to the county level.

Elections 2008 - a very comprehensive site listing elections resources by the University of Michigan Documents Center

In addition, the CQ Researcher database has several in-depth reports about campaign and elections.
CQ Researcher Reports:
Political Conventions 8/8/2008
Race and Politics 7/18/2008
Campaign Finance Reform 6/13/2008
Changing U.S. Electorate 5/30/2008
Women in Politics 3/21/2008
Electing the President 4/20/2007

Make sure you check back again next week for even more resources!

Elections 2008!

It's election time here again in the United States and electing a new president is foremost on everyone's list. This has been an exciting and interesting campaign as it has featured some ground breaking people. While the Tarver Library is apolitical, we do believe that EVERYBODY needs to get out and vote. To that end over the next few weeks we'll be sharing some resources that provide information ranging from voting to information about the electoral process in general, many of which are library resources! Did you know we have books on McCain and Obama? Well we do! So, please stay tuned and enjoy the resources.

Check out this link for a great collection of voting resources, even gives you information on where to register to vote if you haven't done so already.

Need even more information on wide variety of election 2008 resources? Check out the Librarian's Internet Index! Full of great resources and information on the election. These are specially chosen websites by, you guessed it, librarians from across the country.

News and analysis about the 2008 presidential election. This site, from the Chicago Tribune, includes profiles, photos galleries, comparison of stands on selected issues, and quizzes to test how well you know candidates John McCain and Barack Obama.

This is a website for "a joint project from The Brookings Institution and American Enterprise Institute, [which] joins leading demographers, geographers and analysts in examining the impact of seven trends on the 2008 election and the future of American politics." It features project papers on topics such as the decline of the white working class and immigration and America's changing electorate, and more!

Stay tuned next week for even more information and resources from the library! Remember to stop in and see us if you have any questions.