Episode One: Reaching Voters
The billion dollar question in this election is: Who will elect the next president? Will it be niche groups of voters who are decisive because we're a very divided electorate? Or will there be a push to elect someone fundamentally new? We look at how campaigns are spending the money — from TV ads to Internet search — and how they're reaching out to influential groups such as the Christian right, Latinos, youths, and more.
Listen to the entire episode:
Spending One Billion Dollars
New York Times reporter Leslie Wayne is just back from Iowa. She talks about the explosion of campaign spending taking place. And, is it worth spending so much in Iowa and New Hampshire?
Who Gives?
After combing through Federal Election Commission's documents, John cold-calls two donors.
Campaign Workers in Iowa
Two campaign workers list the towns they'll be visiting as they work their way across Iowa.
America's Water Cooler
John goes to NYC's Washington Square Park with an actual water cooler to hear what the voters are saying.
The Internet…That Thing's Still Around?
The presidential election is 12 months away. But on YouTube it’s as good as over…
Republican congressman Ron Paul is the new commander-in-chief. At least on YouTube, where he’s the most popular candidate. But this isn’t just a YouTube election, it’s a Facebook, MySpace, blogspot, Flickr, and Google Ad election.
Adaora spoke with Champlain College professor Elaine Young about who's using the Web well and who's missing the boat.
Oh, and see for yourself how John McCain pops up when you search for Mitt Romney (Mitt Romney). Elaine also mentions several social networking sites the candidates are using: Facebook, MySpace, Eons, and Glee.
Audio:
Reaching Latino Voters
There’s massive effort underway to get the more than eight million eligible Latinos to become U.S. citizens, and to register to vote in 2008. John and Adora talk with John Gallegos, President of Grupo Gallegos, an ad agency focusing on the Hispanic market in the U.S.
On your program there wasa comment that voters needed to be better informed. Did you know that there is an organization that is doing something about that? A bunch of volunteers at Project Vote Smart have compiled and are maintaining a keyword searchable data base of all the public comments of presidential, congressional and gubernatorial candidates. They also track all the votes in every legislature. If you could mention this source to the radio audience you would have done them a great service. The site is at http://www.votesmart.org. I would appreciate your response to my comment.
Comment by H Von Letkemann — December 19, 2007 @ 10:17 pm |
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A great resource. The fact that volunteers are doing this feels like democracy working. Would we trust it if it weren't?
Comment by BDP Staff — December 20, 2007 @ 12:20 pm |
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I follow the election integrity movement reasonably closely, and I have never heard of Charles Stewart. After listening to him evince no knowledge whatsoever about how elections can be stolen, I know why. Is there some reason you couldn't have interviewed someone with a clue? There are incredible resources out there. My favorite place to start is http://www.bradblog.com , where you will find lots of information and, even more important, lots of links to primary source materials so you can make your own judgments about whom and what to believe.
The Secretaries of State of California, Ohio and Colorado have recently done studies of the machines used in their states, and a review of those studies would make you far less accepting of Mr. Stewart's fantasy of an error rate of less than one percent. To take but one relatively well publicized example, where does a machine that counts backwards after it reaches a threshold number of votes ( http://tinyurl.com/2w8d8u ) fit into his rosy scenario?
You can do far better than this, and I sincerely hope you will. You're absolutely right about how important this subject is. Now you just have to do it, and us, justice.
Comment by Heather — December 26, 2007 @ 9:09 pm |
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Election day is not the Second Tuesday of November. It is the first Tuesday AFTER the first Monday in November. It is never later than November 9th.
Comment by Desiree Baxter — December 31, 2007 @ 7:42 pm |
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I'm impressed by Iowa's choice of Obama. Let's hope the rugged individualists of NH also get a wide range of people out in record-breaking numbers and that they, too, "choose wisely".
Comment by Evelyn — January 4, 2008 @ 11:44 am |
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