|
California Voter Online! |
|
State of the Art Citizenship: <www.smartvoter.org>
Success is sweet and meant to be shared. Let it roll around on your tongue a bit before you give it up. Success! Nice, isn't it?! Thanks to the efforts of more than 100 League members, the League of Women Voters had a truly successful website that logged over 1,000,000 hits in 30 days. Half of those hits came on election day and the day prior. Project Director Trudell Een stayed in close contact with the internet service provider to request more space to accommodate the numbers of users flooding the Smart Voter website. By the end of the day prior to the election, <www.smartvoter.org> was given unlimited space for incoming traffic. Good thing, too, because the number of visitors on election day nearly doubled from the day before! Voters were looking to an organization they have come to trust for nonpartisan election information—the League of Women Voters—and they found it on the web. Over 900 candidates took advantage of the League's offer of a free web page for candidates. They got their message to the voters unfiltered and for free and the voters learned more about the candidates and their positions. Comments from users have been fantastic. Visit the Smart Voter website to see what the public wanted us to know. It is uplifting to read through them! One of the favorites: "Your Smart Voter site is the best thing to come along since chocolate cake (almost)." The expansion of Smart Voter to 17 counties has given the League lots of visibility. Leagues' marketing efforts have produced news articles in the LA Times, San Diego Union Tribune, Sacramento Bee and others. Television and radio coverage has increased. The website logged additional traffic from the national League's partnership with the Web White and Blue project, a national listing of election websites. The Coachella League placed Smart Voter posters in 40 buses. Leagues participated in the counties of El Dorado, Fresno, Humboldt, Kern, Marin, Orange, Riverside, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Barbara and Santa Clara. Leagues also participated in the states of Arizona, Ohio, Tennessee and Washington. Where do we go from here? A guide to elected officials is under consideration. The Smart Voter technology would be used in participating counties to display a list of elected officials which had been input by local League members. A personalized list of officials would display when the user entered an address. An online version of "Facts for Voters" would allow Leagues to list more information than space permits on a printed version. Alternatively, Leagues may have the opportunity to participate by inputting only the League's and registrar's contact information. A county web page accessible by zip code would display the information. Smart Voter coordinators and staff responded to many questions posed through the "feedback" feature. An extension of this feature may include a "Frequently Asked Questions" page. Moderated discussion groups or logged ongoing discussions are also possible future enhancements. Expanding Smart Voter will be an exciting challenge. If your League is interested in taking advantage of this golden opportunity, please contact Trudell Een at 408-323-9426 or ca-director@smartvoter.org . Trudell Een, Smart Voter Project Director
Return to Voter Table of Contents
© Copyright 1999 by the League of Women Voters of California |
