Misinformation and the 2010 Election - A Study of the US Electorate. The key findings of the study are:

1. Perceptions of Misleading and False Information An overwhelming majority of voters said that they encountered misleading or false information in the last election, with a majority saying that this occurred frequently and occurred more frequently than usual.

2. Evidence of Misinformation Among Voters The poll found strong evidence that voters were substantially misinformed on many of the issues prominent in the election campaign, including the stimulus legislation, the healthcare reform law, TARP, the state of the economy, climate change, campaign contributions by the US Chamber of Commerce and President Obama’s birthplace. In particular, voters had perceptions about the expert opinion of economists and other scientists that were quite different from actual expert opinion. [more inside]
posted by caddis on Dec 19, 2010 - 53 comments

A veeeery interesting article in Rolling Stone magazine, described by these words: Block the Vote, Will the GOP's campaign to deter new voters and discard Democratic ballots determine the next president? The article is signed by R.F.Kennedy Jr. and G. Palast
posted by acrobat on Oct 22, 2008 - 176 comments

the most maritally challenged crop of presidential hopefuls in American political history --meet 3 leading GOP candidates for 08. We've already read about Hillary's sexlife (or lack thereof), but will the double standard hold? ...if the top three Democratic presidential hopefuls each had extra-marital affairs in their backgrounds, it stands to reason that Republicans would have something to say about it--and if the past is any guide, those concerns would find their way into the papers. Will the same happen when it's about the "party of family values and morality"?
posted by amberglow on Jun 20, 2006 - 84 comments

Voter Vault versus Demzilla
Compare and contrast the voter databases of the major political parties. Open source or proprietary? Locally operated or offshored? Paid staff or volunteers? Do these attitudes and/or methods reflect a more general mindset of the parties? Are there other distinctly different ways in which the national party organizations do business that may reflect wel or poorly on them?
posted by nofundy on Sep 27, 2004 - 5 comments

What would you do if your opponent's elderly constituents needed a ride to vote? Jam their phone lines of course.
posted by LinemanBear on Jul 1, 2004 - 17 comments

factcheck.org -- a nonpartisan, nonprofit, "consumer advocate" for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics.
posted by crunchland on Mar 28, 2004 - 11 comments

ELECTION: A note of sanity on voting systems from Lauren Weinstein's well-worth reading Privacy Digest; it notes the inherent weak spots in all voting tally systems, and compares manual to machine and electronic ones.
posted by baylink on Nov 11, 2000 - 3 comments

A better way to select party candidates.
Instead of holding silly primaries that end up picking the worst possible candidates from each party, why not have party leaders pick the best 3-4 candidates and then have registered party members vote (by mail or at the convention) and announce the winner in August? [more inside]
posted by daveadams on Oct 27, 2000 - 6 comments