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| Project Vote Smart | |
|---|---|
| Name | Project Vote Smart |
| Formation | 1992 |
| Founder | Richard Kimball |
| Type | Nonprofit organization |
| Headquarters | Des Moines, Iowa |
| Region served | United States |
Project Vote Smart Project Vote Smart is a nonprofit organization founded in 1992 to provide free, nonpartisan information about elected officials and candidates for public office in the United States. The organization collected biographical data, voting records, public statements, interest group ratings, campaign finance summaries, and survey responses to produce reference materials for voters. Its resources were used by journalists, scholars, civic groups, and citizens, and were cited in studies involving electoral behavior, media coverage, and public policy.
Project Vote Smart was founded by Richard Kimball, a former U.S. Senate candidate from Arizona, with support from civic leaders associated with organizations like League of Women Voters, Common Cause, and the American Association of Retired Persons. Early development involved partnerships with data repositories maintained by the Library of Congress, the Federal Election Commission, and state-level Secretaries of State offices. During the 1990s the group expanded services alongside initiatives from the Brennan Center for Justice, the Annenberg Public Policy Center, and academic centers at Harvard University, Stanford University, and the University of Michigan. Project Vote Smart’s databases were integrated into projects run by the Sunlight Foundation, the Pew Research Center, and the Bipartisan Policy Center for comparative analysis of candidate behavior.
The organization stated a mission to provide nonpartisan, factual information to help voters make informed choices, aligning with civic engagement efforts promoted by the Aspen Institute and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Core programs included candidate biographies, the VoteEasy comparison tool, voting record archives, and the Political Courage Test, comparable in intent to questionnaires deployed by groups like PolicyLink and Rock the Vote. Data outputs were used by media outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and broadcast organizations such as NPR, CNN, and MSNBC. Educational partners included the National Association of Secretaries of State and campus civic initiatives at Georgetown University and Columbia University.
Project Vote Smart aggregated public information from official sources such as the Congressional Record, the United States Code, state legislative journals, and campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. Methodological practices involved coding roll call votes, parsing public statements from press releases and floor speeches reported in the Congressional Record, and compiling interest group ratings from organizations like the National Rifle Association of America, the AARP, the Sierra Club, and the American Civil Liberties Union. The Political Courage Test solicited positions from candidates in a format similar to questionnaires used by the League of Conservation Voters and the Human Rights Campaign; responses, or lack thereof, were recorded and published. Data-sharing arrangements enabled interoperability with projects at the Open Knowledge Foundation and the Internet Archive.
Funding sources over time included individual donations, foundation grants, and in-kind support from nonprofit partners such as the Ford Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation. Governance structures involved a board of directors composed of civic leaders, former elected officials, and academics with ties to institutions like Princeton University, Yale University, and University of Chicago. Financial oversight interacted with regulatory frameworks administered by the Internal Revenue Service for 501(c)(3) organizations and campaign finance disclosure regimes enforced by the Federal Election Commission.
Project Vote Smart faced criticism over methodology, transparency, and staffing decisions. Scholars from Boston University, Rutgers University, and Michigan State University debated coding schemes for roll call analysis and the interpretation of interest group ratings. Media outlets including The Wall Street Journal and Newsweek questioned the Political Courage Test’s design and the implications of nonresponses by candidates such as those endorsed by the Republican National Committee or the Democratic National Committee. Legal scholars at Georgetown University Law Center and NYU School of Law examined issues related to data reuse and intellectual property when external projects mirrored Vote Smart content. Debates also arose over partnerships with technology platforms like Google and data accessibility practices advocated by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Project Vote Smart influenced civic information infrastructure and was cited in academic studies by researchers at Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of California, Berkeley analyzing voter information effects on turnout and polarization. Journalists at The Atlantic, Politico, and Bloomberg News referenced its databases in coverage of legislative behavior and campaign comparisons. Civic organizations including Rock the Vote, the League of Women Voters, and the Center for Civic Education utilized Vote Smart resources for voter education, while scholars at the American Political Science Association and the Association for Computing Machinery referenced its data in conferences and publications. The project’s legacy informed later transparency efforts by groups such as the Sunlight Foundation and open-data initiatives at municipal governments including New York City and San Francisco.
Category:Non-profit organizations based in the United States Category:Political research institutes