SDCC Library: Political Science: **2020 Election Resources**

2020 Election Resources

Image by Tiffany Tertipes, downloaded from Unsplash

2020 is an election year so voters will be voting for president, various congressional seats, judicial positions, education board members, local proposition measures, and various other state and local public officials. This election year poses unique voting circumstances due to Covid-19, therefore City College Library has collected some resources to help campus voters make informed decisions. Below is a selection of resources to inform voters on:

The resources listed below are a small sample of the resources available and are not maintained by the library. The resources listed below are also not intended to influence anyone on a particular candidate or issue, but merely to provide information.

Registering to Vote

CA Voter Registration Site
This is the official voter registration site for the state of California.
GODORT Voting and Election Toolkit
Contains voting registration information for all 50 states. Under each state you'll find information on how to register to vote, what identification is needed, and what the deadlines are. This guide is put together by librarians from the Government Documents Round Table, a division of the American Library Association.
Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP)
Voting information for service members, their families, and overseas citizens

Researching the issues

Resources with information about the candidates, their positions, and more:

Ballotopedia
Ballotpedia's goal is to inform people about politics by providing accurate and objective information about politics at all levels of government. Look up information on candidates, state propositions, and more.
Vote 411
"Launched by the League of Women Voters Education Fund (LWVEF) in October of 2006, VOTE411.org is a "one-stop-shop" for election related information. It provides nonpartisan information to the public with both general and state-specific information."- About Us page.
Vote Smart
Find information on candidates, voting records, candidate's positions on issues, public statements, campaign finances, and more.

Resources to help you check the facts:

PolitiFact
Nonpartisan news group that looks at specific statements made by politicians and rates them for accuracy.
Factcheck.org
"We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit “consumer advocate” for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases. Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding."- Mission page. This site is a project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center.

Resources to help you follow the money:

Federal Election Comission
"The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is the independent regulatory agency charged with administering and enforcing the federal campaign finance law. The FEC has jurisdiction over the financing of campaigns for the U.S. House, Senate, Presidency and the Vice Presidency."- Mission and history page
Open Secrets.org
Nonpartisan research group tracking money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy. Can search by candidate, election race, and more.

Resources that monitor candidates' social media:

Categorized Tweets
Website that pulls tweets from public officials and places them into categories based upon the issue they are tweeting about. Tweets are linked to the original tweets on Twitter and are from the previous month.
Politwoops
Archive of tweets by various public officials that were posted and then quickly deleted. This is a ProPublica project.

Resources on the California propositions:

Ballot.FYI
Ballot.fyi is a nonpartisan election guide to the California propositions
Cal Matters
CalMatters is a nonpartisan, nonprofit journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters. Has info on California propositions.

Choosing a candidate

I Side With
Answer questions on major issues to see how your political beliefs match with political parties and candidates.
Pew Political Typology Quiz
"Are you a Core Conservative? A Solid Liberal? Or somewhere in between? Take our quiz to find out which one of our Political Typology groups is your best match compared with a nationally representative survey of more than 5,000 U.S. adults by Pew Research Center." -Quiz Homepage
Vote Easy Quiz
Allows you to look up candidate's positions on key issues or choose your position on a key issue and find candidates that hold similar views

Polling Data Sites

Resources that show current polling data:

Pew Research Center: Election 2020
Gallup Polls 2020 Election Center
FiveThirtyEight
Roper: US Elections
Exit poll data and results by question topic