Connect2Elect: Helping You Decide The 2008 Presidential Election

The 2008 Presidential campaign is already the longest and most expensive in history. Candidates have been debating, making trips to strategic primary states, and appearing on TV and the radio; we see more of the candidates in the media than ever before, and often we hear the same talking points over and over again, but never learn where they stand on the issues that matter to us. Enter Connect2Elect. Connect2Elect is a new service from social-networking company Neighborhood America that wants to help us learn more about all the candidates running for the Presidency.






Before we begin, Connect2Elect has no party affiliation and no political allegiance to any one candidate or party. While the majority of the candidates profiled on the site belong to one of the the two major political parties, some independent candidates are also listed. The candidates profiled on the service aren't limited to the so-called "front-runners," either; voters will be pleased to see that the gamut runs from Hillary Clinton to Mike Gravel and from Rudy Giuliani to Ron Paul. Candidates are included regardless of their standing in the polls and their perceived popularity by the media.



To use Connect2Elect, sign up for a free account and then customize a profile with your demographic information, age, ethnicity, party affiliation, and the top three issues that matter to you for the 2008 election. Then you can create a list of tags and key issues that will help define which candidates line up with your personal beliefs and convictions the most. The key issues are in four categories: candidate attributes (time served in office, religious beliefs, etc), social issues (global warming, stem-cell research, etc), political issues (health care, social security, etc), and core beliefs (stance on taxes, foreign relations, etc).



You can choose the top 10 issues to you in each category and your stand on them, and the service will take your input and cross reference your personal convictions and important issues with the information they've collected from each candidate's campaign headquarters. The candidates are mapped on a grid, with you in the center. You can zoom in on the map to see which candidates match you most closely on the issues that are important to you, and click on each one to bring up their profiles, see where they were an exact match, and what other issues they're campaigning on.



Also in the candidate profiles are links to e-mail the candidate and their campaign Web sites, and more information about their political histories and personal backgrounds. You can choose the List view to see them ordered in likeness to your political beliefs, or click the Resources tab to learn more about the service or any of the candidates.

The goal of Connect2Elect is to help people find the candidates that most closely match their opinions and beliefs, not necessarily who fits their party affiliations. In some cases you might find that your party affiliation is cemented by your results; in other cases you could be more aligned with a candidate from another party than the one you always believed you belonged to. Connect2Elect is designed to help people, especially those who consider themselves moderates or undecided voters, find the candidate that most closely represents them, using real information collected by the development team.