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Great presidential candidate selectors

By Jonathan Dube

One of the best uses of the Internet so far in the presidential campaign coverage has been the various candidate selector quizzes news sites have created. These tools engage the users, help them to better understand the issues in an interactive way, and best of all, help readers figure out which candidates are right for them. CyberJournalist.net takes a look at some of the best ones online...

Vote by Issues Quiz
One of the first news sites to offer this type of feature was WBUR, Boston's public radio station, which has done so in the past for local elections and has a tool that it licenses to other sites that want to use it for local races. For the presidential campaign, WBUR partnered with PBS's Online NewsHour. They submitted 14 questions to all the Democratic candidates and used their answers to build this quiz. To be fair, the quiz continually randomizes the order in which issues are considered and in which the candidates' positions anonymously appear on the page.

President Match
AOL NEWS and Time magazine partnered to create a site dedicated to helping readers decide who to vote for, www.presidentmatch.com. Time magazine asked all the Democratic candidates -- plus President Bush -- for their positions on more than a dozen questions. Readers don't have to answer every question - just the ones "that are important to you." The sum of a reader's answers determines the best candidate for him or her. Time and AOL News plan to add third-party candidates to President Match after the primaries are over.

Campaign 2004 Democratic issues quiz
Spokesmanreview.com, the Web site of The Spokesman-Review of Washington state, took a different approach.

The site identified 10 key issues by querying its readers here through this online form. Spokesmanreview.com then gleaned statements on each of those issues from the candidates' campaign Web sites and from On The Issues, a nonpartisan Web site.

Spokesmanreview.com removed the names from the statements and set the quiz up so the questions pop up in random order. Like in the other quizes, at the end you find out how often you agreed with which
candidates

Ken Sands, the Managing Editor of Online and New Media, says he wondered whether the site should have had readers rate the importance of each issue, or whether we should have weighted them according to the survey results. Instead, the quiz treated all issues equally. What do you think?

2004 American Presidential Candidate Selector
Here's a similar tool from SelectSmart.com, a site that specializes in quizzes like this. SelectSmart.com says the candidates' positions have been determined "first by the candidate's actions, then their public votes, followed by their public statements, and whenever possible, special interest group rankings of the candidate have been factored in." The results page links to information about the candidates, including links to their Web sites, public statements and news reports.

Take all four quizzes. How do you think they compare? Did you get the same results for each? What do you think of this approach to covering the elecion?

Jan 30, 2004 | E-MAIL | SAVE | PRINT | PERMALINK | DISCUSS(10)
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Discussion

10 comments about 'Great presidential candidate selectors'

I took all four tests. The first three came up with the same results. The SelectSmart test was off by quite a bit.
The AOL/Time President Search was easiest to use.

Posted by Teddi Curtis at January 30, 2004 10:17 AM

Minnesota Public Radio also has a match the candidate quiz at:
http://news.mpr.org/collections/special/2004/
campaign/selectacandidate/selectapres.shtml

Posted by Leonard Witt at January 30, 2004 4:25 PM

The AOL-Time program gave me Sharpton and Kucinich!! What kind of a loser am I?! Actually, Sharpton, Kucinich and Kerry were all rated 100 percent for me. Which makes me wonder about the accuracy of the tests...

Posted by Becky C. at January 30, 2004 6:24 PM

Some of these tests, like the WBUR are badly written, resulting in inaccurate results. Since many of the statements of the candidates are similar, it is difficult to make a choice, esp. on the WBUR quiz. The SelectSmart test was by far the best because it allows the user to make multiple choices, and prioritize responses and issues, and its results were in keeping with my own choices so far.
My results however varied on all the tests. My personal choice is Dean followed by Clark and Edwards (although I most agree theoretically with Kucinich); I do not support Lieberman or Kerry. SelectSmart reflected my choices perfectly. However the other quizzes rated me highest for Lieberman, Kerry and Sharpton, and lowest for Dean, Clark, Edwards and Kucinich - in other words, they seemed very inaccurate based on my preferences for candidates based on their views.

Posted by Tracy at January 30, 2004 10:50 PM

The most important selection that was missing was trust

Posted by David at January 31, 2004 4:07 AM

The AOL/Time and the SelectSmart sites are very good. The other two are not worth doing. I am looking to highly informed people to wade through the useless rhetoric of the candidates for me so I can quickly see how my views stack up against the candidates' views. By AOL I should vote Kucinich>Sharpton>Kerry. By SelectSmart I should vote Clark>Dean>Sharpton>Kucinich>Kerry. I think the SelectSmart site is a bit better.

Posted by Kevin at February 10, 2004 11:08 AM

I have watched closely as these men
vie for attention and position.
Kerry has lied repeatedly. Sharpton
has ridden the the rascist theme like a jockey.Dean never was a factor. Clark just muddied the water Edwards hasn't the political savvy to survive in washington!! I'mof the opinion that the democrats can" win the election

Posted by Jack (old marine) at February 17, 2004 6:46 PM

The AOL-Time Warner program was good but Ralph Nader needs to be added. I think people should listen to his message when they get a chance. I saw him on C-Span at the time he announced and his interchange with the press was intelligent and appealed to common sense. People can vote for the candidate they think has "electibility" but if the country really wants to challenge the corporate dominance of America making the rich richer while shrinking the middle class, then Ralph Nader is the honest choice.
Vote for Kerry if you want, but at least listen to Nader. And as Nader says, "Relax."

Posted by Christopher at March 3, 2004 7:53 AM

good post, i forwarded it to my friends

Posted by rent games at November 29, 2004 10:07 AM

If you want soemthing current for the 2008 elections, check out www.PolitiChoice.com They have an in-depth quiz and cover more than 20 of the primary candidates...

Posted by RonaldsMyHero at August 7, 2007 7:35 AM

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