[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 96 (Wednesday, July 11, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1303]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           PROJECT VOTE SMART

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. HENRY J. HYDE

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 11, 2001

  Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I was recently informed of the efforts of an 
organization called Project Vote Smart--a group of dedicated 
individuals who work tirelessly in a non-partisan fashion to develop 
dependable facts about various national and state issues affecting all 
Americans while encouraging eligible citizens to vote. I am pleased to 
share some background information about the organization, which I hope 
my colleagues will find interesting and beneficial.

                           Project Vote Smart

       A few years ago a handful of people, a mixture of young 
     energetic students and retired leaders from fields in 
     politics, academia and various other civic fields, held a 
     meeting about the increasing use of media and technology by 
     campaigns to manipulate information, and the citizen's 
     diminishing access to dependable, abundant information on 
     issues and political candidates.
       That meeting gave birth to Project Vote Smart (PVS), a 
     small 501(c)(3) now engulfed in its own success. In the 
     beginning the idea seemed simple: use young people from 
     throughout the country to collect millions of documented 
     facts about issues, candidates and other pertinent 
     information about politics; index the information and then 
     categorize it so that citizens could easily access the 
     information through local libraries, toll-free hot lines, the 
     internet and published reports.
       Specifically, the Project is in a national library of 
     factual information on over 40,000 candidates and incumbents 
     in public office--all presidential, congressional, 
     gubernatorial, state legislative seats, county, and local 
     candidates and incumbents. They are researched in five basic 
     areas: backgrounds, voting records, campaign finances, 
     performance evaluations by over 100 conservative to liberal 
     special interests, and campaign issue positions on the issues 
     they will likely have to deal with if elected.
       Project Vote Smart does not lobby, support or oppose any 
     candidate or cause, and does not accept financial support 
     from any organization that does--it is supported entirely by 
     philanthropic foundations and the individual contributions of 
     over 45,000 members. Election-year programs are sponsored by 
     over 4,000 public libraries and hundreds of national and 
     local news organizations. National leaders are not allowed to 
     join the founding board without a political opposite--
     founding board members are national leaders as diverse a 
     Goldwater and McGovern, Carter and Ford, Hatfield and 
     Ferraro, Gingrich and Dukakis. PVS is staffed by volunteers, 
     interns and a small staff paid only minimal salaries. They 
     are conservatives and liberals of various parties who have 
     volunteered for up to two years in order to help citizens get 
     the facts about candidates instead of just the rhetoric.

     

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