Online guide seeks to clarify US candidates' positions
Published: 02 Nov 2004 13:24 GMT
Still not sure who deserves your vote for president? Among the Web sites to offer advice is one that trusts the American public to clarify where the candidates stand on various issues.
Presidential Guidester lets voters fill out a survey to find out which candidate best matches their criteria, which can include positions on topics like terrorism and health care.
The site, which asks users to enter how strongly they feel about a particular issue and to name their state of residence, is one of a number of Web resources along these lines. But it may be the only one that uses a survey of the general US population to assess where John Kerry, George Bush and Ralph Nader fall on the issues.
Perceptions of those polled, rather than candidates' campaign literature, governs the Presidential Guidester matching process. So, although both Kerry and Bush might say the economy is important, the site seems to give Kerry an edge on the topic. For instance, if a voter's only criteria is that the "economy is extremely important", the tool says they match up with Kerry 44 percent, Bush 38 percent and Nader 18 percent. (Those who live in a state where Nader's not on the ballot match up with Kerry 54 percent compared to Bush at 46 percent.)
The site is sponsored by Decidia Decision Systems, in partnership with polling firm Zogby International, which surveyed 6,386 Americans in an online poll. The project is "completely objective" and "nonpartisan", said Jarred Kirsch, vice-president of marketing at Decidia.
From the time the site was launched on 21 October until this past weekend, some 202,000 visitors have used the system, Kirsch said. Filling out all the possible criteria takes about 15 to 20 minutes, he said.
Decidia plans to release more "Guidesters" in the upcoming months, particularly for the holiday shopping season.
The US public isn't only resource for trying to understand the candidates. Presidential Guidester also allows you to use viewpoints from various special-interest groups, such as the American Conservative Union and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, when matching your views against perceptions of a candidate.
Kirsch said Presidential Guidester initially intended to include positions straight from the candidates. The campaigns, however, did not respond to its requests for information last week.
Besides allowing voters to benefit from the wisdom of the masses, the site is flexible, Kirsch said. "They can get a score after answering one question or after they go through the entire decision tree," he said.
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