PROJECT VOTE SMART
Honorary Founders
Jimmy Carter
Fmr U. S. President
Gerald Ford
Fmr U. S. President RELEASE DATE: FOR INFORMATION:
George McGovern October 5, 2010 Carly Griffin (406) 859-8683
Fmr U. S. Senator
Barry Goldwater media@votesmart.org
Fmr U. S. Senator
Geraldine Ferraro
Fmr U. S. Representative
Michael Dukakis
Fmr Governor VoteEasy Exposes South Carolina Candidates’ Issue Positions
Bill Frist
Fmr U. S. Senator
Bill Frenzel Project Vote Smart’s Great Divide Ranch (October 5, 2010)— South Carolina’s 2010
Fmr U. S. Representative
Lucy Wilson Benson Political Courage Test results release today show only thirty-two percent (32%) of
Fmr Pres., Nat’l League congressional candidates were willing to tell voters where they stand on the key issues
of Women Voters
John Sununu facing the nation. This is now the lowest response rate ever recorded for the state since
Fmr U. S. Senator Project Vote Smart began testing South Carolina candidates in 1992.
Charles Mathias
Fmr U. S. Senator
Edward Brooke
Fmr U. S. Senator
To counter this unwillingness of candidates to demonstrate political courage in their
Barbara Lee campaigns, Project Vote Smart has launched VoteEasy (www.voteeasy.org), a powerful,
U. S. Representative interactive tool for voters.
Claudine Schneider
Fmr U. S. Representative
Kenneth Adelman
Dir., US Arms Ctrl &
VoteEasy gives voters an instant visual confirmation on which candidates agree with their
Disarmament Agency, own positions on the major issues facing the nation.
Reagan Admin
Peggy Lampl
Fmr Exec. Dir., Nat’l Unknown to the candidates, over the past year Project Vote Smart has applied thousands of
League of Women Voters
William Lacy Clay, Jr. research hours to examine the factual records of each congressional candidate on twelve
U. S. Representative major issues facing the nation. Those detailed studies are now used in VoteEasy to answer
Irene Natividad
Fmr Pres, Nat’l the 2010 Political Courage Test questions for candidates who will not answer the issue
Women’s Political Caucus questions themselves. Each response is anchored in the candidate’s own words and public
Pat Schroeder
Fmr U. S. Representative records and each candidate has been encouraged to change any answer provided by Project
Gordon H. Smith Vote Smart. (See South Carolina Congressional Candidates’ Test Results)
Fmr U. S. Senator
Adelaide E. Kimball
Historian
William Clinger
“VoteEasy is the future—the cutting edge of technology applied to the people’s need to
Fmr U. S. Representative know their candidates,” said Richard Kimball, Project Vote Smart President. “It converts
Jessica Arrigoni
Board Chair,
hours of research time into just seconds. Regardless of how difficult candidates make it for
Project Vote Smart citizens to acquire this essential information, tolerance of political abuse and manipulation
William Proxmire
Fmr U. S. Senator
is no longer a voter’s only option.” Kimball says VoteEasy will be installed for all fifty
John Hagelin states before Election Day, November 2 nd.
Fmr Pres. Candidate,
Natural Law Party
Mary Dent Crisp The 2010 Political Courage Test results released today for South Carolina candidates
Fmr Co-Chair, Nat’l
Republican Party also show that eighty-six percent (86%) of state legislative candidates and both major
Newt Gingrich party gubernatorial candidates failed to demonstrate the courage to reveal any of
Fmr U. S. Representative
Sonia Jarvis their issue positions to voters on the Test.
Fmr Exec. Dir., Nat’l
Coalition on Black Voter
Participation The 2010 Political Courage Test results and candidate answers from all South Carolina
Brent Steel candidates are always available on Project Vote Smart's website, and over the Voter’s
Political Scientist
Kyle Dell Research Hotline (1-888-VOTE SMART).
Political Scientist
Richard Kimball
President, (Continued)
Project Vote Smart
(and 30,000 other Americans)
PROJECT VOTE SMART
One Common Ground • Philipsburg, MT 59858-9767
1133 E Helen Street ▪ Tucson, AZ 85719
Tel: 1-406-859-VOTE (1-406-859-8683) • Fax: 1-406-859-8680
Hotline: 1-888-VOTE-SMART (1-888-868-3762) • Website: www.votesmart.org
About VoteEasy: An interactive tool that saves voters hours of research time. It
combines thousands of hours of research on candidates and key issues by Project Vote
Smart staff with cutting edge interactive data visualizations created by Periscopic, one of
the nation’s most prominent information visualization companies. The data in VoteEasy
is a combination of responses to the Political Courage Test directly from congressional
candidates and the information compiled by Project Vote Smart researchers on twelve
key issues: Abortion, Afghanistan, Crime, Economy, Education, Environment, Guns,
Health Care, Immigration, Social Issues, Social Security, and Taxes. Citizens can simply
type in their zip codes to answer the same questions their own candidates were asked,
and VoteEasy immediately displays on shifting campaign yard signs the candidate most
like them, with the option to drill deeper into the details of the candidates’ records.
About the Political Courage Test: The Political Courage Test is Project Vote Smart’s
flagship program. It asks all candidates one central question: “Are you willing to tell
citizens where you stand on the issues you may face if elected?” Candidates who reply
“yes” are asked to address some key issues that are both consistently of top concern to
the American people and also likely to come up in the next legislative session. Test
questions have been created designed and drafted by more than 200 of the nation’s most
prominent political scientists, journalists, and leaders of the major and third political
parties. Candidates’ Political Courage is measured by the number of top issues they are
willing to address on the test, whether by choosing to support or oppose carefully-
researched policy options, or by answering the questions in their own words.
About Project Vote Smart: Founded by national leaders such as Jimmy Carter and
Gerald Ford, Michael Dukakis and Newt Gingrich, Vote Smart researches the voting
records, backgrounds, issue positions, campaign contributions, interest group ratings,
and public statements of more than 40,000 candidates and elected officials. This
information, as well as ballot measures and voter registration information is available
through www.votesmart.org, the Voter’s Research Hotline (1-888-VOTE SMART), free
publications (U.S. Government Owner’s Manual), and the new VoteEasy interactive
application. Project Vote Smart, inaugurated in 1992, is funded entirely by foundation
grants and individual contributions.
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