August 09, 2006
Voting with money
Posted by bopuc at August 9, 2006 10:21 PM
Zephyr got in touch with me today to ask about helping out with some UI for an organization she's now involved in. Poking around their site, I found this screencast showing how to use a site called "opensecrets.org" to find out who has been making what kinds of contributions and to whom, in U.S. election campaigns.
While not surprising, the information it presents is eye opening. Just click through the "Sector" overviews and marvel at the divisions of who donates to whom, when.
That said, the data is there; it is publicly available. It could however use some massaging and some highlighting and some contextualizing and pre-chewing for a wider audience (make it something someone can broadcast, not something some small group of people have to look up if the thought of doing so strikes them.)
Please do check it out.
Comments
We need a Canadian version ay!
Posted by: TpL at August 9, 2006 11:06 PM
It's a great resource - Ben Cerveny and Max Carlson used it a while back to generate a cool flocking-senator visualization. Its only drawback is that it's based on filing that I *believe* are required quarterly, so the information isn't as piping hot at election time as you'd want. I'm also not sure how they deal with soft money.
Does Canada not require disclosure of campaign funds?
Posted by: Michal Migurski at August 10, 2006 02:31 AM
maybe you'd like to help with something like this on www.civicaccess.ca?
Posted by: hugh at August 12, 2006 12:31 PM