Election 2008 Resources

Election Resources


Hello. The 2008 Presidential Elections are fast approaching. Here in Georgia, we will vote in federal and state primaries on July 15th.
You have probably been inundated with news about the elections on television and on the radio. Need we even mention the various ads on television, radio, and now even the web.
Here are some resources related to the upcoming 2008 Elections:
Okay, first are links to local county election boards and government sites. Also included is a link to the Elections Division of the Office of the Georgia Secretary of State.
Cobb County Board of Elections
Bartow County Board of Elections
Paulding County Government-Elections Section
Cherokee County Elections and Registration
Elections Division of the Georgia Secretary of State

This next link is to a website/blog with really detailed information. It is called electoral-vote.com. This is a very well maintained website and is almost always updated daily. The key feature of this site is that the lead graphic is a map of the United States. Based on the most current polling data for each state, the particular state is shaded a degree of either red or blue. For instance, a dark blue state would mean that the state has currently polled very strong for Obama, and a dark red state would mean the opposite in favor of McCain. The colors of the states change as new polls for the state are reported. A running tally of electoral votes for each candidate is kept as new polls come in. Moving your mouse over a state you are interested in will give you even more detailed information. The website also keeps a close tab on US Senate races that are consider competitive. The website watches US House of Representative races that are competitive, though less attention is paid to these since there are so many to keep an eye on.
Electoral-Vote.com

Our next site is one that is of historical interest. This is a massive archive of results from previous Presidential elections. You may access results from these past elections in both graphical and statistical form. Results may be further broken down by state and in most cases even by county level. It should be noted that some information on this site requires a fee. Also, the author of this site reverses the red state/blue state color scheme by assigning blue to Republicans and red to Democrats.
Dave's Presidential Election Atlas

This site is a general political news site that is frequently updated. This site also provides polling data for Presidential, Gubernatorial (governor), and Congressional races. Interestingly, this site did a very clever NCAA bracket style mock tournament where users picked the Vice Presidents for both parties. The tournament featured head to head matchups of potential VPs over several weeks just like the NCAA’s. Users voting in the Republican bracket eventually picked former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee as their choice for McCain’s VP and users participating in the Democratic side picked General Wesley Clark as their favorite for Obama’s VP choice.
CQPolitics
National Public Radio is public radio news service. However, they cover political stories and elections both on air and via their website. On the website you can find web articles about elections, and also listen to podcasts of related news segments.
NPR

This site is run by Larry Sabato, of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. However, the site is not updated as frequently as some others. Still has some good information though.
Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball

The following websites also explores political leanings and election predicitions. However, you have to pay for a good portion of the information.
The Rothenberg Political Report
the Cook Political Report


JF

Are we there yet?

Must be the season to look for relatives online. Dear Myrtle had "Kendall Hulet from Ancestry.com to discuss the New Ancestry.com Search options" on her podcast.

Notice in the screen shot below, Ol' Myrt has only typed in the name William, but Ancestry's computers are already working hard by comparing this with other known men by the name of William on my family tree. In this example, I was planning to research William Gist Froman (A) but if I wished to work on a client's family, I could change the tree Ancestry will search by clicking the down arrow button at (B) below. The "Advanced" button Kendall explains during this interview is shown at (C) below. If I wish to save data entry time, I can merely click the William Gist From on the list, and his birth and death info will be inserted in the new Ancestry.com search screen automatically. This certainly speeds up research time. For more info about Ancestry's new search capabilities, take the tour.

Georgia library users may access Ancestry.com at their Georgia public library. NMTC students may access Ancestry.com on campus!

You may wonder why a college student would use Ancestry? Yes, they might be doing Family Research but that's not likely. I showed the Nursing students how they could look up famous nurses in the census and note siblings, parents, neighbors. They were intrigued! It also would be helpful in American History projects - to add a touch of primary sources to the bibliography.

No need for the password to access Ancestry through GALILEO - it's only available at the library.

-kls

Search tips

Lots of folks need hints and tips on how to use a database (this is what librarians teach). Diane Haddad at the Genealogy Insider provides a few tips on searching the genealogy databases. I wonder if she's a librarian. She comments on Ancestry.com, which is available on campus through GALILEO

• Use One-Step Search Tools, which offer more-flexible searching of several databases in Ancestry.com [available on campus only-kls], Footnote, EllisIsland.org and other sites (to view results from a fee-based site, you need a subscription to the site). For example, the One-Step tools might let you search on a name fragment, more year ranges, or more combinations of terms.

NMTC students may get the current password via the Student E-mail login. All other Georgia residents may acquire the current GALILEO password from their Georgia librarian.

-kls

Now we are two!

The View has gained another perspective. The second librarian hired by North Metro Tech will begin adding his two cents about what it looks like from our front desk. Stay tuned for his first entry.

I'll bet you'll be able to tell us apart.

-kls (we'll add our initials in case you can't differentiate our styles)