| For Immediate Release October 25, 2004 |
Contact: Cindi Canary
|
WASHINGTON – A new online voter guide posted at www.illinoisvotersguide.org provides voters with information about candidates for judicial office in Illinois that they won’t find in TV ads or glossy fliers. And two nonpartisan groups are promoting the guide with an extensive advertising campaign. Justice at Stake, based in Washington, and the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, based in Chicago, are collaborating on a project that will feature statewide radio Public Service Announcements, and newspaper ads in targeted areas of Illinois, encouraging voters to visit the website.
As judicial elections get more expensive and more negative, getting more and better information into the hands of voters before they head to the polls has become a top priority, particularly in judicial races where a large majority of voters say they lack the information they need to cast an informed vote for judges. A national survey for Justice at Stake conducted in 2001 revealed that only 13 percent of voters said they had a “great deal” of information about voting for judges.
“The Illinois voter guide puts solid information about the candidates into the hands of voters. It’s not advertising, it’s not spin, it’s solid information directly from the candidates,” said Cindi Canary, director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.
“Our publicity campaign helps shed light on this important resource available to every voter with Internet access,” said Bert Brandenburg, interim executive director of Justice at Stake.
Both groups believe that the online guide is good for Illinois voters, and that the State of Illinois should print and distribute an “official” guide to voters before every election. A Zogby Poll conducted for Justice at Stake in 2004 found that two out of three voters said receiving a voter’s guide would make them more likely to vote in judicial elections.
Justice at Stake is helping to promote similar efforts in Ohio and North Carolina.
The project is being funded by a generous grant from the Herb Block Foundation
of Washington, D.C.
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