Spring 1996
Congratulations…
The Online Voter Guide gives citizens and journalists access to campaign finance information for the mayor and all other 1995 municipal candidates and ballot measures. “This was the first time anywhere in the world that campaign finance data was made available to voters before the election,” said Alexander.
Kim Alexander, executive director of the California Voter Foundation, received the James Madison Freedom of Information Award on March 14 from the Society of Professional Journalists, Northern California chapter, both for coordinating the “Your Voices Count” project and for creating the “San Francisco Online Voter Guide.”
During the four weeks the on-line guide was active prior to the Nov. 7 election, the site registered 23,000 file retrievals. “One of every four of those retrievals was for campaign finance data, which tells us that people want to know this information,” Alexander said. The Online Voter Guide was funded, in part, by the Pew Center’s Citizens Election Project.
The site was also recognized by PC Magazine and by Point Survey in New York as among the nation’s best Web sites last year.