Campaigns and Elections Research Guide
"Finishing second in the Olympics gets you silver. Finishing second in politics gets you oblivion."
–Richard M. Nixon
Top Choices
Background and Historical Information
Directories
Political Parties
Articles and Essays
Political Communication
Top Choices
Information on candidates, issues and the electoral process.
Federal Election Commission
The FEC administers and enforces statutes relating to the financing of federal elections. The site includes legal information as well as federally mandated finance reports. It also has an interactive map to see where campaign contribution are coming from.Project Vote Smart
A non-partisan resource for evaluating elected representatives as well as current candidates. Includes collected interest group rating for candidates as well as voting records for federal and state elected officials. Also find information by state about voter registration guidelines, ballot measures and state legislative leadership.Elections Division, Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Voting records, legal issues and historical information on elections in Massachusetts. For other states, search online for state government sites relating to elections or campaigns.
Background and Historical Information
The Library has many reference sources about the voting system, parties and platforms and voting statistics. Use the Library Catalog to search for more books.
America at the Polls: A Handbook of American Presidential Election Statistics, 1920-1964
[X] JK 524. S22 1965
America at the Polls, 1960-1996, Kennedy to Clinton: A Handbook of American Presidential Election Statistics [X] JK524. M33 1998
America Votes [X] JK1967. A8 (8 volumes)
State by state voting statistics for presidential, congressional, and gubernatorial elections, including primaries.Campaign and Election Reform: A Reference Handbook [X] JK1976.U88 1997
Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Elections [X] JK1967. C662 2001 (2 volumes)
Essays and statisticsElections A to Z [X] JK1976. M57 1999
Voting in America: A Reference Handbook [X] JK1976. D53 2004
Directories
Use directories for the names and contact information of elected officials and organizations.
Encyclopedia of Interest Groups and Lobbyists in the United States [X] JK1118. N47 2000
Massachusetts Political Almanac [X] JK3130. A6
Political Reference Almanac [X] JK271. P6 1999-2000
The United States Government Manual [X] JK421. A3
The United States Government Internet Manual [X] JK421. U58OpenCongress
Gives information about elected officials, bills, and voting records.
Political Parties
National Party Conventions [X] JK2255. N377 1997
History, platforms, and voting records for national party conventions from 1831-1996
Political Parties and Elections in the United States: An Encyclopedia [X] JK2261. P633 1991Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Green, and other political party information can be found on their respective websites.
Articles and Essays
All databases are available on the Articles and More page of the Library's website.
Lexis Nexis Academic
Search for articles from newspapers and magazines as well as television news transcripts. LexisNexis also includes a legal section for researching state and federal election law and statutes.Academic Search Premier
Search for magazine and journal articles. Contains the full text of Campaigns & Elections magazine.Academic OneFile
Another good comprehensive multidisciplinary database; it also contains the full text of Campaigns & Elections magazine.
Political Communication
Use the reference sources listed here to begin finding information on political communication. Search articles and books for further information on political communication.
Historical Dictionary of Political Communication in the United States [X] JA85.2.U6 H57 1999
Media and Politics in America [X] P95.82.U6 S74 2003
Essays on the history and issues of political communication. Includes chronology, references and additional information.New Directions in Political Communication [X] JA74 .N49 1990
Essays on issues in political communication.YouTube YouChoose '08
Face the presidential candidates for 2008, with video of their positions and campaigns.
The Living Room Candidate
Video files and transcripts of campaign commercials from presidential elections from 1952-2004.Vanderbilt Television News Archive
Streaming video available for CNN Evening News, with coverage of campaigns and elections.
