Library & Technology

DULL News — No. 126

October 15, 2006

Headline

Politics as Usual…or Not

Who ever said that mid-term elections were boring? While historically, voter interest tends to wane during election years in which the Presidency does not hang in the balance, a recent poll indicated that 2006 voters are more engaged in politics than they have been in nearly a decade ( http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/10/11/motivated.voters.ap/index.html). Some possible reasons include a low public approval rating for the current administration and recent high-profile political scandals, including the still-developing story of former Representative Mark Foley’s contacts with underage congressional pages.

Another motivator may be public concern about making sure that votes “count”. In the poll, some voters expressed mistrust regarding the accuracy of vote tallies from Florida during the 2000 presidential race, as well as in Ohio during the 2004 election. As more states shift toward the use of electronic voting machines, concerns have grown about the possibility of computerized vote fraud. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. recently contributed an absorbing piece on the topic to Rolling Stone magazine, Will the Next Election Be Hacked?

For any statistics geeks out there, the entire voter interest survey report, complete with original questionnaire, is available from the Pew Research Center at http://people-press.org/reports/pdf/291.pdf . For the rest of us, this issue of D.U.L.L. News will discuss other election-themed resources, in both electronic and print formats, as well as strategies for working them into your research repertoire.

Get to Know

Current and Historical Election Results

You probably haven’t had many arguments with your friends over election results trivia (and if you have, you are probably still reading the full voter interest survey report linked above, anyway). But if anyone ever asks, you’ll know some places to look after reading this section.

For Congressional election results throughout our nation’s history, a good source is Michael J. Dubin’s United States Congressional Elections, 1788-1997: The Official Results (available in the Law Library’s Reference collection at the call number Ref JK 1967 .D77 1998). This volume exhaustively chronicles the results of Congressional elections from each state, citing primary sources in order to facilitate further research. There is even a statistical overview containing such historical election trivia as number of uncontested elections, or the longest-serving members of Congress.

For election results since the publication of Dubin’s book, you might try the biennial Almanac of American Politics (current edition in Law Library Ref JK 1012 .A44; older editions at the same call number in Level 1 Superseded Collection). Each biography of state governors and Congress members also provides the results of their most recent primaries and general elections. Duke University even has electronic access to the Almanac through its publisher. From the Law Library’s home page, select “Find more articles and databases”. In the “Find Database”
screen (http://metasearch.library.duke.edu), search for NationalJournal.com (no spaces). Once you have entered the database, select “Almanac” from the right-hand column. The electronic access dates back to 1998.

Finally, there is a wealth of election data compiled at the State University of New York at Binghamton’s Election Results Archive (http://cdp.binghamton.edu/era/index.html). The archive includes presidential and national election results from the United States as well as from 133 other countries. The years of coverage will vary by country, but can date back as far as 1974. More countries and years will be added eventually, so bookmark this site for future reference.

Websites and Blogs

Election Extravaganza

Looking for North Carolina voter information? The Duke University Libraries have created a page entitled All About Voting: What You Need to Know (http://www.lib.duke.edu/reference/virtual/voting.html), intended to connect the Duke community to registration forms, polling locations, and local election board Web sites. If you are an out-of-state student who missed the October 13 deadline for registering to vote in North Carolina, or if you would simply prefer to vote in your home state, you may still be able to obtain an absentee ballot. For more information, contact your state’s election commission. The National Association for State Election Directors (NASED) maintains a list of contact information at http://www.nased.org/membership.htm.  

Wherever you are casting your ballot, be sure to stay informed of the issues. The Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania provides nonpartisan analysis of political advertisements and speeches at its site Factcheck.org (http://factcheck.org). Factcheck.org focuses on elections at the federal level; to locate news and commentary about state races, try Stateline (http://www.stateline.org).

Finally, for a lighter look at some current political candidates, you might wish to peruse The Colbert Report’s popular satirical video series, Better Know a District ( http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_colbert_report/videos/district/index.jhtml). Host Stephen Colbert profiles sitting members of Congress, posing questions which range from the humorously absurd (challenging California Representative Lynn Woolsey to wrist-wrestle after debating same-sex marriage) to the unexpectedly incisive (stumping Georgia Congressman Lynn Westmoreland, who sponsored a bill which would require the display of the Ten Commandments in both houses of Congress, by asking him to recite all ten). Not all members of Congress are willing to be lampooned by Colbert, so the series has expanded to include political challengers as well.

The Figures

Voter Turnout, By the Numbers

[Sources: U.S. Election Assistance Commission; Statistical Abstract of the United States; George Mason University United States Elections Project]

Research Tip

RSS for Election Results, and Beyond

On Election Night 2004, it was common to see students with laptops frequently revisiting news sites during night classes, looking for the latest projections in the race to the White House. This year, let the news come to you instead by using RSS. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) allows you to essentially “subscribe” to Web sites, and receive notification of updates via an aggregator, which can be downloaded to your computer or accessed on the Web. A few examples of popular aggregators include Bloglines (http://www.bloglines.com) and Google Reader (http://reader.google.com).

Once you have set up an aggregator, you can add individual Web sites by looking for links that say “RSS”, “XML”, or “Syndicate This Site”. Very large sites, such as CNN.com, may even split their RSS feeds into sections, allowing you to receive only the newest headlines from the CNN Law Center, or from CNN Politics. The Washington Post offers an RSS feed specifically for the 2006 election at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/rss/index.html#politics (note that a typo on the page misidentifies the feed as “2004 Election”). Subscribing to an election feed will bring the latest news and results right to your desktop on Election Night.

RSS feeds can also assist you with other research, by alerting you to changes or additions to Web sites that you have visited. For example, many government agency sites provide updates via RSS, which can keep you apprised of the latest news or regulatory proposals. A directory of U.S. government RSS feeds is available at Firstgov.gov: http://www.firstgov.gov/Topics/Reference_Shelf/Libraries/RSS_Library.shtml . Most blogs also offer an RSS option.

Library News

A New Date for DLSIS Day

In the last issue of DULL News, we asked you to mark your calendar for DLSIS Day, the annual celebration and showcase of the Duke Law School Information Services team. But you’ll need to mark your calendar one more time — the date has been changed to Tuesday, November 7 (Election Day). DLSIS (which is comprised of the Law Library, the Educational Technologies department, and the Computing Services department) is working hard behind the scenes on the schedule of events, which will be posted to the Web site soon. We apologize for any inconvenience–but we promise that it will be worth the extra wait.

Research Stumper

Question: How many U.S. Presidents were also attorneys? Did any of them attend Duke?

Answer will appear in next month’s issue.

Answer to last month’s Stumper: In the last issue of DULL News, we asked: “How would you cite a complaint or an answer, according to Bluebook format? (Don’t worry about any local court rules to the contrary–you’ll do enough of that at your summer job!)”

The key to locating an appropriate rule in the Bluebook is finding the right term in the Index (which occupies pp. 381-415 in the most recent edition). Most of the time, this is a straightforward task–looking for an example of the short form for cases? Check the index under Cases, and then scan the long list of sub-headings until you see “short citation forms”, etc. But there is no entry in the Bluebook Index for either Complaint or Answer. So how do you find the rule? Think big–try a more general synonym for what you need. The Index heading Court filings will refer you to the pages containing Rule 10.8.3, which outlines the accepted format for citing a complaint or answer. One example:

DULL Question of the Month

Question: Where is the quiet study area located in the library?

  1. There’s a quiet study area in the library?
  2. Seriously?
  3. Is it downstairs? Or in the alcoves? Because I still hear people talking there.
  4. Do you mind? I’m on the phone.

Answer: C. It’s true that our library can become pretty noisy, especially in the Reading Room during class breaks. While we encourage a social environment, we also recognize that many library users are seeking a quiet space for individual study. As a result, all of Level 1, as well as the alcove areas on Level 3, are designated quiet study areas. Please limit group discussions or cell phone conversations to the Level 3 Reading Room, and be respectful of those around you who are working quietly.

If you are disrupted by other people in a quiet study area, please alert a member of the Library staff for assistance. Thanks for your cooperation.

Comments to Jennifer L. Behrens.