Politics, Presidents, Congress, and Foreign Policy
Helpful general sites relating to politics, as well as campaigns and elections, and links to political parties.
- General
- Campaigns & Elections
- Electoral College
- Inaugurations
- Parties: Democrat, Republican, Third Parties
- American Political Prints, 1766-1876
- Catalogued and annotated by Bernard F. Reilly, Jr., this is a unique collection of American political cartoons, caricatures, and illustrations.
- The Avalon Project at Yale Law School
- Offers "digital documents relative to the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy, and Government" from the last four centuries.
- Miller Center of Public Affairs
- The University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs has created a web site to support scholars and professors in the interdisciplinary study of the deep historical roots of politics in the United States.
- National Governors Association
- This site lists the current and historical state governors of the United States. It
provides general biographical and term information about each governor.
- A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns 1787-1825
- The American Antiquarian Society and Tufts University Digital Collections and Archives maintain this searchable collection of election returns from the earliest years of American democracy. The database includes offices from Congress to Justice of the Peace, jurisdiction from state to borough, party, and election type.
- OpenSecrets.org
- The website of the Center for Responsive Politics, a research group that tracks "money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy."
- Political Communication Lab
- "The Political Communication Lab is a research group that includes faculty and graduate students from Stanford University's Communication and Political Science departments who work on large-scale content analysis of news and elite rhetoric, experimental studies of political polarization, and cross-national investigations." The website includes research articles and papers, and information about campaigns.
- Political Graveyard
- "The web site that tells where the dead politicians are buried." Also gives information about their lives and about historic cemeteries.
- Politics Navigator
- Selective guide to political sites on the web. Sponsored by the New York Times.
- Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections
- This site, created by Dave Leip, provides statistical information about presidential elections beginning with 1789. Information is also available about state elections, primaries, and offices besides the presidency. A blog and a wiki add news and predictions.
- Campaigns and Elections
- Videos presented by C-Span Classroom that are useful to educators.
- Elections and Voting
- From Vanderbilt University Library's "Frequently Used Sites Related to U.S. Federal Government Information," this Elections page provides links to web sites dealing with the election process.
- Federal Election Commission
- Financial information about candidates, news releases, general voting help, and other online contributions.
- League of Women Voters
- This site gives information about upcoming elections and encourages active voters by making that information easily accessible.
- Presidential Elections 1860-1912
- This site features cartoons from Harper's Weekly, Vanity Fair, Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly, Puck, and the Library of Congress. Also included are biographies of candidates, issues, and campaigning.
- Project Vote Smart
- Get voter registration information and up-to-date information on the candidates in federal and state elections.
- Voter Information Services
- This organization provides "report cards" on members of Congress. Each report card "shows how closely the position on legislation of a member of Congress matched the position on legislation of one or more advocacy groups over the period of up to six years."
- The Electoral College
- Excerpted from The League of Women Voters of California Education Fund, Choosing the President - 1992. An overview of the electoral college in America.
- The Electoral College: How It Works in Contemporary Presidential Elections
- A Congressional Research Service Report from October 22, 2012. Previous versions of this report are also available on this site.
- Electoral College Reform: 111th Congress Proposals and Other Current Developments
- This Congressional Research Service Report from November 4, 2009, analyzes attempts to reform the electoral college.
- Finding Precedent: Hayes vs. Tilden, The Electoral Controversy of 1876-1877
- This web site was created primarily from Harper's Weekly as a public service to
familiarize students and the general public with the historic events of the Electoral
College controversy of 1876-1877.
- NARA's Role in the Electoral College
- From January 2001's Calendar of Events, this site offers information regarding the role that the National Archives plays in the Electoral College.
- A Procedural Guide to the Electoral College
- This NARA site provides an in-depth examination of the electoral college procedures, including the role of the states, the role of Congress, and the role of the National Archives.
- To Choose A President
- Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero describes the Federal Register's role in the Electoral College.
- U.S. Electoral College
- On NARA's Federal Register page, this site gives general information and electoral results and statistics.
Parties: Democratic, Republican, and Third Parties
- Democratic National Committee
- The latest news, quick links, and party information.
- Republican National Committee
- News stories, information, and links to Republican party activities.
- Communist Party USA
- News and information about the party and its focus on "democracy, labor rights, womenÂ’s equality, racial justice and peace."
- Green Party of the United States
- "The Green Party of the United States is a federation of state Green Parties. Committed to environmentalism, non-violence, social justice and grassroots organizing."
- Libertarian National Committee
- News and information from the party of "Minimum Government, Maximum Freedom."
- Reform Party National Committee
- Web site of the party founded in 1995 to prevent a single-party majority.
- Socialist Party USA
- Information about the Socialist Party, which "strives to establish a radical democracy that places people's lives under their own control -- a non-racist, classless, feminist, socialist society in which people cooperate at work, at home, and in the community."