WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Vote Foundation (US Vote) and the nonpartisan site FactCheck.org have developed an alliance through which FactCheck.org will provide relevant, timely and accurate political information to voters who create an individual “My Voter Account” on the US Vote website.
The project, supported by the Democracy Fund, was created to make it easy for voters to find unbiased, fact-checked news from within their private Voter Accounts. Voters can sort the news by topic, location or time frame. Once logged into their personal Voter Accounts, readers can access valuable information that may affect their voting choices.
FactCheck.org, a project of the nonprofit Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, serves as a “consumer advocate” for voters, aiming to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. The site sorts false claims from facts in prominent state and national elections and fact-checks political assertions year-round.
To accompany this announcement, US Vote has released a video that explains the features of the My Voter Account application and underscores the ways in which Voter Accounts can support the voting process and further civic engagement.
“The concept of the ‘My Voter Account’ application is that voters can find all the information they are seeking within their accounts, without searching,” said US Vote CEO and President Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat. “It’s designed to be a ‘personal democracy dashboard,’ which helps voters stay active in civic engagement with voting as the central action.”
She added, “Bringing FactCheck.org into ‘My Voter Account’ was a natural next step – it brings depth to the issues that concern voters and real value into their personal Voter Accounts.” Approximately 375,000 voters currently have My Voter Accounts.
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center and co-founder of FactCheck.org, said, “We’re delighted to have this opportunity to partner with US Vote and extend FactCheck.org’s reach by directly providing non-biased, nonpartisan information to US Vote’s valuable audience – likely voters.”
FactCheck.org, established in 2003, paved the way for other fact-monitoring news media that have joined in evaluating the accuracy of political claims, both in and out of election season. In April, the site was named the best political website by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, marking the fifth time since 2008 that academy judges have honored FactCheck.org with a Webby award.
For the full news release, click here.
