RTFA: http://glassbooth.org/

Although many Americans already know who they will vote for, it never hurts to check yo’ self before you wreck yo’ self, n’est-ce pas? So, I decided to see how closely my views matched with the 2008 presidential candidates. This sparked a quest to find the best candidate-matching websites/quizzes available for the U.S. 2008 Presidential Election.

First a few notes about my selection criteria and general process. I evaluated websites that asked the visitors for their opinions on at least a few current issues and then attempted to match visitors with a like-minded candidate. I evaluated every website that appeared on the first page of Google search results for the following 3 keyword phrases: “candidate matcher,” “who should I vote for?,” and “choose a candidate” (14 unique websites). I wanted to test the veracity of results provided by each site, so I actually completed the survey at each site THREE TIMES: 1) According to my true views (I tend to span the political spectrum in my stances on specific issues); 2) In line with a prototypical democrat; and, 3) In line with a prototypical republican. As you can imagine, I received much more variance in candidate recommendations when I filled the surveys out according to my personal beliefs, because I almost always got Obama when I went mainline-democrat and McCain when I went mainline-republican, with one notable and downright scandalous exception. Below, I list the best sites as well as those that elicited rage, and elaborate on the features which made or broke each site.

Who Rules

1. GlassBooth Election 2008
   
   • Strengths – GlassBooth had the most novel and interesting model of the sites I evaluated: The first page asked you to weight the issues you cared most about, and the second page only asked you questions regarding those issues. The issues were the most current of any of the other quizzes I tried, including questions about the bailouts of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and AIG. The questions were set up such that you indicated your agreement or disagreement with a particular policy instead of forcing you to choose from a limited set of proposed solutions to a politicized issue. They also allowed you to skip questions that you felt were irrelevant. Your responses were compared with non-major party candidates (so, it went beyond the McCain/Obama binary choice set). The results also showed how much you matched your recommended candidate through percentage agreement on the issues you said you cared about in the first page.
   • Weakness – The only downside to GlassBooth.org is that they only displayed your results for one candidate.
2. GoToQuiz Presidential Matching Quiz 2008
   
   • Strengths – The questions were a little off the beaten path, as they asked for your opinion on issues outside the most controversial hot topics. Specifically, they asked about important issues like views on civil liberties since 9/11, free trade, death penalty, marijuana legalization, stem cell research, etc, that other sites did not broach. Also, they provided your results in terms of percentage match with 16 candidates, a number of whom were not from major parties. They also allowed you to weight your answer to each question by how much you cared about the issue.
   • Weakness – The only downside to GoToQuiz is that they provided a set of multiple-choice-style answers that were not exhaustive. Thus, I had to choose answers that were the closest matches, but did not really represent my opinions.
3. VA Joe Candidate Calculator
   
   • Strengths – This site, which stands for “Veteran’s America Joe” is a website meant for people who serve (or have served) in the armed forces. They asked questions about a diverse and unique issues compared to the other sites. They compared your answers to the opinions of many candidates, not just Obama and McCain, and they provided you with your percentage match with 5 candidates in addition to the candidate they recommend for you.
   • Weaknesses – The questions are weighted toward military presence and actions in various international situations relative to other sites, but this could also be a strength if you care about military issues.
4. ABC Match-O-Matic
   
   • Strengths – They matched you with all the people who had ever run, instead of just McCain/Obama. They represented candidates who have dropped out of the presidential race by applying an alpha channel to their image and the words “dropped out” over the candidate’s face. Candidates you matched and were still in the race were depicted with full opacity. I liked this style because it allowed you to know who you most agreed with throughout the entire race, which might be useful for future information. They recommended 3 candidates to you and provided your percentage match with each.
   • Weaknesses – It was a short survey (although this could also be a strength) that kept to the basic hot topics. Thus, there are likely dimensions on which the candidates they recommend do not represent you. They also did not allow you to weight the questions by how much you cared about each one. You also could not change your responses once you made a choice due to their choices when programming their flash interface.
5. SelectSmart Presidential Calculator
   
   • Strengths – SelectSmart asked about a diverse set of issues, including questions regarding personal histories of the candidates in case that is of importance to you. And, although they forced you to choose between a number of suggested to policies to the issues, they had a “none of the above” option for all the questions. They allowed you to weight your responses by how important the issue is for you. They also showed the greatest number of candidates (more than 30!) and your percentage match with each. This allowed you to know not only whose opinions you DO match, but also whose views you DON’T. They also provided a brief update on the status of each candidate to whom they compared your responses (e.g., “Guliani (Withdrawn, endorsed McCain)”).
   • Weaknesses – They still forced you to choose from a short list of policies (frequently only two choices!) that did not always include my beliefs on the matter. Some of the questions were a little odd in terms of seeming to be irrelevant to choosing a president (e.g., whether the candidate had been widowed or not).

Who Fails … Miserably

1. MyFox Candidate Matcher
   
   • Weaknesses, only evil weaknesses – I am not kidding -> This site recommended McCain no matter how I completed the survey! Even when I filled it out as a prototypical democrat, it said that Obama was a 30% match with the views I had input!! I didn’t have high opinions of Fox News to begin with, but I truly didn’t think they would go this far. This is an appalling and insidious attempt to subvert the democratic process. Granted, people who watch Fox News are likely conservative and thus would want to be matched with McCain, but I was enraged. They also asked weird questions with bizarre answer choices. This is downright scandalous. Fair and balanced my ass. More like outright liars. Although it doesn’t really matter, they also chose the stupidest name for their quiz out of the sites I reviewed (i.e., “Candidate Matchmaker”).
2. QuizRocket Who Should I Vote For?
   
   • Strength – Given the situation with MyFox Candidate Matchmaker, I have to at least give them credit for recommending McCain for me when I answered as a republican, and Obama when I answered as a democrat.
   • Weaknesses – This site was inane and enraging. The answers to the questions do not represent all opinions, but they require you to respond to everything. They ask questions about things that don’t directly make someone a good or bad president, such as who you think is the best public speaker. They force you to report your sex in a very weird way AND try to force you to identify yourself at the end with your name, email, and address and keep checking it to verify it’s valid information … that’s just wrong. However, I found a way to overcome the attempt to collect your personal information: If you refuse to answer and try to navigate away from the page by closing your browser window/tab, it pops up an htaccess-style dialogue box to “confirm” that you want to leave. If you glance down, it also displays your results at that time.

Who Didn’t Make the Cut Either Way
Finally, I want to list the remaining sites that were evaluated in the same manner as the sites described above, but simply didn’t make the cut, one way or the other.

• VoteHelp.org – They had an interesting model in that you can base your results on the first 10 questions, the first 20, or answer a total of 28 questions for more refined results. Results are detailed and allow you to evaluate how closely you matched each candidate per issue, plus a brief history on their stance on the issue at hand, including if they changed their tune or acted incongruently with their stated position in the past. They also allowed you to weight each issue based on personal importance to you. However, they only give you an option between Obama and McCain.
• Minnesota Public Radio Select a Candidate – This site asked about diverse issues and compared you to candidates other than just McCain and Obama. They also allowed you to weight each issue based on personal importance to you. They forced you to choose from policies that did not represent the full range of possible responses, however.
• Vote Chooser – Interesting model, in that the question answers are statements drawn from Candidates’ speeches. Your results are shown by number of issues you agree and disagree with each candidate, and you are shown how both candidates feel about each question. Also, answers are used for research at Carnegie Mellon University to compare with random-digit-dialing surveys like the Gallup poll to check for consistency, which is kind of cool. But, the site only asks you about 10 “hot topic” type of issues to choose your candidate, and only provides you a choice between McCain and Obama. You also cannot weight your answers by personal importance of the issue at hand.
• Political Base Presidential Quiz 2008 – A plus is that the questions are a little more off the beaten path such as belief in intelligent design being taught in schools. There was some weirdness in answer choices, though, such having to choose “Yes, definitely” as an affirmative answer to the question “How important is it for a President to have military experience in order to be an effective Commander-in-Chief?” Only provides choice between Obama/McCain, and you cannot weight the issues according to how important you view them.
• BlogThings Who Should You Vote For – The candidate matching is based on only 8 questions. There were only a few answer options to questions that definitely did NOT cover all possible opinions. You could not weight issues by order of importance to you. A plus is that there were more candidate comparisons than McCain/Obama.
• USA Today’s Candidate Match Game II – The survey stuck to the basic hot topic issues instead of asking about novel things, and only tried to match you with McCain or Obama. A plus was that they let you weight each issue according to its personal importance for you.
• Who Should You Vote For – Comprehensive, longer survey, yet amazingly did not veer outside the mainstream questions by only asking about hot topic issues. Did not allow you to weight the issues according to personal importance. Only compared your responses with McCain and Obama.

So, altogether, GlassBooth.org was the winner in my book (although the others in the top 5 were all good), and Fox should be ashamed. I have tried to give detailed reviews so that you can decide which site is most up your alley. At the end of the day, when these candidate matchers are conducted with integrity, they are a great concept: You should always vote for the person who best represents you, instead of voting along party lines. Sadly, no candidate matched me more than 76% <sigh>.