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.

(more…)