With the election season fast approaching, millions of Americans find themselves in the “undecided” category. Between the many primary debates, and mostly negative campaign commercials, it’s difficult to know how any particular candidate stands on the issues.
But taking a cue from “matchmaker” web sites like eHarmony.com, a new web site called GlassBooth.com uses a questionnaire format which determines the user’s position on issues as varied as immigration, the war in Iraq, and health care reform. After analyzing the user’s responses, the site’s proprietary software algorithm determines the ideal candidate the user should vote for in the next presidential election.
For example, if you believe that health care for all Americans is more important than bringing democracy to the Middle East, the GlassBooth software will analyze those responses and find a presidential candidate who takes similar positions. GlassBooth cofounder Ian Mannheimer says the new web site is filling a “massive void.”
The “void” Mannheimer refers to is the lack of knowledge about where any particular candidate stands on actual issues. Often, presidential races come down to questions of personality and which candidate is more “likable,” because there is so little information available to the general public about the differences between candidates on serious political issues.
GlassBooth.com aims to fill this void by providing a head-on comparison of candidates to assist voters in backing a candidate who supports issues they care about. The target demographic for the news site is 18 to 31 year-old voters. And although traditional wisdom holds that voters in this younger age group do not go to the polls in significant numbers, the reality is that the 18 to 31 year-old demographic has shown a steady increase in voting habits over the last three presidential elections.
The site was founded by Mannheimer and Robert Boyle, a law student from Cambridge, Massachusetts. GlassBooth.com claims to be a completely nonpartisan web site, which simply keeps an exhaustive database of candidate votes and position papers. The concept of the site is to inform the electorate, not to persuade.
Although GlassBooth is obviously filling a void in American politics, the real question is whether voters will actually vote for a candidate based on the results of a computer database search. Americans have a long tradition of wanting to feel like they know their presidential candidates personally — that they can relate to them in some way.
It remains to be seen, however, whether voters will put aside the “cult of personality” and actually vote for a presidential candidate on the basis of issues, not who they’d most like to have a beer with.
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