Reference

American FlagThe American Presidential Elections 2012

Americans will vote to elect a new president on 6 November, 2012. This page lists recommended sources of information about the elections so you can sort out the primaries, super PACs, red states and blue states.

Election coverage

Follow the process of the primaries and the election campaign with these sites.

Our Internet Gateway recommends

Vote 2012
News and background information and resources about the elections from PBS, the American Public Broadcasting System.
USA.gov Voting and Elections
Information about the electoral system, how to register and vote, how to volunteer in a campaign. From the official United States' government website USA.gov.
Federal Election Commission
The duties of the FEC, which is an independent regulatory agency, are to disclose campaign finance information, to enforce the provisions of the law such as the limits and prohibitions on contributions, and to oversee the public funding of Presidential elections.
GOP.com
The Republican National Committee - includes an overview of the party and its platform.
Democratic National Committee
Official Democratic party website.

Contenders

The presidential candidates are Mitt Romney for the Republicans and President Barack Obama for the Democrats.

Resources in our libraries

The drama of the Presidential election has attracted writers and filmmakers over the years. A recent example which is great entertainment and conveys the drama of American politics is the television series The West Wing. In the long running show (seven series) the drama of three presidential elections is conveyed including in the final two series a detailed dramatisation of the primary and presidential campaign of Governor Matt Santos.
All the President’s Men is the story of the Watergate affair as uncovered by journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward.

From our catalogue

From our Internet Gateway

Blogs and online news media

If you want to jump into the crazy world of political blogging, Wikipedia lists a number of leading American political blogs. Huffington Post, Instapundit, Daily Kos – they are all there, but be warned – it can get wild and woolly.