E-Democracy.Org started out as the worlds first election orientated web-site (so the legend says) and has a long history of voter education and hosting online candidate debates or “conversations.” In our original local Issues Forum in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Winona, we’ve always found that activity and membership reach peaks in the weeks prior to a local election.
Today, members of the Brighton & Hove Issues Forum are discussing the importance (or futility, depending upon ones perspective) of the upcoming local election [2007 Election].
Meanwhile, members of St. Paul E-Democracy are trying to encourage interest in local elections, by bringing local elections to into the age of youtube.com. As part of the outreach work that St. Paul E-Democracy has been doing in a local library, volunteers invited any local candidate for city council or school board to come down to the library, where volunteers and library patrons would video tape a candidate statement and upload it to YouTube.Com for them.
As a result, about 12 of the 22 known candidates for local office in St. Paul now have videos on YouTube, others are expected to record a statement in the coming week or two.
To get an idea of who is running for local office in St. Paul, check out their YouTube.Com page.