Thu. October 12, 2000
Los Angeles, CA -
The Presidential Election Test is designed to use pertinent issues to help voters decide which presidential candidate they support. We hope this test will encourage you and your friends to vote. When taking this test, voters will not know until the end which candidate, Bush or Gore, holds views similar to their own. This test helps those that truly want to support Gore or Bush based on their views—not on editorial opinion, slick television commercials or 30-second sound bites. One point is given for each question when you agree with the opinion of Gore or Bush. After scoring yourself at the end, we invite you to go back over all of the questions and pick the one question you feel is most important and give that question three bonus points towards the candidate you agree with.
1.Do you think any effort to provide tax relief for the so-called “marriage penalty” (wherein married couples often pay more in taxes than they would as singles) should be offered to all married couples or only those who pay the marriage penalty?
A)All Married Couples
B)Only those who pay penalty
2.Which candidate’s course of action is best? Candidate A believes that a large estate left to heirs should be taxed at a rate of 50% for anything over $1.2 million. Candidate B believes that the estate tax is unfair to heirs and should be eliminated.
A) Candidate A
B) Candidate B
3.Which candidate’s position do you support—A or B? Candidate A believes that in order to strengthen Social Security participants’ contributions must achieve better returns. To achieve this he proposes that individuals be allowed to invest a small portion of their Social Security payroll taxes in stocks, bonds and mutual funds. Candidate B believes that investments in stocks, bonds, and mutual funds exposes participants to risk and should not be an option. He supports using a large portion of the budget surplus to strengthen social security.
A) Candidate A
B) Candidate B
4.Which Presidential candidate would you support? Candidate A says he will veto any bill Congress passes making partial-birth abortions illegal. Candidate B says he will sign a bill to ban partial-birth abortions if Congress passes such legislation.
A) Candidate A
B) Candidate B
5.Which candidate would you support? Candidate A believes that abortion does not destroy a life and is not manslaughter. Candidate B believes that abortion destroys a life and is manslaughter.
A) Candidate A
B) Candidate B
6.Which candidate would you support? Candidate A believes the Second Amendment of the Constitution protects the rights of individual citizens to own a gun. Candidate B believes the Second Amendment protects the rights of states in the form of militias to own guns.
A) Candidate A
B) Candidate B
7.Which candidate are you most likely to support? Candidate A says he will not use a litmus test on abortion for picking candidates for the Supreme Court but he supports parental notification for minors seeking an abortion and a ban on partial-birth abortions. Candidate B says he will use a litmus test on abortion for picking candidates for the Supreme Court and will appoint only those who support abortion and oppose parental notification for minors seeking one, and any ban on partial-birth abortions.
A) Candidate A
B) Candidate B
8.Which candidate’s position do you support—A or B? Candidate A says there should be more gun control laws including mandatory gun locks. Candidate B says that instead of new laws we should spend more money to enforce the current laws.
A) Candidate A
B) Candidate B
9.Which candidate would most likely get your support—A or B? Regarding education: Candidate A says we need smaller classes, more money and bigger and better-equipped schools. Candidate B says we need more accountability and standards for teachers, students and administration.
A) Candidate A
B) Candidate B
10.Which candidate’s position do you support? Candidate A believes Head Start’s primary emphasis should be teaching children social skills so that they’ll interact well with their fellow students and with their teachers when they begin school. Candidate B believes that Head Start’s primary emphasis should be laying the groundwork for reading and writing so that children will be ready to learn when they begin school.
A) Candidate A
B) Candidate B
11.Which candidate’s course of action is best—A or B? Candidate A believes we should delay deployment of a missile defense system in part to abide by the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty we had with the Soviet Union. Candidate B believes we should not worry about a treaty that is no longer in effect and that we should move quickly on designing and implementing a missile defense system.
A) Candidate A
B) Candidate B
12.Which candidate’s course of action is best? The size of our military is now at the level it was in the late 1970s. Candidate A believes we should begin a military build-up immediately to shore up our greatly reduced military. Candidate B believes our military is safe from foreign aggressors and we should be spending money elsewhere in the federal government.
A) Candidate A
B) Candidate B
13.Which candidate is more likely to get your support—A or B? Candidate A supports the Kyoto Global Warming Treaty, designed to protect the environment including water and air and which requires American industries to conform to higher standards than industries in developing nations. Candidate B opposes the treaty because it places tough standards on the U.S. and other large industrial nations and little or no restrictions on industries in developing nations and would cost American jobs and raise costs to American consumers.
A) Candidate A
B) Candidate B
14.Which candidate’s position do you support—A or B? Candidate A believes if the minimum wage is increased gradually by $1 an hour over three years, it will benefit low-income families, help others get off welfare and improve the standard of living for millions of people. Candidate B believes increasing minimum wage will be detrimental to small businesses not able to handle such increases and will cause those businesses to decrease the number of people hired for entry-level jobs.
A) Candidate A
B) Candidate B.
15.Which candidate would you support? Candidate A believes that because of China’s militarism, nuclear modernization and espionage they should not be America’s strategic partner but a competitor who does not share America’s values. Candidate B believes China should be our strategic partner and open up it’s markets to American products thereby creating more jobs.
A) Candidate A
B) Candidate B
16.Which candidate would you support? Candidate A favors the sale of military high technology to China. Candidate B opposes the sale of military high technology to China.
A) Candidate A
B) Candidate B
17.Which of the following do you think is the best definition of marriage? Definition A: a man and woman who join together and receive recognition from the state and/or church. Definition B: two persons, regardless of gender, who join together and receive recognition from the state and/or church.
A) A man and a woman
B) Two persons
18.Would you favor or oppose charter schools? Should we have Charter schools (public schools that are run by teachers, parents or private companies and financed by the state on a per-pupil basis) and hold them accountable for achieving education results and in return they would receive waivers that exempt them from many of the restrictions and bureaucratic rules applied to traditional public schools. Or should we not have charter schools and instead concentrate on improving our whole school system for the benefit of everyone.
A) Favor Charter Schools
B) Oppose Charter Schools
19.Do you support or oppose a proposal to test all teachers periodically to ensure that they are qualified and competent to teach?
A) Support
B) Oppose
20.Do you support or oppose a proposal to offer alternative teacher certification based on the teacher’s abilities rather than on degrees and credentials?
A) Support
B) Oppose
21.After tallying the points, which candidate would you most likely support?
A) Bush
B) Gore
SCORING
Total up the number of points from your responses and then compare totals for each candidate.
1. A) Bush B) Gore
2. A) Gore B) Bush
3. A) Bush B) Gore
4. A) Gore B) Bush
5. A) Gore B) Bush
6. A) Bush B) Gore
7. A) Bush B) Gore
8. A) Gore B) Bush
9. A) Gore B) Bush
10. A) Gore B) Bush
11. A) Gore B) Bush
12. A) Bush B) Gore
13. A) Gore B) Bush
14. A) Gore B) Bush
15. A) Bush B) Gore
16. A) Gore B) Bush
17. A) Bush B) Gore
18. A) Bush B) Gore
19. A) Bush B) Gore
20. A) Bush B) Gore
Now go back to the question most important to you and give your response an additional three points. Total up points for each candidate. The candidate with the most points is your vote in November!
(C)2000 Associated Television News
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