We, TakingPart.org® , are not affiliated with any political party and choose to remain so in order to try to bridge the gap between those that find themselves deeply entrenched on one side or the other. Our site is about coming together and not about divisive politics so if one of the sites contained within promotes partisan bashing we apologize. Our country is founded on basic democratic principles and in order for those principles to be upheld it is every citizen’s duty to pay attention to those people who have been elected to represent them. Below you will find links to sites that allow you to keep up with your various elected representatives:

http://www.sos.state.oh.us/sos/PublicAffairs/voterInfoGuide.aspx This is the Ohio Secretary of State’s webpage devoted to keeping voters informed on their rights. The Secretary of State is the official in charge of elections and voting in Ohio.

http://www.politics1.com/index.htm Founded in 1997, Politics1 is published as a non-partisan public service to promote fully informed decision-making by the American electorate. Their traffic statistics show that Politics1 continues to be one of the most popular political sites on the net.

http://www.opensecrets.org Campaign financing and how it is accomplished is an essential part of knowing how our political system is run. On this site you can track an industry to see who they are funding, check on particular candidates that are running for office, and see where the contributions are going to that are coming from your area.

http://clerk.house.gov/ This is the website for the United States House of Representatives. On here you can find the personal pages of your representatives so that you can contact them about various issues. Making your representatives aware of issues you and your community are faced with is an integral part of a democratic system. Your input is imperative.

http://www3.capwiz.com/c-span/dbq/issuesdbq/votesearch.dbq This is CSPAN’s site dedicated to politics. On here you can check out all info regarding Congress’ votes, the issues they are debating, and news. It is a great place to be able to see how your representatives have voted as are the Senate and House websites themselves.

http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/legislative/a_three_sections_with_teasers/votes.htm This is the website for the United States Senate. On here you can find personal pages of your senators so that you can contact them about various issues. Making your senators aware of issues you and your community are faced with is an integral part of the democratic system. Once again, your input is imperative.

http://www.tray.com/ Formed in 1995, Political Money Line grew into the nation’s leading provider of campaign and lobbying financial information by creating Web-based tools and displays that make sense of the publicly available candidate and donor filings and disclosure forms. Today they provide continuously updated information on 35,000-plus lobbyists, lobbying firms, associations, corporations and other campaign contributors.

http://www.senate.state.oh.us/ This is the website for the Ohio State Senate. On here you can find personal pages of your senators so that you can contact them about various issues. Making your senators aware of issues you and your community are faced with is an integral part of the democratic system. Once again, your input is imperative.

http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/voting/ This is another rather sparse United States Department of Justice web site but is rather informative about voting rights and it is worth taking a look at.

http://www.house.state.oh.us/ This is the website for the Ohio House of Representatives.  On here you can find the personal pages of your representatives so that you can contact them about various issues. Making your representatives aware of issues you and your community are faced with is an integral part of a democratic system. Yet again, input is imperative.

http://www.factcheck.org/ This is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, "consumer advocate" for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. They monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases. Their goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding.