Cablecast Begins Tonight at 8 PM; Statements will be Available on the Web

Beginning tonight, for the first time ever, New York City voters will have the opportunity to see and hear candidates for all city elective offices in the comfort of their own homes, by tuning into the Primary Election Video Voter Guide on NYC TV Channel 74.  Additionally, along with tonight's cablecast, voters will be able to watch the Video Voter Guide online, at any time of day, at www.nyc.gov/videovoter.  The Video Voter Guide is a nonpartisan educational resource for voters featuring candidates for the offices of Mayor, Public Advocate, Comptroller, Borough President, and City Council member.  All candidates for these offices were offered an opportunity to tape brief statements that will be aired regularly throughout the week leading up to the Primary Election.  As with the printed voter guide, only candidates who appear on the primary election ballot and who choose to participate in the program will appear in the Primary Election Video Voter Guide.

"The Video Voter Guide will be an invaluable new source of information for voters," said Onida Coward Mayers, Executive Director of the Voter Assistance Commission (VAC) and Coordinator of Voter Assistance.  "An informed electorate is so important to the democratic process, and now, New Yorkers will have a wealth of new information at their fingertips - either through the remote control or the keyboard.  Its value to voters has already been recognized by candidates; 87 percent of eligible candidates participated in the Primary Election Video Voter Guide."

"The Video Voter Guide is an innovative and necessary new medium for voters in New York City to access information on local and citywide races," said Dick Dadey, Executive Director of Citizens Union.  "It wisely reflects the changing way in which voters receive information from television and the Internet in addition to traditional print media."

"The Video Voter Guide puts New York City in the vanguard of national efforts to use technology to bring information about candidates and elections directly to voters," said Arick Wierson, NYC TV's General Manager and senior executive producer of the Video Voter Guide.  "The Video Voter Guide will be available in over 1.7 million cable households across the five boroughs, and on every computer with internet access.  Here in New York, democracy is entering the digital age, and it's going primetime, too."

"Helping connect New Yorkers to the democratic process is central to the mission of the Voter Assistance Commission," said Dr. Jeffrey F. Kraus, VAC Chair and professor of political science at Wagner College.  "The Video Voter Guide will help more voters learn about the candidates seeking to represent them.  We expect that the Video Voter Guide will be particularly helpful to voters in informing their choices for non-citywide offices, which receive far less media attention."

"The Video Voter Guide is New York City’s most exciting new resource for voters," said Jane Kalmus, VAC Vice-Chair.  "Its modern, interactive approach brings an abundance of important information directly to the voter, and it will help spur more people to register to vote and make their voices heard on Election Day."

The Video Voter Guide will be aired at 8pm Monday through Friday, with the order of the boroughs rotating each night of the week to ensure fairness.  In the daytime hours (Tuesday-Saturday), the previous night's cablecast of the Video Voter Guide will be re-played, and the entire program will be re-aired again the Monday before Election Day as well as Election Day itself.  The length of candidate statements varies by office: each candidate for City Council is allotted up to two minutes to make a statement; for Borough President, up to three minutes; and for citywide office, up to four minutes.  In addition, the Video Voter Guide uses maps to help viewers locate their neighborhoods and identify their council districts.

The Video Voter Guide will also be made available in other languages.  Written Spanish translations of all candidate statements will be made available, as will written Chinese translations of statements by all candidates in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens, and written Korean translations of statements by all candidates in Queens.  Written Chinese and Korean translations for all citywide candidate statements will also be made available.  Voters can receive such translations by calling the Citizens Service Hotline at 311 or by viewing them online at www.nyc.gov/videovoter.  In addition, the Video Voter Guide will be made available to third party broadcasters in an effort to expand coverage by stations that broadcast in languages other than English.  Third party broadcasters may transmit the NYC TV cablecast free of charge, provided they contact NYC TV.

The Video Voter Guide is a project of the Coordinator of Voter Assistance and VAC in partnership with NYC-TV 74.  NYC TV is the official network of the City of New York, bringing New Yorkers a bird's-eye view of city government and a variety of other programming focusing on New York City, its people, and the issues of the day.  NYC-TV 74 is available to all cable subscribers in the five boroughs of New York City and is managed by the NYC Media Group.  Participation in the Video Voter Guide is voluntary and requires candidates to sign an affidavit accepting basic nonpartisan rules designed to assure the appropriate use of this important public resource.