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Digital cable modems, wireless Internet service providers (ISPs), digital subscriber line (DSL) services, fiber optics systems, and Internet access through a growing number of direct satellite television providers have transformed the way that millions of Americans receive the latest news and information about political campaigns. Multilingual video, text, and audio files on candidate Web sites, dial-up Internet services provided through the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee, electronic mail updates of policy announcements, Web site rebuttals to the statements made during the nationally televised presidential debates, full-color printable flyers and bumper stickers for laser printing, and other forms of interactive software and multimedia were just a few of the new developments in the 2000 presidential race. This article addresses the changing multimedia technologies—including the use of local television markets and the new uses of the World Wide Web—in the 2000 presidential election.

One of the most interesting and least understood of the software applications in political campaigns is so-called geographical information systems, or GIS. It is technology that allows campaigns to systematically look at their constituencies in new ways, through multilayered and colorful maps. Through a combination of cartography and demographic research, GIS allows candidates and political campaigns to access voters in a multimedia context that can be put together with the most advanced techniques from marketing and demographics to create a sophisticated form of mapping technology with direct applicability to political campaigns. This article is a review of GIS software applications in political campaigns, with particular attention to its use in the 1992 presidential election by the Clinton campaign.

This article discusses the remarks by James Madison to Virginia’s ratifying convention in June 1788 as they relate to the Electoral College. Madison’s remarks in Richmond shed light on his rarely highlighted expectations of the workings of the Electoral College and provide insight into the Constitutional Convention’s debate on the legislative selection of the President.