Get Out and Vote (for Video Games)

For the United States voters out there, if you're still having trouble figuring out where to cast your support in today's midterm elections, Game Politics has assembled a handy guide highlighting video game-related track records on various senatorial, congressional, gubernatorial, and other state-level candidates currently on the ballot. Such stances are of course only relatively minor factors in a candidate's overall profile and platform, but Game Politics' summary is probably the only one-stop place to get candidate coverage of an issue unlikely to be covered by the mainstream press. At a glance, congressional and senatorial candidates who support video game or game industry legislation run the gamut from Democratic to Republican to independent, while in gubernatorial races, 80% of candidates supporting legislation are Democratic and 20% Republican.

* Hillary Clinton (D-NY): sponsor of the Family Entertainment Protection Act (FEPA) * Joe Lieberman (I-CT): his criticism of game violence in the mid-1990Â’s led directly to the formation of the ESRB * Rick Santorum (R-PA): backs HillaryÂ’s game initiatives, but also backs the ESRB * George Allen (R-VA): backs the ESRB rating system * Candidate Mike McGavick (R-WA): trying to unseat Democrat Maria Cantwell; he believes the entertainment industry will not regulate itself and wants to explore legislative solutions