Comments on: Bannock Website Rid of Risch Link

By: idagreen

idagreen — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:47:01 +0000

“Sponsored” ads may be appropriate for commercial or personal sites, but not for a taxpayer supported service, such as the county election office. Would you accept political advertisements in the County courthouse when you go to register to vote, or perhaps at the polling place itself? Wow, we could save money on ballots by selling advertising space to candidates!

This is called electioneering, and has no place on an official county website, with or without disclosure .

By: ericn1300

ericn1300 — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 00:37:42 +0000

This posting was much to do about nothing. Your posting Tuesday, the 19th, with a screen shot of the Bannock County Website says clearly “Note: The first three results of your search are sponsored ads.”

That would be full disclosure.

By: paularoid

paularoid — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 03:50:50 +0000

Although I’m not responsible for that stuff being taken down, *I* am from Pocatello and *I* read the Guardian (online).

By: idagreen

idagreen — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 03:49:13 +0000

Now if they would post something actually useful, say a voter registration form or absentee ballot request…

These forms can be accessed through the links to the Secretary of State, but could easily be offered on the Bannock elections site as well.

Glad to see the change though. Amazing what a little public scrutiny can do!

By: Shane

Shane — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 02:04:56 +0000

Not necessarily true, you can pay for ads (such as google ads, etc) for a certain amount of time, or for so many it’s displayed (or both).

Just because it’s displayed on a site once, doesn’t mean it will be there if you do the exact same search next week.

EDITOR NOTE–It appears, repeat appears, that Bannock County has done away with the sponsored links totally.