If you are in the United States, then you know that the presidential election is just around the corner. Maybe your mind is already made up on who is receiving your vote this election, but how do you keep up with the current election news? Do you view content from multiple sources to keep a broad perspective or do you just rely on one source?

WP Politics aims bring together several different perspectives into one central politically infused app. This can be useful to stay on top of all the political news, or even help make up the mind of voters who are unsure of their presidential vote. Cast your ballot after the jump.

My Vote Will Not Count

It is easy to overlook the significance of one vote in the election. The way the system is set up, votes go towards the U.S. Electoral College, which directly relates to the number of senators and representatives in Congress for each state. Then all of these votes go toward the candidate who won the state. States with a smaller number of senators and/or representatives may feel they do not have much effect in the election but as cliche as it is, every vote does count. Now why go into all of this introduction for an app review?

The map view provides a high level view of the projected states that belong to each candidate.

Well, with WP Politics you can clearly see the projections, polls and historical election data, all in an easy-to-read map. To view this data, press the Maps and Data option along the bottom navigation bar. Once the map is loaded, each state is clickable offering more insight into each state.

Each State has a number showing how many electoral votes they gave. For example, Alabama has nine electoral votes.

Clicking into Alabama reveals pop-up windows which shows the current poll numbers, good-to-know facts about the state and historical data from the last election. Once you are done looking at all of the states and seeing the specific projections and facts, WP Politics puts everything together in a summary above the map. This timeline showcases Obama on one end with Romney on the other, symbolizing a tug of war for electoral votes. Using projections and preliminary polls, it showcases how many votes each candidate needs to win.

I Do Not Like Either Candidate

This very well could be the case, especially with the current state of the economy. WP Politics makes it easy to get informed about each candidate. On the candidate tab there is a list of issues. Some of these include abortion, bailouts, gun control and health care. Clicking on an issue reveals a general description on the topic at hand.

It is easy to see where a candidate stands on the main issues facing the election.

Underneath the issue is another visual representation to help clarify the current position of the candidates. A timeline showcasing each candidate and what side they are on is easy to read. Also, if a candidate has changed their position on an issue, the timeline will show their previous stance and shows it moving to their new stance with details about each.

WP Politics really put this section of the app together nicely. It’s arguably the most useful part, as it can inform you about any one of the major issues for this next election. No one has the excuse to not be informed and to not make an educated decision about the election, and using WP Politics can make the tedious work easier. Using this section of the app surely can help you arrive at a voting decision even if either candidate is not the perfect candidate in your eyes.

It’s Too Hard to Stay Informed

It is hard to stay informed amongst all of the different news sources and spins being thrown our way, but it can be made easier. Using The Forum tab in WP Politics, a user can get updates related to the election along with trending topics from several different sources, and all of these updates are in one place.

The forum section shows several news sources and trending topics in an eThe Forum section shows several news sources and trending topics in an effort to gain the whole picture. ffort to gain the whole picture.

These items are movable so that you can move the sources you trust the most to the front. Also, using the different sections across the top will allow you to select different types of sources to aggregate your preferred data.

The Details

WP Politics includes other tabs on the navigation bar as well. The News and Analysis tab will provide updates in a grid format. Clicking a headline reveals the whole story, where it can be shared to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and via email. Another tab in the navigation bar is the Campaign Files. Accessing this section to the full potential will require a recurring $2.99 monthly subscription.

Paying for this subscription does not remove the banner ads viewable in the screenshots. I was disappointed.

The Campaign Files section will provide news and facts on the user defined filter providing custom based research.

The premise of the Campaign Files section is to be able to bring everything together. Fact checking, news stories and more will be shown according to the user defined filters. Looking for all economy related news stories and facts from Mitt Romney, can be easily derived with a few taps. This makes it incredible easy to drill down on some of the major issues for the election.

Conclusion

The way our democracy works is unique and every person does play a part. Even if either candidate is not your ideal candidate, I encourage you to do some research and decide on your best choice. Using WP Politics, the research can be made easier. The app keeps you up to date on current news while providing the candidate’s stances for the issues important to this election. While every feature is not available in the app without paying $2.99 for a monthly subscription, a lot of the content is still available for free. My biggest complaint was that glaring banner ad was not removed with a monthly subscription payment. Another small complaint was the app only works in landscape mode.

All in all, staying informed this election season is easy with WP Politics. The app brings together information in a new way by utilizing trending topics and different news stories to provide a more complete story. If you want to keep up with the latest happenings during election season or to become more informed about the candidates, WP Politics is a great place to start.