The Web offers new ways to cover politics -- as well as new ways to explore the past. In "Ballots to Bits: Conventions Then and Now," washingtonpost.com presents a documentary on the evolution of conventions from their beginnings as a populist forum to their role today in an era of 24-hour news and the Internet. In order of appearance: Larry J. Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Governmental Studies; Michael Cornfield, director of research for the Democracy Online Project at George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management; and David Broder, Pulitzer Prize winning reporter and columnist for The Washington Post The video also features archival footage and photographs of convention speakers.

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