Welcome back to the Compass. Debbie is the president of I Voter Guide
>> Rick Beggs: Welcome to the Compass. Navigating the public square together with faith, truth and conviction. Well, we're glad you're with us today on the compass and, can't believe how fast the summer is going. We're now looking at August 1st.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yep, it's like a slide and we're on the downhill.
>> Rick Beggs: Say hey. Debbie is the president of iVoterGuide. She is my co host with me. And, we talk about everything and even things we probably shouldn't even talk about. Say hey, Debbie.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Say hey, everybody. So good to be back with you, Rick and Willie B. And all of you listening. We just love doing the show. And, thank you for coming back.
iVoterGuide sends out a questionnaire to candidates ahead of primaries
>> Rick Beggs: Well, we have spent, a lot of time talking about what we do at iVoterGuide, how we collect data, yada, yada, yada. But one thing we haven't talked about a lot and I think people would be interested in, and I think we have so much information here that we may take a couple of shows to do this. But really is the questionnaire what we send out to candidates. And, we've titled this show why We Ask. And it's appropriate because I think a lot of people are wondering what we ask and why we ask it. Yeah. And, you can actually go find that out. So let me kind of set this up for you, Debbie, as you kind of take control of the direction we head today on the Compass. Okay. I Voter Guide. If you go to iboaterguide.com and you pull up your ballot, and how you do that is by placing your [email protected] you'll see a little box that pops up, put your address in and your ballot, will show up. hopefully if you haven't voted yet in your primaries, that will pop up for you as well. And Debbie's going to discuss primaries that are live in the next week coming up. But when you pull that up, it shows you all the different areas we cover with data. And one of those little blue bubbles, that you can go down and look at is called the questionnaire. And so what is it, Debbie, that we are trying to do through this questionnaire?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, in all our data points, we're trying to paint a picture of this candidate and what's important to them and what they'll do if we, you know, trust them with power, you know, starting with the campaign finance and the scorecards and the endorsements. But you know, a lot of times people are brand new candidates and they've never held office, so they don't have a, they don't have a voting record or, or you know, it's a down ballot office and they, and they, there is not, just not a lot of data out there. So really the place that most voters really they look for would be a ah, candidate answering a question, a questionnaire. So it is, it is one of the very important data points that we include. Most voters really think it's more important than it really is because I would prefer to have more data on actions like through campaign finance or votes or what they've done. Yeah, but we hear from voters that are like, you know, the candidate didn't answer the questionnaire. How can you rate them? Well, because we have other data points that are in there. But there are always new issues that, that you know, rise to the political, in the news or the political forefront that you know, maybe the candidate, even if they've been in there a long time, has never voted on that or spoken to that issue. So we, we try to give every, well we do, we give every candidate the opportunity to answer a questionnaire and I, we put a lot of time into updating the questionnaire into figuring out what questions we're going to ask. and especially in a party primary when you're choosing between candidates in one part in most, in most states where you have a Republican or a Democratic primary, you're choosing between candidates that are mostly aligned. Right. They, they agree with that party platform. But it's really it's important to be able to distinguish between them because we got to pick. Right. We can't just not vote. So the questionnaire, I know you've said this, when I'm trying to tie break, if, if candidates are kind of similar, I will do the same. I will look at the questionnaire and compare the candidates answers on one particular question. Do you have a, a favorite question that you look for when you're doing that?
>> Rick Beggs: Well, I actually, if it comes down to two candidates and one hasn't answered the questionnaire. Yeah, that already leans me. If they're, if they're equals, let's say, yeah, conservative, who gives them money, who they give money to? I, I will then look at the questionnaire. I, I use that really as my tiebreaker.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yes.
>> Rick Beggs: Yeah, there are a lot of great questions in there. We're going to kind of walk through that over the next couple of weeks. But I think the reason I like the questionnaire, Debbie, is I will never get a chance to sit before a candidate and ask them questions. That I'd like to know answers to. So to me, this is really like, I'm getting to interview them.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: It is. And you know, we've talked before and drawn the analogy that, this is kind of, this is like an interview process because the candidate, each of the candidates are applying for a job, right, to represent, right. You and what's important to you. And you can look at, you know, endorsements, in a way are references on a job description. we're looking at background and we're looking at experience and their votes and, and campaign finance. And then we're doing an interview. and if you get a chance to interview a candidate, I would highly encourage you to go and do that. Maybe that's a candidate forum or they're going to speak at, you know, a fundraiser in somebody's house so that you can actually interact with them. That will give you a lot of data, about that candidate. And you know, looking at ivoterguides questionnaire can guide you into questions. You might ask them. maybe it's on issues, maybe it's on their values. I, you know, when it comes for me, the values questions are my tiebreakers. If they've answered the questionnaire because I'd, I'd rather vote for somebody who shares my biblical worldview. Worldview than, you know, just somebody who, who's a pro life person. I will say I vowed early in my Christian walk that I will never vote for a pro abortion candidate. So I definitely look at their position on that. But, yeah, so the questionnaire is. It's important and we spend a lot of time getting candidate contact information, so that we can send them an email, which is how we send the questionnaire to the candidates. It's all done via email. So we are looking for the best email address for each candidate. If you are ever running for office, I would encourage you to reach out to ivoterguide and make sure we have your good contact information. If you fill out your, if you run for office, please fill out all the paperwork that has your contact information because that's where we get it from. sometimes when we don't wait. Well, sometimes when a, candidate won't answer a questionnaire, it's because we, we didn't have a good email address for them. So we've tried, but, you know, if they left it blank on the candidate filing papers or it's just not in the public record, we don't know how to reach them. And I hate, we hate that. We hate for that to happen. So we do send them emails. We will also call them. So we're looking for phone numbers as well as email address. We look for both the candidates and their campaign manager or somebody on the staff. And then we send them text messages as reminders. We call them with reminders. We're trying our best to get, the candidates to answer the questionnaire. I will also throw out to you that if you live in a state and you ever interact with candidates, ask them in person, do you answer the I voter grid questionnaire? Because that's really, really where I'm going to look for your responses. So plant that seed if you ever encounter somebody who's going to run. because then that they're, they're kind of watching for it, right when we send that email to them or they'll be looking for it. We've already received a few candidates contacting us to let us know they're going to run in 2028. So I love that the awareness is there. but then also get, you know, a lot of times, incumbents or people who've held office will say, you know, my record speaks for, for, for itself. And they don't answer the questionnaire. And it, you know, we do have a lot of data. I would still love to see their answers to the questionnaire. But, you know, they have a lot of things on their plate, so they don't always do that.
>> Rick Beggs: Okay, so let's kind of go backwards before we go forwards. if you kind of look at all the things that we measure, where does this fit in that research pipeline? Because there's a lot of data points. How much weight does the questionnaire have compared to all the other things?
Our philosophy is to look more at actions than at rhetoric
Where does it fit?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, honestly, it, it fits down at the bottom because it's, we, we, our philosophy is to look more at actions than at rhetoric. Candidates will sometimes say something and then do something different. So we would rather look at what they've done. So that's why we put more importance on vote ratings and campaign finance data and endorsements. Then down at the bottom we would put the questionnaire. Now, we certainly want them to say positive things. And the further down the ballot you go, it might be the only thing we, we have would be maybe what they've got on their website or they're answering our questionnaire. So it is important, especially down ballot.
Candidates get an opportunity to quality control questionnaire before it goes public
>> Rick Beggs: Well, I know you've told this story before, but tell it again quickly because I think it's humorous and I know where you're going. And yet it's Real serious. about the candidate who filled out his questionnaire.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yeah, but he didn't like his rating. So the other thing you should know is.
>> Rick Beggs: Wait, wait, wait, wait. What do you mean he didn't like his rating? So he, you rated him what?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: probably leans conservative, I don't remember.
>> Rick Beggs: So he wanted a more conservative.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Everybody wants verified conservative. Right. The conservatives really want verified conservative. So he wasn't happy. But, but you should know that we do give the candidates an opportunity to quality control what we're, what we're publishing before it goes public. So we do. And again it takes contact information, but we're sending that to the candidates. They get it 24, 36 hours to look at that and let us know if there are any errors. And when this candidate at the time they got to see what their rating was when they were quality controlling it. It works a little bit differently now. But he came back because he didn't like his rating. And his response was, didn't I tell you everything you wanted to hear?
>> Rick Beggs: That to me is so hilarious. Well, because that's all our fears, it's everybody's fear that that's what they're doing. They're just filling this out and hopefully giving the answers that they hope.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, they certainly know what you want to hear and they have consultants telling them what it will take to get voted. So. But what you want is somebody who's going to say what they're going to do. But yeah, you know, are they, are they really doing that? So that was just a humorous anecdote of of what's going on in these candidates heads.
There are people on the campaign trail who will recommend candidates not answer survey
>> Rick Beggs: there are people on the campaign trail who are with their, their particular candidate and they will recommend not to fill out the survey. Tell me a little bit about what, what, what's behind that thinking.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, I will let me go into that by saying I'm not a political consultant. So what I've heard is that, you know, there's cases where they, they fear that their opponent will use their answer against them either in the primary or more likely in, in the general election if they live in a, maybe it's even a blue state or a purple state or you know, it's a really swing district. They don't want to come out as super pro life because they've got to appeal to independent voters to be able to get elected. So they don't want to go on record. in that instance, I'm trying to think there's, there's a state or two that we've Heard their whole GOP will tell candidates don't answer surveys. And we're like voters really want to hear what candidates have to say. And you know, we, we do our best to work directly with the candidates, but if the consultants are going to tell them not to do it, you know, pray into that. If you have a voice to speak out there, it, you know, they're, they're trying to be very careful in curating their public Persona. We have even encountered. And you shouldn't be surprised. They'll, when they decide they're going to run for office, they'll go in and clean up their social media and go back historically and remove anything that might be perceived in the way they don't want to be perceived. So it's really this, you know, they're, they're trying to, they are, they're marketing themselves so they're trying to curate that carefully. but it, it, it is, in a way it's a disservice to the voters because we're just trying to get to the truth.
>> Rick Beggs: So out of all the things that we measure, which really are voting record, financial record, voting record is really important because you can actually see what they've done.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Right.
>> Rick Beggs: in the past. Financial record I think is really important because you can follow the money as we would say.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: No, and it's both. They've. Right.
>> Rick Beggs: Yeah.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Who gave to them and who did they support.
>> Rick Beggs: That's right. Which I, I love and I, I'm not sure anybody else is aggregating all this information like we do at I voter guide, but I love that it's right there. Voting record, financial record, who gave to them, who did they give to? Endorsements. and sometimes a, ah, liberal group will endorse a conservative group because they, they fought. They fall into a situation where it's a bipartisan issue that they both
>> Debbie Wuthnow: follow real, a lot of pro business type of groups. well, yeah, we'll endorse in that way too.
>> Rick Beggs: So you got voting record, financial records, you have endorsements. Now we're looking at website and social media, which is which I love on our website because you just go down to the little emblem there, the icon and just tap it and it goes right to what, what their pages are and then the questionnaire responses.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Right.
>> Rick Beggs: And so it is on the lower end. But it's so funny how I personally, when I'm doing my ballot, that is sort of my collective. That's your order that I do that. And then when I get to that one if they're even, that's my tiebreaker. And then if they both did it, then I look at some of the social issues like you described, whether it's, the life issue, religious freedoms, what they think about the border. So all those things and all those questions for them to respond to.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: The other thing that I will factor in and, the new comparison feature makes this really easy to do is I might look at who's endorsed the candidates, because people who do endorsements do a really deep dive and typically will spend time with each of the candidates. And then they're basically saying, I checked them all out, this is who I choose as my favorite. So, other than, comparing specific candidate questionnaire answers, and I will look at who's endorsed them, and if I recognize or one of the names means something to me, that helps me make that call. And you can use the comparison feature kind of like you would on the Best Buy website. You pick computers, you just put a check, you check the box next to the candidates. You want to compare up a side by side. I think you can do up to four candidates in one race. And then it's got little tabs to, to choose to look at campaign finance or vote ratings or endorsements or their questionnaire. And seeing their questionnaire answers side by side is super helpful if they've both answered it or all of them or whatever.
>> Rick Beggs: So, we mail them to all the candidates in all the races that we cover.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yep.
>> Rick Beggs: And, and then how do you. Is there sort of a tickler system that you keep prodding them and prodding them that sooner or later they might, they might bring their questionnaire to the table? Well, yeah, I mean, there's a lot of follow up.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yeah, there's a lot of follow up. And it all feel feeds into this timeline.
So I guess let me give a brief timeline of how we create voter guides
So I guess let me give a brief timeline of how we create these voter guides. So we have to wait until candidate filing deadlines have passed so that we know who's filed. Right. We can't start before every candidate has their deadline. And so that's our starting point. And then we have to, you know, find the contact information for the candidates. We've got to verify that with the candidates, which we. That's an email process. And then we start building their profile and matching them to campaign finance data and searching for their vote ratings and, you know, just building all of that research that we have at the same time in a parallel thread, we're recruiting volunteer panelists for that state and training those panelists so that once We've collected all of this data and we've verified it internally. We release that basically to the panelists and start them off. But so for the questionnaire, the candidates get seven to 10 days to answer the questionnaire. You won't be surprised that they usually wait till the deadline. So, you know, that's, that's what, that's human nature. Yeah, it's procrastination. And we get lots of, can you give me another day? I'm not ready, I didn't finish or I didn't see it in time or, you know, whatever. But, but that's where we'll, we'll typically hear from the candidates and they get to answer the questionnaire. And after we've got all of that is when it goes to the panelists. Now the panelists, get another seven to 10 days to do the deep dive. Right. That's when they get to see all of the data we've gathered. They can read the questionnaire answers, see the scorecards, but that's also when they start looking at their websites and their social media and doing some Internet searching and really doing the deep dive of digging and analyzing and prayerfully, matching each candidate with an evaluation on our gas gauge scale. And so that happens after 10 days. And then we're quality controlling all the data. We're trying to land on a consensus rating for each candidate, making sure that meets our criteria. Candidates get the quality control and then it goes out to the public. So there's times where we can't get all that done between when candidate filing ends and when ballots get mailed or early voting begins. And there are cases where we, we will let you know, you know, we didn't have time to get it done yet. If you got a ballot in the mail or you're going to vote by mail, set that aside and we'll let you know. because we don't want to shortchange the research. Right. And, and, and it's difficult to, to balance that, making sure we have the time for the good research. Frequently endorsements come out really late. They can be helpful, but they don't come out very early. So it's all in that process. And we do email and call and text whatever the candidates to try to get them to answer that questionnaire.
>> Rick Beggs: And remind me again, do they get an opportunity then to see how we rate them, prior to it being published?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, in previous cycles we did. We've stopped doing that. They get to quality control all the data points we've had.
>> Rick Beggs: Okay.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: And quality control that, you know, they answered the questions the way they thought they did because we'll get them saying, I didn't mean to do that. I meant, I meant to say this, fixed this, or, you know, I didn't do that, or I didn't give money to them. And there are, you know, there's instances we've actually found errors in the Federal Election Commission wrote they reported. So, you know, we understand that's why we're trying to make sure it's accurate and truthful and give the candidate the opportunity to fix any errors. they no longer see the, the rating until it goes public. but they get to check all the data points that led into it.
I Voter Guide is looking for volunteers to help with its ratings
>> Rick Beggs: this might be a great place to do, a little commercial for I Voter Guide in regards to volunteers, panelists, anybody who might. Because this is how we aggregate this information and bring it all together to make decisions. Talk a little bit about that. what we need actually at
Welcome back to the Compass. Debbie is the president of I Voter Guide
>> Rick Beggs: Welcome to the Compass. Navigating the public square together with faith, truth and conviction. Well, we're glad you're with us today on the compass and, can't believe how fast the summer is going. We're now looking at August 1st.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yep, it's like a slide and we're on the downhill.
>> Rick Beggs: Say hey. Debbie is the president of iVoterGuide. She is my co host with me. And, we talk about everything and even things we probably shouldn't even talk about. Say hey, Debbie.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Say hey, everybody. So good to be back with you, Rick and Willie B. And all of you listening. We just love doing the show. And, thank you for coming back.
iVoterGuide sends out a questionnaire to candidates ahead of primaries
>> Rick Beggs: Well, we have spent, a lot of time talking about what we do at iVoterGuide, how we collect data, yada, yada, yada. But one thing we haven't talked about a lot and I think people would be interested in, and I think we have so much information here that we may take a couple of shows to do this. But really is the questionnaire what we send out to candidates. And, we've titled this show why We Ask. And it's appropriate because I think a lot of people are wondering what we ask and why we ask it. Yeah. And, you can actually go find that out. So let me kind of set this up for you, Debbie, as you kind of take control of the direction we head today on the Compass. Okay. I Voter Guide. If you go to iboaterguide.com and you pull up your ballot, and how you do that is by placing your [email protected] you'll see a little box that pops up, put your address in and your ballot, will show up. hopefully if you haven't voted yet in your primaries, that will pop up for you as well. And Debbie's going to discuss primaries that are live in the next week coming up. But when you pull that up, it shows you all the different areas we cover with data. And one of those little blue bubbles, that you can go down and look at is called the questionnaire. And so what is it, Debbie, that we are trying to do through this questionnaire?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, in all our data points, we're trying to paint a picture of this candidate and what's important to them and what they'll do if we, you know, trust them with power, you know, starting with the campaign finance and the scorecards and the endorsements. But you know, a lot of times people are brand new candidates and they've never held office, so they don't have a, they don't have a voting record or, or you know, it's a down ballot office and they, and they, there is not, just not a lot of data out there. So really the place that most voters really they look for would be a ah, candidate answering a question, a questionnaire. So it is, it is one of the very important data points that we include. Most voters really think it's more important than it really is because I would prefer to have more data on actions like through campaign finance or votes or what they've done. Yeah, but we hear from voters that are like, you know, the candidate didn't answer the questionnaire. How can you rate them? Well, because we have other data points that are in there. But there are always new issues that, that you know, rise to the political, in the news or the political forefront that you know, maybe the candidate, even if they've been in there a long time, has never voted on that or spoken to that issue. So we, we try to give every, well we do, we give every candidate the opportunity to answer a questionnaire and I, we put a lot of time into updating the questionnaire into figuring out what questions we're going to ask. and especially in a party primary when you're choosing between candidates in one part in most, in most states where you have a Republican or a Democratic primary, you're choosing between candidates that are mostly aligned. Right. They, they agree with that party platform. But it's really it's important to be able to distinguish between them because we got to pick. Right. We can't just not vote. So the questionnaire, I know you've said this, when I'm trying to tie break, if, if candidates are kind of similar, I will do the same. I will look at the questionnaire and compare the candidates answers on one particular question. Do you have a, a favorite question that you look for when you're doing that?
>> Rick Beggs: Well, I actually, if it comes down to two candidates and one hasn't answered the questionnaire. Yeah, that already leans me. If they're, if they're equals, let's say, yeah, conservative, who gives them money, who they give money to? I, I will then look at the questionnaire. I, I use that really as my tiebreaker.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yes.
>> Rick Beggs: Yeah, there are a lot of great questions in there. We're going to kind of walk through that over the next couple of weeks. But I think the reason I like the questionnaire, Debbie, is I will never get a chance to sit before a candidate and ask them questions. That I'd like to know answers to. So to me, this is really like, I'm getting to interview them.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: It is. And you know, we've talked before and drawn the analogy that, this is kind of, this is like an interview process because the candidate, each of the candidates are applying for a job, right, to represent, right. You and what's important to you. And you can look at, you know, endorsements, in a way are references on a job description. we're looking at background and we're looking at experience and their votes and, and campaign finance. And then we're doing an interview. and if you get a chance to interview a candidate, I would highly encourage you to go and do that. Maybe that's a candidate forum or they're going to speak at, you know, a fundraiser in somebody's house so that you can actually interact with them. That will give you a lot of data, about that candidate. And you know, looking at ivoterguides questionnaire can guide you into questions. You might ask them. maybe it's on issues, maybe it's on their values. I, you know, when it comes for me, the values questions are my tiebreakers. If they've answered the questionnaire because I'd, I'd rather vote for somebody who shares my biblical worldview. Worldview than, you know, just somebody who, who's a pro life person. I will say I vowed early in my Christian walk that I will never vote for a pro abortion candidate. So I definitely look at their position on that. But, yeah, so the questionnaire is. It's important and we spend a lot of time getting candidate contact information, so that we can send them an email, which is how we send the questionnaire to the candidates. It's all done via email. So we are looking for the best email address for each candidate. If you are ever running for office, I would encourage you to reach out to ivoterguide and make sure we have your good contact information. If you fill out your, if you run for office, please fill out all the paperwork that has your contact information because that's where we get it from. sometimes when we don't wait. Well, sometimes when a, candidate won't answer a questionnaire, it's because we, we didn't have a good email address for them. So we've tried, but, you know, if they left it blank on the candidate filing papers or it's just not in the public record, we don't know how to reach them. And I hate, we hate that. We hate for that to happen. So we do send them emails. We will also call them. So we're looking for phone numbers as well as email address. We look for both the candidates and their campaign manager or somebody on the staff. And then we send them text messages as reminders. We call them with reminders. We're trying our best to get, the candidates to answer the questionnaire. I will also throw out to you that if you live in a state and you ever interact with candidates, ask them in person, do you answer the I voter grid questionnaire? Because that's really, really where I'm going to look for your responses. So plant that seed if you ever encounter somebody who's going to run. because then that they're, they're kind of watching for it, right when we send that email to them or they'll be looking for it. We've already received a few candidates contacting us to let us know they're going to run in 2028. So I love that the awareness is there. but then also get, you know, a lot of times, incumbents or people who've held office will say, you know, my record speaks for, for, for itself. And they don't answer the questionnaire. And it, you know, we do have a lot of data. I would still love to see their answers to the questionnaire. But, you know, they have a lot of things on their plate, so they don't always do that.
>> Rick Beggs: Okay, so let's kind of go backwards before we go forwards. if you kind of look at all the things that we measure, where does this fit in that research pipeline? Because there's a lot of data points. How much weight does the questionnaire have compared to all the other things?
Our philosophy is to look more at actions than at rhetoric
Where does it fit?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, honestly, it, it fits down at the bottom because it's, we, we, our philosophy is to look more at actions than at rhetoric. Candidates will sometimes say something and then do something different. So we would rather look at what they've done. So that's why we put more importance on vote ratings and campaign finance data and endorsements. Then down at the bottom we would put the questionnaire. Now, we certainly want them to say positive things. And the further down the ballot you go, it might be the only thing we, we have would be maybe what they've got on their website or they're answering our questionnaire. So it is important, especially down ballot.
Candidates get an opportunity to quality control questionnaire before it goes public
>> Rick Beggs: Well, I know you've told this story before, but tell it again quickly because I think it's humorous and I know where you're going. And yet it's Real serious. about the candidate who filled out his questionnaire.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yeah, but he didn't like his rating. So the other thing you should know is.
>> Rick Beggs: Wait, wait, wait, wait. What do you mean he didn't like his rating? So he, you rated him what?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: probably leans conservative, I don't remember.
>> Rick Beggs: So he wanted a more conservative.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Everybody wants verified conservative. Right. The conservatives really want verified conservative. So he wasn't happy. But, but you should know that we do give the candidates an opportunity to quality control what we're, what we're publishing before it goes public. So we do. And again it takes contact information, but we're sending that to the candidates. They get it 24, 36 hours to look at that and let us know if there are any errors. And when this candidate at the time they got to see what their rating was when they were quality controlling it. It works a little bit differently now. But he came back because he didn't like his rating. And his response was, didn't I tell you everything you wanted to hear?
>> Rick Beggs: That to me is so hilarious. Well, because that's all our fears, it's everybody's fear that that's what they're doing. They're just filling this out and hopefully giving the answers that they hope.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, they certainly know what you want to hear and they have consultants telling them what it will take to get voted. So. But what you want is somebody who's going to say what they're going to do. But yeah, you know, are they, are they really doing that? So that was just a humorous anecdote of of what's going on in these candidates heads.
There are people on the campaign trail who will recommend candidates not answer survey
>> Rick Beggs: there are people on the campaign trail who are with their, their particular candidate and they will recommend not to fill out the survey. Tell me a little bit about what, what, what's behind that thinking.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, I will let me go into that by saying I'm not a political consultant. So what I've heard is that, you know, there's cases where they, they fear that their opponent will use their answer against them either in the primary or more likely in, in the general election if they live in a, maybe it's even a blue state or a purple state or you know, it's a really swing district. They don't want to come out as super pro life because they've got to appeal to independent voters to be able to get elected. So they don't want to go on record. in that instance, I'm trying to think there's, there's a state or two that we've Heard their whole GOP will tell candidates don't answer surveys. And we're like voters really want to hear what candidates have to say. And you know, we, we do our best to work directly with the candidates, but if the consultants are going to tell them not to do it, you know, pray into that. If you have a voice to speak out there, it, you know, they're, they're trying to be very careful in curating their public Persona. We have even encountered. And you shouldn't be surprised. They'll, when they decide they're going to run for office, they'll go in and clean up their social media and go back historically and remove anything that might be perceived in the way they don't want to be perceived. So it's really this, you know, they're, they're trying to, they are, they're marketing themselves so they're trying to curate that carefully. but it, it, it is, in a way it's a disservice to the voters because we're just trying to get to the truth.
>> Rick Beggs: So out of all the things that we measure, which really are voting record, financial record, voting record is really important because you can actually see what they've done.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Right.
>> Rick Beggs: in the past. Financial record I think is really important because you can follow the money as we would say.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: No, and it's both. They've. Right.
>> Rick Beggs: Yeah.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Who gave to them and who did they support.
>> Rick Beggs: That's right. Which I, I love and I, I'm not sure anybody else is aggregating all this information like we do at I voter guide, but I love that it's right there. Voting record, financial record, who gave to them, who did they give to? Endorsements. and sometimes a, ah, liberal group will endorse a conservative group because they, they fought. They fall into a situation where it's a bipartisan issue that they both
>> Debbie Wuthnow: follow real, a lot of pro business type of groups. well, yeah, we'll endorse in that way too.
>> Rick Beggs: So you got voting record, financial records, you have endorsements. Now we're looking at website and social media, which is which I love on our website because you just go down to the little emblem there, the icon and just tap it and it goes right to what, what their pages are and then the questionnaire responses.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Right.
>> Rick Beggs: And so it is on the lower end. But it's so funny how I personally, when I'm doing my ballot, that is sort of my collective. That's your order that I do that. And then when I get to that one if they're even, that's my tiebreaker. And then if they both did it, then I look at some of the social issues like you described, whether it's, the life issue, religious freedoms, what they think about the border. So all those things and all those questions for them to respond to.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: The other thing that I will factor in and, the new comparison feature makes this really easy to do is I might look at who's endorsed the candidates, because people who do endorsements do a really deep dive and typically will spend time with each of the candidates. And then they're basically saying, I checked them all out, this is who I choose as my favorite. So, other than, comparing specific candidate questionnaire answers, and I will look at who's endorsed them, and if I recognize or one of the names means something to me, that helps me make that call. And you can use the comparison feature kind of like you would on the Best Buy website. You pick computers, you just put a check, you check the box next to the candidates. You want to compare up a side by side. I think you can do up to four candidates in one race. And then it's got little tabs to, to choose to look at campaign finance or vote ratings or endorsements or their questionnaire. And seeing their questionnaire answers side by side is super helpful if they've both answered it or all of them or whatever.
>> Rick Beggs: So, we mail them to all the candidates in all the races that we cover.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yep.
>> Rick Beggs: And, and then how do you. Is there sort of a tickler system that you keep prodding them and prodding them that sooner or later they might, they might bring their questionnaire to the table? Well, yeah, I mean, there's a lot of follow up.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yeah, there's a lot of follow up. And it all feel feeds into this timeline.
So I guess let me give a brief timeline of how we create voter guides
So I guess let me give a brief timeline of how we create these voter guides. So we have to wait until candidate filing deadlines have passed so that we know who's filed. Right. We can't start before every candidate has their deadline. And so that's our starting point. And then we have to, you know, find the contact information for the candidates. We've got to verify that with the candidates, which we. That's an email process. And then we start building their profile and matching them to campaign finance data and searching for their vote ratings and, you know, just building all of that research that we have at the same time in a parallel thread, we're recruiting volunteer panelists for that state and training those panelists so that once We've collected all of this data and we've verified it internally. We release that basically to the panelists and start them off. But so for the questionnaire, the candidates get seven to 10 days to answer the questionnaire. You won't be surprised that they usually wait till the deadline. So, you know, that's, that's what, that's human nature. Yeah, it's procrastination. And we get lots of, can you give me another day? I'm not ready, I didn't finish or I didn't see it in time or, you know, whatever. But, but that's where we'll, we'll typically hear from the candidates and they get to answer the questionnaire. And after we've got all of that is when it goes to the panelists. Now the panelists, get another seven to 10 days to do the deep dive. Right. That's when they get to see all of the data we've gathered. They can read the questionnaire answers, see the scorecards, but that's also when they start looking at their websites and their social media and doing some Internet searching and really doing the deep dive of digging and analyzing and prayerfully, matching each candidate with an evaluation on our gas gauge scale. And so that happens after 10 days. And then we're quality controlling all the data. We're trying to land on a consensus rating for each candidate, making sure that meets our criteria. Candidates get the quality control and then it goes out to the public. So there's times where we can't get all that done between when candidate filing ends and when ballots get mailed or early voting begins. And there are cases where we, we will let you know, you know, we didn't have time to get it done yet. If you got a ballot in the mail or you're going to vote by mail, set that aside and we'll let you know. because we don't want to shortchange the research. Right. And, and, and it's difficult to, to balance that, making sure we have the time for the good research. Frequently endorsements come out really late. They can be helpful, but they don't come out very early. So it's all in that process. And we do email and call and text whatever the candidates to try to get them to answer that questionnaire.
>> Rick Beggs: And remind me again, do they get an opportunity then to see how we rate them, prior to it being published?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, in previous cycles we did. We've stopped doing that. They get to quality control all the data points we've had.
>> Rick Beggs: Okay.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: And quality control that, you know, they answered the questions the way they thought they did because we'll get them saying, I didn't mean to do that. I meant, I meant to say this, fixed this, or, you know, I didn't do that, or I didn't give money to them. And there are, you know, there's instances we've actually found errors in the Federal Election Commission wrote they reported. So, you know, we understand that's why we're trying to make sure it's accurate and truthful and give the candidate the opportunity to fix any errors. they no longer see the, the rating until it goes public. but they get to check all the data points that led into it.
I Voter Guide is looking for volunteers to help with its ratings
>> Rick Beggs: this might be a great place to do, a little commercial for
Welcome back to the Compass. Debbie is the president of I Voter Guide
>> Rick Beggs: Welcome to the Compass. Navigating the public square together with faith, truth and conviction. Well, we're glad you're with us today on the compass and, can't believe how fast the summer is going. We're now looking at August 1st.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yep, it's like a slide and we're on the downhill.
>> Rick Beggs: Say hey. Debbie is the president of iVoterGuide. She is my co host with me. And, we talk about everything and even things we probably shouldn't even talk about. Say hey, Debbie.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Say hey, everybody. So good to be back with you, Rick and Willie B. And all of you listening. We just love doing the show. And, thank you for coming back.
iVoterGuide sends out a questionnaire to candidates ahead of primaries
>> Rick Beggs: Well, we have spent, a lot of time talking about what we do at iVoterGuide, how we collect data, yada, yada, yada. But one thing we haven't talked about a lot and I think people would be interested in, and I think we have so much information here that we may take a couple of shows to do this. But really is the questionnaire what we send out to candidates. And, we've titled this show why We Ask. And it's appropriate because I think a lot of people are wondering what we ask and why we ask it. Yeah. And, you can actually go find that out. So let me kind of set this up for you, Debbie, as you kind of take control of the direction we head today on the Compass. Okay. I Voter Guide. If you go to iboaterguide.com and you pull up your ballot, and how you do that is by placing your [email protected] you'll see a little box that pops up, put your address in and your ballot, will show up. hopefully if you haven't voted yet in your primaries, that will pop up for you as well. And Debbie's going to discuss primaries that are live in the next week coming up. But when you pull that up, it shows you all the different areas we cover with data. And one of those little blue bubbles, that you can go down and look at is called the questionnaire. And so what is it, Debbie, that we are trying to do through this questionnaire?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, in all our data points, we're trying to paint a picture of this candidate and what's important to them and what they'll do if we, you know, trust them with power, you know, starting with the campaign finance and the scorecards and the endorsements. But you know, a lot of times people are brand new candidates and they've never held office, so they don't have a, they don't have a voting record or, or you know, it's a down ballot office and they, and they, there is not, just not a lot of data out there. So really the place that most voters really they look for would be a ah, candidate answering a question, a questionnaire. So it is, it is one of the very important data points that we include. Most voters really think it's more important than it really is because I would prefer to have more data on actions like through campaign finance or votes or what they've done. Yeah, but we hear from voters that are like, you know, the candidate didn't answer the questionnaire. How can you rate them? Well, because we have other data points that are in there. But there are always new issues that, that you know, rise to the political, in the news or the political forefront that you know, maybe the candidate, even if they've been in there a long time, has never voted on that or spoken to that issue. So we, we try to give every, well we do, we give every candidate the opportunity to answer a questionnaire and I, we put a lot of time into updating the questionnaire into figuring out what questions we're going to ask. and especially in a party primary when you're choosing between candidates in one part in most, in most states where you have a Republican or a Democratic primary, you're choosing between candidates that are mostly aligned. Right. They, they agree with that party platform. But it's really it's important to be able to distinguish between them because we got to pick. Right. We can't just not vote. So the questionnaire, I know you've said this, when I'm trying to tie break, if, if candidates are kind of similar, I will do the same. I will look at the questionnaire and compare the candidates answers on one particular question. Do you have a, a favorite question that you look for when you're doing that?
>> Rick Beggs: Well, I actually, if it comes down to two candidates and one hasn't answered the questionnaire. Yeah, that already leans me. If they're, if they're equals, let's say, yeah, conservative, who gives them money, who they give money to? I, I will then look at the questionnaire. I, I use that really as my tiebreaker.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yes.
>> Rick Beggs: Yeah, there are a lot of great questions in there. We're going to kind of walk through that over the next couple of weeks. But I think the reason I like the questionnaire, Debbie, is I will never get a chance to sit before a candidate and ask them questions. That I'd like to know answers to. So to me, this is really like, I'm getting to interview them.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: It is. And you know, we've talked before and drawn the analogy that, this is kind of, this is like an interview process because the candidate, each of the candidates are applying for a job, right, to represent, right. You and what's important to you. And you can look at, you know, endorsements, in a way are references on a job description. we're looking at background and we're looking at experience and their votes and, and campaign finance. And then we're doing an interview. and if you get a chance to interview a candidate, I would highly encourage you to go and do that. Maybe that's a candidate forum or they're going to speak at, you know, a fundraiser in somebody's house so that you can actually interact with them. That will give you a lot of data, about that candidate. And you know, looking at ivoterguides questionnaire can guide you into questions. You might ask them. maybe it's on issues, maybe it's on their values. I, you know, when it comes for me, the values questions are my tiebreakers. If they've answered the questionnaire because I'd, I'd rather vote for somebody who shares my biblical worldview. Worldview than, you know, just somebody who, who's a pro life person. I will say I vowed early in my Christian walk that I will never vote for a pro abortion candidate. So I definitely look at their position on that. But, yeah, so the questionnaire is. It's important and we spend a lot of time getting candidate contact information, so that we can send them an email, which is how we send the questionnaire to the candidates. It's all done via email. So we are looking for the best email address for each candidate. If you are ever running for office, I would encourage you to reach out to ivoterguide and make sure we have your good contact information. If you fill out your, if you run for office, please fill out all the paperwork that has your contact information because that's where we get it from. sometimes when we don't wait. Well, sometimes when a, candidate won't answer a questionnaire, it's because we, we didn't have a good email address for them. So we've tried, but, you know, if they left it blank on the candidate filing papers or it's just not in the public record, we don't know how to reach them. And I hate, we hate that. We hate for that to happen. So we do send them emails. We will also call them. So we're looking for phone numbers as well as email address. We look for both the candidates and their campaign manager or somebody on the staff. And then we send them text messages as reminders. We call them with reminders. We're trying our best to get, the candidates to answer the questionnaire. I will also throw out to you that if you live in a state and you ever interact with candidates, ask them in person, do you answer the I voter grid questionnaire? Because that's really, really where I'm going to look for your responses. So plant that seed if you ever encounter somebody who's going to run. because then that they're, they're kind of watching for it, right when we send that email to them or they'll be looking for it. We've already received a few candidates contacting us to let us know they're going to run in 2028. So I love that the awareness is there. but then also get, you know, a lot of times, incumbents or people who've held office will say, you know, my record speaks for, for, for itself. And they don't answer the questionnaire. And it, you know, we do have a lot of data. I would still love to see their answers to the questionnaire. But, you know, they have a lot of things on their plate, so they don't always do that.
>> Rick Beggs: Okay, so let's kind of go backwards before we go forwards. if you kind of look at all the things that we measure, where does this fit in that research pipeline? Because there's a lot of data points. How much weight does the questionnaire have compared to all the other things?
Our philosophy is to look more at actions than at rhetoric
Where does it fit?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, honestly, it, it fits down at the bottom because it's, we, we, our philosophy is to look more at actions than at rhetoric. Candidates will sometimes say something and then do something different. So we would rather look at what they've done. So that's why we put more importance on vote ratings and campaign finance data and endorsements. Then down at the bottom we would put the questionnaire. Now, we certainly want them to say positive things. And the further down the ballot you go, it might be the only thing we, we have would be maybe what they've got on their website or they're answering our questionnaire. So it is important, especially down ballot.
Candidates get an opportunity to quality control questionnaire before it goes public
>> Rick Beggs: Well, I know you've told this story before, but tell it again quickly because I think it's humorous and I know where you're going. And yet it's Real serious. about the candidate who filled out his questionnaire.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yeah, but he didn't like his rating. So the other thing you should know is.
>> Rick Beggs: Wait, wait, wait, wait. What do you mean he didn't like his rating? So he, you rated him what?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: probably leans conservative, I don't remember.
>> Rick Beggs: So he wanted a more conservative.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Everybody wants verified conservative. Right. The conservatives really want verified conservative. So he wasn't happy. But, but you should know that we do give the candidates an opportunity to quality control what we're, what we're publishing before it goes public. So we do. And again it takes contact information, but we're sending that to the candidates. They get it 24, 36 hours to look at that and let us know if there are any errors. And when this candidate at the time they got to see what their rating was when they were quality controlling it. It works a little bit differently now. But he came back because he didn't like his rating. And his response was, didn't I tell you everything you wanted to hear?
>> Rick Beggs: That to me is so hilarious. Well, because that's all our fears, it's everybody's fear that that's what they're doing. They're just filling this out and hopefully giving the answers that they hope.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, they certainly know what you want to hear and they have consultants telling them what it will take to get voted. So. But what you want is somebody who's going to say what they're going to do. But yeah, you know, are they, are they really doing that? So that was just a humorous anecdote of of what's going on in these candidates heads.
There are people on the campaign trail who will recommend candidates not answer survey
>> Rick Beggs: there are people on the campaign trail who are with their, their particular candidate and they will recommend not to fill out the survey. Tell me a little bit about what, what, what's behind that thinking.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, I will let me go into that by saying I'm not a political consultant. So what I've heard is that, you know, there's cases where they, they fear that their opponent will use their answer against them either in the primary or more likely in, in the general election if they live in a, maybe it's even a blue state or a purple state or you know, it's a really swing district. They don't want to come out as super pro life because they've got to appeal to independent voters to be able to get elected. So they don't want to go on record. in that instance, I'm trying to think there's, there's a state or two that we've Heard their whole GOP will tell candidates don't answer surveys. And we're like voters really want to hear what candidates have to say. And you know, we, we do our best to work directly with the candidates, but if the consultants are going to tell them not to do it, you know, pray into that. If you have a voice to speak out there, it, you know, they're, they're trying to be very careful in curating their public Persona. We have even encountered. And you shouldn't be surprised. They'll, when they decide they're going to run for office, they'll go in and clean up their social media and go back historically and remove anything that might be perceived in the way they don't want to be perceived. So it's really this, you know, they're, they're trying to, they are, they're marketing themselves so they're trying to curate that carefully. but it, it, it is, in a way it's a disservice to the voters because we're just trying to get to the truth.
>> Rick Beggs: So out of all the things that we measure, which really are voting record, financial record, voting record is really important because you can actually see what they've done.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Right.
>> Rick Beggs: in the past. Financial record I think is really important because you can follow the money as we would say.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: No, and it's both. They've. Right.
>> Rick Beggs: Yeah.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Who gave to them and who did they support.
>> Rick Beggs: That's right. Which I, I love and I, I'm not sure anybody else is aggregating all this information like we do at
Welcome back to the Compass. Debbie is the president of I Voter Guide
>> Rick Beggs: Welcome to the Compass. Navigating the public square together with faith, truth and conviction. Well, we're glad you're with us today on the compass and, can't believe how fast the summer is going. We're now looking at August 1st.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yep, it's like a slide and we're on the downhill.
>> Rick Beggs: Say hey. Debbie is the president of iVoterGuide. She is my co host with me. And, we talk about everything and even things we probably shouldn't even talk about. Say hey, Debbie.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Say hey, everybody. So good to be back with you, Rick and Willie B. And all of you listening. We just love doing the show. And, thank you for coming back.
iVoterGuide sends out a questionnaire to candidates ahead of primaries
>> Rick Beggs: Well, we have spent, a lot of time talking about what we do at iVoterGuide, how we collect data, yada, yada, yada. But one thing we haven't talked about a lot and I think people would be interested in, and I think we have so much information here that we may take a couple of shows to do this. But really is the questionnaire what we send out to candidates. And, we've titled this show why We Ask. And it's appropriate because I think a lot of people are wondering what we ask and why we ask it. Yeah. And, you can actually go find that out. So let me kind of set this up for you, Debbie, as you kind of take control of the direction we head today on the Compass. Okay. iVoterGuide. If you go to ivoterguide.com and you pull up your ballot, and how you do that is by placing your [email protected] you'll see a little box that pops up, put your address in and your ballot, will show up. hopefully if you haven't voted yet in your primaries, that will pop up for you as well. And Debbie's going to discuss primaries that are live in the next week coming up. But when you pull that up, it shows you all the different areas we cover with data. And one of those little blue bubbles, that you can go down and look at is called the questionnaire. And so what is it, Debbie, that we are trying to do through this questionnaire?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, in all our data points, we're trying to paint a picture of this candidate and what's important to them and what they'll do if we, you know, trust them with power, you know, starting with the campaign finance and the scorecards and the endorsements. But you know, a lot of times people are brand new candidates and they've never held office, so they don't have a, they don't have a voting record or, or you know, it's a down ballot office and they, and they, there is not, just not a lot of data out there. So really the place that most voters really they look for would be a ah, candidate answering a question, a questionnaire. So it is, it is one of the very important data points that we include. Most voters really think it's more important than it really is because I would prefer to have more data on actions like through campaign finance or votes or what they've done. Yeah, but we hear from voters that are like, you know, the candidate didn't answer the questionnaire. How can you rate them? Well, because we have other data points that are in there. But there are always new issues that, that you know, rise to the political, in the news or the political forefront that you know, maybe the candidate, even if they've been in there a long time, has never voted on that or spoken to that issue. So we, we try to give every, well we do, we give every candidate the opportunity to answer a questionnaire and I, we put a lot of time into updating the questionnaire into figuring out what questions we're going to ask. and especially in a party primary when you're choosing between candidates in one part in most, in most states where you have a Republican or a Democratic primary, you're choosing between candidates that are mostly aligned. Right. They, they agree with that party platform. But it's really it's important to be able to distinguish between them because we got to pick. Right. We can't just not vote. So the questionnaire, I know you've said this, when I'm trying to tie break, if, if candidates are kind of similar, I will do the same. I will look at the questionnaire and compare the candidates answers on one particular question. Do you have a, a favorite question that you look for when you're doing that?
>> Rick Beggs: Well, I actually, if it comes down to two candidates and one hasn't answered the questionnaire. Yeah, that already leans me. If they're, if they're equals, let's say, yeah, conservative, who gives them money, who they give money to? I, I will then look at the questionnaire. I, I use that really as my tiebreaker.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yes.
>> Rick Beggs: Yeah, there are a lot of great questions in there. We're going to kind of walk through that over the next couple of weeks. But I think the reason I like the questionnaire, Debbie, is I will never get a chance to sit before a candidate and ask them questions. That I'd like to know answers to. So to me, this is really like, I'm getting to interview them.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: It is. And you know, we've talked before and drawn the analogy that, this is kind of, this is like an interview process because the candidate, each of the candidates are applying for a job, right, to represent, right. You and what's important to you. And you can look at, you know, endorsements, in a way are references on a job description. we're looking at background and we're looking at experience and their votes and, and campaign finance. And then we're doing an interview. and if you get a chance to interview a candidate, I would highly encourage you to go and do that. Maybe that's a candidate forum or they're going to speak at, you know, a fundraiser in somebody's house so that you can actually interact with them. That will give you a lot of data, about that candidate. And you know, looking at iVoterGuides questionnaire can guide you into questions. You might ask them. maybe it's on issues, maybe it's on their values. I, you know, when it comes for me, the values questions are my tiebreakers. If they've answered the questionnaire because I'd, I'd rather vote for somebody who shares my biblical worldview. Worldview than, you know, just somebody who, who's a pro life person. I will say I vowed early in my Christian walk that I will never vote for a pro abortion candidate. So I definitely look at their position on that. But, yeah, so the questionnaire is. It's important and we spend a lot of time getting candidate contact information, so that we can send them an email, which is how we send the questionnaire to the candidates. It's all done via email. So we are looking for the best email address for each candidate. If you are ever running for office, I would encourage you to reach out to iVoterGuide and make sure we have your good contact information. If you fill out your, if you run for office, please fill out all the paperwork that has your contact information because that's where we get it from. sometimes when we don't wait. Well, sometimes when a, candidate won't answer a questionnaire, it's because we, we didn't have a good email address for them. So we've tried, but, you know, if they left it blank on the candidate filing papers or it's just not in the public record, we don't know how to reach them. And I hate, we hate that. We hate for that to happen. So we do send them emails. We will also call them. So we're looking for phone numbers as well as email address. We look for both the candidates and their campaign manager or somebody on the staff. And then we send them text messages as reminders. We call them with reminders. We're trying our best to get, the candidates to answer the questionnaire. I will also throw out to you that if you live in a state and you ever interact with candidates, ask them in person, do you answer the I voter grid questionnaire? Because that's really, really where I'm going to look for your responses. So plant that seed if you ever encounter somebody who's going to run. because then that they're, they're kind of watching for it, right when we send that email to them or they'll be looking for it. We've already received a few candidates contacting us to let us know they're going to run in 2028. So I love that the awareness is there. but then also get, you know, a lot of times, incumbents or people who've held office will say, you know, my record speaks for, for, for itself. And they don't answer the questionnaire. And it, you know, we do have a lot of data. I would still love to see their answers to the questionnaire. But, you know, they have a lot of things on their plate, so they don't always do that.
>> Rick Beggs: Okay, so let's kind of go backwards before we go forwards. if you kind of look at all the things that we measure, where does this fit in that research pipeline? Because there's a lot of data points. How much weight does the questionnaire have compared to all the other things?
Our philosophy is to look more at actions than at rhetoric
Where does it fit?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, honestly, it, it fits down at the bottom because it's, we, we, our philosophy is to look more at actions than at rhetoric. Candidates will sometimes say something and then do something different. So we would rather look at what they've done. So that's why we put more importance on vote ratings and campaign finance data and endorsements. Then down at the bottom we would put the questionnaire. Now, we certainly want them to say positive things. And the further down the ballot you go, it might be the only thing we, we have would be maybe what they've got on their website or they're answering our questionnaire. So it is important, especially down ballot.
Candidates get an opportunity to quality control questionnaire before it goes public
>> Rick Beggs: Well, I know you've told this story before, but tell it again quickly because I think it's humorous and I know where you're going. And yet it's Real serious. about the candidate who filled out his questionnaire.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yeah, but he didn't like his rating. So the other thing you should know is.
>> Rick Beggs: Wait, wait, wait, wait. What do you mean he didn't like his rating? So he, you rated him what?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: probably leans conservative, I don't remember.
>> Rick Beggs: So he wanted a more conservative.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Everybody wants verified conservative. Right. The conservatives really want verified conservative. So he wasn't happy. But, but you should know that we do give the candidates an opportunity to quality control what we're, what we're publishing before it goes public. So we do. And again it takes contact information, but we're sending that to the candidates. They get it 24, 36 hours to look at that and let us know if there are any errors. And when this candidate at the time they got to see what their rating was when they were quality controlling it. It works a little bit differently now. But he came back because he didn't like his rating. And his response was, didn't I tell you everything you wanted to hear?
>> Rick Beggs: That to me is so hilarious. Well, because that's all our fears, it's everybody's fear that that's what they're doing. They're just filling this out and hopefully giving the answers that they hope.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, they certainly know what you want to hear and they have consultants telling them what it will take to get voted. So. But what you want is somebody who's going to say what they're going to do. But yeah, you know, are they, are they really doing that? So that was just a humorous anecdote of of what's going on in these candidates heads.
There are people on the campaign trail who will recommend candidates not answer survey
>> Rick Beggs: there are people on the campaign trail who are with their, their particular candidate and they will recommend not to fill out the survey. Tell me a little bit about what, what, what's behind that thinking.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, I will let me go into that by saying I'm not a political consultant. So what I've heard is that, you know, there's cases where they, they fear that their opponent will use their answer against them either in the primary or more likely in, in the general election if they live in a, maybe it's even a blue state or a purple state or you know, it's a really swing district. They don't want to come out as super pro life because they've got to appeal to independent voters to be able to get elected. So they don't want to go on record. in that instance, I'm trying to think there's, there's a state or two that we've Heard their whole GOP will tell candidates don't answer surveys. And we're like voters really want to hear what candidates have to say. And you know, we, we do our best to work directly with the candidates, but if the consultants are going to tell them not to do it, you know, pray into that. If you have a voice to speak out there, it, you know, they're, they're trying to be very careful in curating their public Persona. We have even encountered. And you shouldn't be surprised. They'll, when they decide they're going to run for office, they'll go in and clean up their social media and go back historically and remove anything that might be perceived in the way they don't want to be perceived. So it's really this, you know, they're, they're trying to, they are, they're marketing themselves so they're trying to curate that carefully. but it, it, it is, in a way it's a disservice to the voters because we're just trying to get to the truth.
>> Rick Beggs: So out of all the things that we measure, which really are voting record, financial record, voting record is really important because you can actually see what they've done.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Right.
>> Rick Beggs: in the past. Financial record I think is really important because you can follow the money as we would say.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: No, and it's both. They've. Right.
>> Rick Beggs: Yeah.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Who gave to them and who did they support.
>> Rick Beggs: That's right. Which I, I love and I, I'm not sure anybody else is aggregating all this information like we do at iVoterGuide, but I love that it's right there. Voting record, financial record, who gave to them, who did they give to? Endorsements. and sometimes a, ah, liberal group will endorse a conservative group because they, they fought. They fall into a situation where it's a bipartisan issue that they both
>> Debbie Wuthnow: follow real, a lot of pro business type of groups. well, yeah, we'll endorse in that way too.
>> Rick Beggs: So you got voting record, financial records, you have endorsements. Now we're looking at website and social media, which is which I love on our website because you just go down to the little emblem there, the icon and just tap it and it goes right to what, what their pages are and then the questionnaire responses.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Right.
>> Rick Beggs: And so it is on the lower end. But it's so funny how I personally, when I'm doing my ballot, that is sort of my collective. That's your order that I do that. And then when I get to that one if they're even, that's my tiebreaker. And then if they both did it, then I look at some of the social issues like you described, whether it's, the life issue, religious freedoms, what they think about the border. So all those things and all those questions for them to respond to.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: The other thing that I will factor in and, the new comparison feature makes this really easy to do is I might look at who's endorsed the candidates, because people who do endorsements do a really deep dive and typically will spend time with each of the candidates. And then they're basically saying, I checked them all out, this is who I choose as my favorite. So, other than, comparing specific candidate questionnaire answers, and I will look at who's endorsed them, and if I recognize or one of the names means something to me, that helps me make that call. And you can use the comparison feature kind of like you would on the Best Buy website. You pick computers, you just put a check, you check the box next to the candidates. You want to compare up a side by side. I think you can do up to four candidates in one race. And then it's got little tabs to, to choose to look at campaign finance or vote ratings or endorsements or their questionnaire. And seeing their questionnaire answers side by side is super helpful if they've both answered it or all of them or whatever.
>> Rick Beggs: So, we mail them to all the candidates in all the races that we cover.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yep.
>> Rick Beggs: And, and then how do you. Is there sort of a tickler system that you keep prodding them and prodding them that sooner or later they might, they might bring their questionnaire to the table? Well, yeah, I mean, there's a lot of follow up.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yeah, there's a lot of follow up. And it all feel feeds into this timeline.
So I guess let me give a brief timeline of how we create voter guides
So I guess let me give a brief timeline of how we create these voter guides. So we have to wait until candidate filing deadlines have passed so that we know who's filed. Right. We can't start before every candidate has their deadline. And so that's our starting point. And then we have to, you know, find the contact information for the candidates. We've got to verify that with the candidates, which we. That's an email process. And then we start building their profile and matching them to campaign finance data and searching for their vote ratings and, you know, just building all of that research that we have at the same time in a parallel thread, we're recruiting volunteer panelists for that state and training those panelists so that once We've collected all of this data and we've verified it internally. We release that basically to the panelists and start them off. But so for the questionnaire, the candidates get seven to 10 days to answer the questionnaire. You won't be surprised that they usually wait till the deadline. So, you know, that's, that's what, that's human nature. Yeah, it's procrastination. And we get lots of, can you give me another day? I'm not ready, I didn't finish or I didn't see it in time or, you know, whatever. But, but that's where we'll, we'll typically hear from the candidates and they get to answer the questionnaire. And after we've got all of that is when it goes to the panelists. Now the panelists, get another seven to 10 days to do the deep dive. Right. That's when they get to see all of the data we've gathered. They can read the questionnaire answers, see the scorecards, but that's also when they start looking at their websites and their social media and doing some Internet searching and really doing the deep dive of digging and analyzing and prayerfully, matching each candidate with an evaluation on our gas gauge scale. And so that happens after 10 days. And then we're quality controlling all the data. We're trying to land on a consensus rating for each candidate, making sure that meets our criteria. Candidates get the quality control and then it goes out to the public. So there's times where we can't get all that done between when candidate filing ends and when ballots get mailed or early voting begins. And there are cases where we, we will let you know, you know, we didn't have time to get it done yet. If you got a ballot in the mail or you're going to vote by mail, set that aside and we'll let you know. because we don't want to shortchange the research. Right. And, and, and it's difficult to, to balance that, making sure we have the time for the good research. Frequently endorsements come out really late. They can be helpful, but they don't come out very early. So it's all in that process. And we do email and call and text whatever the candidates to try to get them to answer that questionnaire.
>> Rick Beggs: And remind me again, do they get an opportunity then to see how we rate them, prior to it being published?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, in previous cycles we did. We've stopped doing that. They get to quality control all the data points we've had.
>> Rick Beggs: Okay.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: And quality control that, you know, they answered the questions the way they thought they did because we'll get them saying, I didn't mean to do that. I meant, I meant to say this, fixed this, or, you know, I didn't do that, or I didn't give money to them. And there are, you know, there's instances we've actually found errors in the Federal Election Commission wrote they reported. So, you know, we understand that's why we're trying to make sure it's accurate and truthful and give the candidate the opportunity to fix any errors. they no longer see the, the rating until it goes public. but they get to check all the data points that led into it.
iVoterGuide is looking for volunteers to help with its ratings
>> Rick Beggs: this might be a great place to do, a little commercial for iVoterGuide in regards to volunteers, panelists, anybody who might. Because this is how we aggregate this information and bring it all together to make decisions. Talk a little bit about that. what we need actually at iVoterGuide for people who, they would love to do the digging, they would love to help, make decisions. Yeah.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, there are some of you out there, and I know you're out there, who, you're the person your friends go to and say, okay, everybody, who do I vote for? We all want to have that person. If you are that person or have that inclination to do the deep dive, we would love to have you, help I Voter Guide in the digging and in the evaluation. And we call that being a volunteer panelist. If you go to the ivoterguide.com website and in the top menu, click on Take Action, there is a, little tile that says volunteer as a panelist. And we would love for you to apply. So when you apply, we actually vet our panelists kind of similar to how we vet candidates. You will get to answer a questionnaire. Now, this will look very similar to what candidates get to see when they answer our questionnaire. Questions are going to be different, obviously, but we're looking for basic high level value positions to make sure we align biblical values. We're looking for worldview questions. So there will be some values questions on there. And it's also going to ask you for your references. And I will tell you we do call those references. And we ask, you know, can this person, you know, are they conservative? Can they be objective in looking at candidates? because that really is one of our challenges is to not be emotional in our ratings, but base it upon the data. So we ideally want one of those references to be your pastor because we'd like you know, some spiritual depth in there. And, would love. We're needing panelists right now for the general election, specifically. I know in Colorado and Utah, Wisconsin, Illinois. we need you to go to our website and apply if you're interested. Not everybody's going to get accepted, but would love for you to throw your hat in the ring. Maybe you know somebody who would be a good panelist. Maybe you have that friend who tells you, you know, gives you the advice and encourage them to check it out. it's a great service. You get to see the back end of ivoterguide and what goes in to those ratings. and honestly, what we've heard from voters or from panelists is that they feel like it makes them a more intelligent voter so that when they have a race on their ballot that I voter Guide is not covering, they know where to go to find the information. So it helps them to be a deeper diver and what to look for in their local candidates. So it makes you a m more intelligent voter.
>> Rick Beggs: It sounds, it sounds more intense than a lot of job interviews I had earlier in my life. I mean, I love that because it should be that way. I mean, we're looking for people who are going to be truth tellers because that's really what we anchor ourselves in, is just gathering the information. We'll let it tell the truth and then, it help you vote wisely.
You have to apply, you have to answer the leadership survey
Now there are about roughly, I would say 30 plus questions on this questionnaire that they have to answer.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: email m the leadership survey for the panelists or the candidates?
>> Rick Beggs: No, no, no. This is for the candidates, the leadership survey. I didn't give you a good transition there.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Context. Context is important. I would say the leadership survey is probably about 20 questions. So that doesn't take you a ton of time. and when you click on that page about applying, it'll give you some estimates on how much time would be involved. So you have to apply, you have to answer the questionnaire. we do have training, it is self paced online training to kind of learn what our criteria are for grading and how we look at all the data. So even that in itself is educational. And then once you get assigned your panel, which will be about 30 to 35 candidates, you will have the seven to 10 days to look at them. So, you know, we estimate it's about 20 hours over two to three weeks that it takes to be a panelist for I voter Guide. We have people who love it so much they will help us in every election in their state. And Sometimes they'll be like, you need somebody in Utah. I'll help you in Utah. Because, you know, the most of the information is available online. So, you know, a lot of retired people love to help us with this digging and we need almost a thousand of them every election cycle. So would encourage you to check it out if this checks your box or somebody that, you know, encourage them to apply.
We have 30 plus questions for candidates to answer on our questionnaire
>> Rick Beggs: Okay, now let me transition back to the questionnaire for the candidates. There's 30 plus questions.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yeah.
>> Rick Beggs: That they have to answer to and they're all over the place. I mean we mentioned a couple of them. Life, national security, border control, health care, Values. Health care, religious liberty. Yep. Yeah. So all those things. So we're trying to really cover it. And it's not the same every year, is it? For every. No, every level of office, it's, we
>> Debbie Wuthnow: update it once every election cycle. So we updated this questionnaire, almost a year ago. We were updating it because we had to start sending it in December for the, the primaries earlier this year. and we do it, it's a different questionnaire for every election, office. So we have federal questionnaires, state questionnaires, judicial questionnaires, education, school, board, it's all over there. And, and we've, we prayerfully spend a lot of time to get just the right questions to ask each candidate.
The primaries are getting ready to wrap. Elections are ramping back up
>> Rick Beggs: Well, speaking of that, you hear that sound? And that's exactly what we're going to talk about is primaries. So what's coming up this coming week, Debbie?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, primary circuit, you know, I've been talking about. We're in a lull in the hurricane. We in the eye of the hurricane. Well, we are back in the hurricane. Elections are ramping back up. The primaries are getting ready to wrap. So on this coming Tuesday, August 4th, it's a big day. Kansas, your election is finally here. So check out your personalized I voter guide ballot and get to the polls. Depends on locality. They might open at 6 or 7 o'. Clock. Check that [email protected] We've got a link for you. And then they will close at 7pm In Michigan, your election is also on Tuesday the 4th. And your polls are open from 7am to 8pm Missouri, my home state, time to vote. So get your [email protected] polls open at 6 and close at 7. Virginia, finally, your election day is here. Polls are open from six to seven. You guys had early voting for like
>> Rick Beggs: you said, Virginia for weeks.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: I know. And then Washington. You should have gotten your ballots by mail, and they do need to be returned by Tuesday because that is election day at 7pm and last is Tennessee. Your election will be on Thursday, August 6th. 6th. And your polls will be open from 7am to 8pm we still have states that are early voting. So Vermont, you have early voting. Your election will be on the 11th. Wyoming, your election will be on the 18th, but you can early vote now. Hawaii, early voting is underway. Your election will be on Saturday in just one week, on August 8th. In Wisconsin, early voting is underway. Your election will be on the 11th. Same for Minnesota. Connecticut, your early voting begins on the 3rd of August for your election on the 11th. And in Alaska, early voting begins on the 3rd. Year elections on the 17th.
>> Rick Beggs: Welcome, Alaska. We got it.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yep.
>> Rick Beggs: the next couple of weeks we're going to talk about the questionnaire and, and why judges don't get the same one as school board candidates. so we'll talk about that. coming up. You've been listening to iBoaterGuide.com's radio show, the Compass. We're so glad you're here. if you want to listen to other episodes that we've had, you can go to the app, the AFR app, download it if you don't have it, and then you can go look at other shows that afr, American Family Radio offers. Debbie, if they want to write to us, where do they write?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Email compassivotorguide.com with any questions and or a topic for a future episode. Rick and I'll talk about it.
>> Rick Beggs: And Jesus is always our true north on the Compass.
, but I love that it's right there. Voting record, financial record, who gave to them, who did they give to? Endorsements. and sometimes a, ah, liberal group will endorse a conservative group because they, they fought. They fall into a situation where it's a bipartisan issue that they both
>> Debbie Wuthnow: follow real, a lot of pro business type of groups. well, yeah, we'll endorse in that way too.
>> Rick Beggs: So you got voting record, financial records, you have endorsements. Now we're looking at website and social media, which is which I love on our website because you just go down to the little emblem there, the icon and just tap it and it goes right to what, what their pages are and then the questionnaire responses.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Right.
>> Rick Beggs: And so it is on the lower end. But it's so funny how I personally, when I'm doing my ballot, that is sort of my collective. That's your order that I do that. And then when I get to that one if they're even, that's my tiebreaker. And then if they both did it, then I look at some of the social issues like you described, whether it's, the life issue, religious freedoms, what they think about the border. So all those things and all those questions for them to respond to.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: The other thing that I will factor in and, the new comparison feature makes this really easy to do is I might look at who's endorsed the candidates, because people who do endorsements do a really deep dive and typically will spend time with each of the candidates. And then they're basically saying, I checked them all out, this is who I choose as my favorite. So, other than, comparing specific candidate questionnaire answers, and I will look at who's endorsed them, and if I recognize or one of the names means something to me, that helps me make that call. And you can use the comparison feature kind of like you would on the Best Buy website. You pick computers, you just put a check, you check the box next to the candidates. You want to compare up a side by side. I think you can do up to four candidates in one race. And then it's got little tabs to, to choose to look at campaign finance or vote ratings or endorsements or their questionnaire. And seeing their questionnaire answers side by side is super helpful if they've both answered it or all of them or whatever.
>> Rick Beggs: So, we mail them to all the candidates in all the races that we cover.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yep.
>> Rick Beggs: And, and then how do you. Is there sort of a tickler system that you keep prodding them and prodding them that sooner or later they might, they might bring their questionnaire to the table? Well, yeah, I mean, there's a lot of follow up.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yeah, there's a lot of follow up. And it all feel feeds into this timeline.
So I guess let me give a brief timeline of how we create voter guides
So I guess let me give a brief timeline of how we create these voter guides. So we have to wait until candidate filing deadlines have passed so that we know who's filed. Right. We can't start before every candidate has their deadline. And so that's our starting point. And then we have to, you know, find the contact information for the candidates. We've got to verify that with the candidates, which we. That's an email process. And then we start building their profile and matching them to campaign finance data and searching for their vote ratings and, you know, just building all of that research that we have at the same time in a parallel thread, we're recruiting volunteer panelists for that state and training those panelists so that once We've collected all of this data and we've verified it internally. We release that basically to the panelists and start them off. But so for the questionnaire, the candidates get seven to 10 days to answer the questionnaire. You won't be surprised that they usually wait till the deadline. So, you know, that's, that's what, that's human nature. Yeah, it's procrastination. And we get lots of, can you give me another day? I'm not ready, I didn't finish or I didn't see it in time or, you know, whatever. But, but that's where we'll, we'll typically hear from the candidates and they get to answer the questionnaire. And after we've got all of that is when it goes to the panelists. Now the panelists, get another seven to 10 days to do the deep dive. Right. That's when they get to see all of the data we've gathered. They can read the questionnaire answers, see the scorecards, but that's also when they start looking at their websites and their social media and doing some Internet searching and really doing the deep dive of digging and analyzing and prayerfully, matching each candidate with an evaluation on our gas gauge scale. And so that happens after 10 days. And then we're quality controlling all the data. We're trying to land on a consensus rating for each candidate, making sure that meets our criteria. Candidates get the quality control and then it goes out to the public. So there's times where we can't get all that done between when candidate filing ends and when ballots get mailed or early voting begins. And there are cases where we, we will let you know, you know, we didn't have time to get it done yet. If you got a ballot in the mail or you're going to vote by mail, set that aside and we'll let you know. because we don't want to shortchange the research. Right. And, and, and it's difficult to, to balance that, making sure we have the time for the good research. Frequently endorsements come out really late. They can be helpful, but they don't come out very early. So it's all in that process. And we do email and call and text whatever the candidates to try to get them to answer that questionnaire.
>> Rick Beggs: And remind me again, do they get an opportunity then to see how we rate them, prior to it being published?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, in previous cycles we did. We've stopped doing that. They get to quality control all the data points we've had.
>> Rick Beggs: Okay.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: And quality control that, you know, they answered the questions the way they thought they did because we'll get them saying, I didn't mean to do that. I meant, I meant to say this, fixed this, or, you know, I didn't do that, or I didn't give money to them. And there are, you know, there's instances we've actually found errors in the Federal Election Commission wrote they reported. So, you know, we understand that's why we're trying to make sure it's accurate and truthful and give the candidate the opportunity to fix any errors. they no longer see the, the rating until it goes public. but they get to check all the data points that led into it.
I Voter Guide is looking for volunteers to help with its ratings
>> Rick Beggs: this might be a great place to do, a little commercial for iVoterGuide in regards to volunteers, panelists, anybody who might. Because this is how we aggregate this information and bring it all together to make decisions. Talk a little bit about that. what we need actually at I Voter Guide for people who, they would love to do the digging, they would love to help, make decisions. Yeah.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, there are some of you out there, and I know you're out there, who, you're the person your friends go to and say, okay, everybody, who do I vote for? We all want to have that person. If you are that person or have that inclination to do the deep dive, we would love to have you, help I Voter Guide in the digging and in the evaluation. And we call that being a volunteer panelist. If you go to the ivoterguide.com website and in the top menu, click on Take Action, there is a, little tile that says volunteer as a panelist. And we would love for you to apply. So when you apply, we actually vet our panelists kind of similar to how we vet candidates. You will get to answer a questionnaire. Now, this will look very similar to what candidates get to see when they answer our questionnaire. Questions are going to be different, obviously, but we're looking for basic high level value positions to make sure we align biblical values. We're looking for worldview questions. So there will be some values questions on there. And it's also going to ask you for your references. And I will tell you we do call those references. And we ask, you know, can this person, you know, are they conservative? Can they be objective in looking at candidates? because that really is one of our challenges is to not be emotional in our ratings, but base it upon the data. So we ideally want one of those references to be your pastor because we'd like you know, some spiritual depth in there. And, would love. We're needing panelists right now for the general election, specifically. I know in Colorado and Utah, Wisconsin, Illinois. we need you to go to our website and apply if you're interested. Not everybody's going to get accepted, but would love for you to throw your hat in the ring. Maybe you know somebody who would be a good panelist. Maybe you have that friend who tells you, you know, gives you the advice and encourage them to check it out. it's a great service. You get to see the back end of ivoterguide and what goes in to those ratings. and honestly, what we've heard from voters or from panelists is that they feel like it makes them a more intelligent voter so that when they have a race on their ballot that I voter Guide is not covering, they know where to go to find the information. So it helps them to be a deeper diver and what to look for in their local candidates. So it makes you a m more intelligent voter.
>> Rick Beggs: It sounds, it sounds more intense than a lot of job interviews I had earlier in my life. I mean, I love that because it should be that way. I mean, we're looking for people who are going to be truth tellers because that's really what we anchor ourselves in, is just gathering the information. We'll let it tell the truth and then, it help you vote wisely.
You have to apply, you have to answer the leadership survey
Now there are about roughly, I would say 30 plus questions on this questionnaire that they have to answer.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: email m the leadership survey for the panelists or the candidates?
>> Rick Beggs: No, no, no. This is for the candidates, the leadership survey. I didn't give you a good transition there.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Context. Context is important. I would say the leadership survey is probably about 20 questions. So that doesn't take you a ton of time. and when you click on that page about applying, it'll give you some estimates on how much time would be involved. So you have to apply, you have to answer the questionnaire. we do have training, it is self paced online training to kind of learn what our criteria are for grading and how we look at all the data. So even that in itself is educational. And then once you get assigned your panel, which will be about 30 to 35 candidates, you will have the seven to 10 days to look at them. So, you know, we estimate it's about 20 hours over two to three weeks that it takes to be a panelist for I voter Guide. We have people who love it so much they will help us in every election in their state. And Sometimes they'll be like, you need somebody in Utah. I'll help you in Utah. Because, you know, the most of the information is available online. So, you know, a lot of retired people love to help us with this digging and we need almost a thousand of them every election cycle. So would encourage you to check it out if this checks your box or somebody that, you know, encourage them to apply.
We have 30 plus questions for candidates to answer on our questionnaire
>> Rick Beggs: Okay, now let me transition back to the questionnaire for the candidates. There's 30 plus questions.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yeah.
>> Rick Beggs: That they have to answer to and they're all over the place. I mean we mentioned a couple of them. Life, national security, border control, health care, Values. Health care, religious liberty. Yep. Yeah. So all those things. So we're trying to really cover it. And it's not the same every year, is it? For every. No, every level of office, it's, we
>> Debbie Wuthnow: update it once every election cycle. So we updated this questionnaire, almost a year ago. We were updating it because we had to start sending it in December for the, the primaries earlier this year. and we do it, it's a different questionnaire for every election, office. So we have federal questionnaires, state questionnaires, judicial questionnaires, education, school, board, it's all over there. And, and we've, we prayerfully spend a lot of time to get just the right questions to ask each candidate.
The primaries are getting ready to wrap. Elections are ramping back up
>> Rick Beggs: Well, speaking of that, you hear that sound? And that's exactly what we're going to talk about is primaries. So what's coming up this coming week, Debbie?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, primary circuit, you know, I've been talking about. We're in a lull in the hurricane. We in the eye of the hurricane. Well, we are back in the hurricane. Elections are ramping back up. The primaries are getting ready to wrap. So on this coming Tuesday, August 4th, it's a big day. Kansas, your election is finally here. So check out your personalized I voter guide ballot and get to the polls. Depends on locality. They might open at 6 or 7 o'. Clock. Check that [email protected] We've got a link for you. And then they will close at 7pm In Michigan, your election is also on Tuesday the 4th. And your polls are open from 7am to 8pm Missouri, my home state, time to vote. So get your [email protected] polls open at 6 and close at 7. Virginia, finally, your election day is here. Polls are open from six to seven. You guys had early voting for like
>> Rick Beggs: you said, Virginia for weeks.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: I know. And then Washington. You should have gotten your ballots by mail, and they do need to be returned by Tuesday because that is election day at 7pm and last is Tennessee. Your election will be on Thursday, August 6th. 6th. And your polls will be open from 7am to 8pm we still have states that are early voting. So Vermont, you have early voting. Your election will be on the 11th. Wyoming, your election will be on the 18th, but you can early vote now. Hawaii, early voting is underway. Your election will be on Saturday in just one week, on August 8th. In Wisconsin, early voting is underway. Your election will be on the 11th. Same for Minnesota. Connecticut, your early voting begins on the 3rd of August for your election on the 11th. And in Alaska, early voting begins on the 3rd. Year elections on the 17th.
>> Rick Beggs: Welcome, Alaska. We got it.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yep.
>> Rick Beggs: the next couple of weeks we're going to talk about the questionnaire and, and why judges don't get the same one as school board candidates. so we'll talk about that. coming up. You've been listening to iBoaterGuide.com's radio show, the Compass. We're so glad you're here. if you want to listen to other episodes that we've had, you can go to the app, the AFR app, download it if you don't have it, and then you can go look at other shows that afr, American Family Radio offers. Debbie, if they want to write to us, where do they write?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Email compassivotorguide.com with any questions and or a topic for a future episode. Rick and I'll talk about it.
>> Rick Beggs: And Jesus is always our true north on the Compass.
in regards to volunteers, panelists, anybody who might. Because this is how we aggregate this information and bring it all together to make decisions. Talk a little bit about that. what we need actually at I Voter Guide for people who, they would love to do the digging, they would love to help, make decisions. Yeah.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, there are some of you out there, and I know you're out there, who, you're the person your friends go to and say, okay, everybody, who do I vote for? We all want to have that person. If you are that person or have that inclination to do the deep dive, we would love to have you, help I Voter Guide in the digging and in the evaluation. And we call that being a volunteer panelist. If you go to the ivoterguide.com website and in the top menu, click on Take Action, there is a, little tile that says volunteer as a panelist. And we would love for you to apply. So when you apply, we actually vet our panelists kind of similar to how we vet candidates. You will get to answer a questionnaire. Now, this will look very similar to what candidates get to see when they answer our questionnaire. Questions are going to be different, obviously, but we're looking for basic high level value positions to make sure we align biblical values. We're looking for worldview questions. So there will be some values questions on there. And it's also going to ask you for your references. And I will tell you we do call those references. And we ask, you know, can this person, you know, are they conservative? Can they be objective in looking at candidates? because that really is one of our challenges is to not be emotional in our ratings, but base it upon the data. So we ideally want one of those references to be your pastor because we'd like you know, some spiritual depth in there. And, would love. We're needing panelists right now for the general election, specifically. I know in Colorado and Utah, Wisconsin, Illinois. we need you to go to our website and apply if you're interested. Not everybody's going to get accepted, but would love for you to throw your hat in the ring. Maybe you know somebody who would be a good panelist. Maybe you have that friend who tells you, you know, gives you the advice and encourage them to check it out. it's a great service. You get to see the back end of ivoterguide and what goes in to those ratings. and honestly, what we've heard from voters or from panelists is that they feel like it makes them a more intelligent voter so that when they have a race on their ballot that I voter Guide is not covering, they know where to go to find the information. So it helps them to be a deeper diver and what to look for in their local candidates. So it makes you a m more intelligent voter.
>> Rick Beggs: It sounds, it sounds more intense than a lot of job interviews I had earlier in my life. I mean, I love that because it should be that way. I mean, we're looking for people who are going to be truth tellers because that's really what we anchor ourselves in, is just gathering the information. We'll let it tell the truth and then, it help you vote wisely.
You have to apply, you have to answer the leadership survey
Now there are about roughly, I would say 30 plus questions on this questionnaire that they have to answer.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: email m the leadership survey for the panelists or the candidates?
>> Rick Beggs: No, no, no. This is for the candidates, the leadership survey. I didn't give you a good transition there.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Context. Context is important. I would say the leadership survey is probably about 20 questions. So that doesn't take you a ton of time. and when you click on that page about applying, it'll give you some estimates on how much time would be involved. So you have to apply, you have to answer the questionnaire. we do have training, it is self paced online training to kind of learn what our criteria are for grading and how we look at all the data. So even that in itself is educational. And then once you get assigned your panel, which will be about 30 to 35 candidates, you will have the seven to 10 days to look at them. So, you know, we estimate it's about 20 hours over two to three weeks that it takes to be a panelist for I voter Guide. We have people who love it so much they will help us in every election in their state. And Sometimes they'll be like, you need somebody in Utah. I'll help you in Utah. Because, you know, the most of the information is available online. So, you know, a lot of retired people love to help us with this digging and we need almost a thousand of them every election cycle. So would encourage you to check it out if this checks your box or somebody that, you know, encourage them to apply.
We have 30 plus questions for candidates to answer on our questionnaire
>> Rick Beggs: Okay, now let me transition back to the questionnaire for the candidates. There's 30 plus questions.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yeah.
>> Rick Beggs: That they have to answer to and they're all over the place. I mean we mentioned a couple of them. Life, national security, border control, health care, Values. Health care, religious liberty. Yep. Yeah. So all those things. So we're trying to really cover it. And it's not the same every year, is it? For every. No, every level of office, it's, we
>> Debbie Wuthnow: update it once every election cycle. So we updated this questionnaire, almost a year ago. We were updating it because we had to start sending it in December for the, the primaries earlier this year. and we do it, it's a different questionnaire for every election, office. So we have federal questionnaires, state questionnaires, judicial questionnaires, education, school, board, it's all over there. And, and we've, we prayerfully spend a lot of time to get just the right questions to ask each candidate.
The primaries are getting ready to wrap. Elections are ramping back up
>> Rick Beggs: Well, speaking of that, you hear that sound? And that's exactly what we're going to talk about is primaries. So what's coming up this coming week, Debbie?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, primary circuit, you know, I've been talking about. We're in a lull in the hurricane. We in the eye of the hurricane. Well, we are back in the hurricane. Elections are ramping back up. The primaries are getting ready to wrap. So on this coming Tuesday, August 4th, it's a big day. Kansas, your election is finally here. So check out your personalized I voter guide ballot and get to the polls. Depends on locality. They might open at 6 or 7 o'. Clock. Check that [email protected] We've got a link for you. And then they will close at 7pm In Michigan, your election is also on Tuesday the 4th. And your polls are open from 7am to 8pm Missouri, my home state, time to vote. So get your [email protected] polls open at 6 and close at 7. Virginia, finally, your election day is here. Polls are open from six to seven. You guys had early voting for like
>> Rick Beggs: you said, Virginia for weeks.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: I know. And then Washington. You should have gotten your ballots by mail, and they do need to be returned by Tuesday because that is election day at 7pm and last is Tennessee. Your election will be on Thursday, August 6th. 6th. And your polls will be open from 7am to 8pm we still have states that are early voting. So Vermont, you have early voting. Your election will be on the 11th. Wyoming, your election will be on the 18th, but you can early vote now. Hawaii, early voting is underway. Your election will be on Saturday in just one week, on August 8th. In Wisconsin, early voting is underway. Your election will be on the 11th. Same for Minnesota. Connecticut, your early voting begins on the 3rd of August for your election on the 11th. And in Alaska, early voting begins on the 3rd. Year elections on the 17th.
>> Rick Beggs: Welcome, Alaska. We got it.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yep.
>> Rick Beggs: the next couple of weeks we're going to talk about the questionnaire and, and why judges don't get the same one as school board candidates. so we'll talk about that. coming up. You've been listening to iBoaterGuide.com's radio show, the Compass. We're so glad you're here. if you want to listen to other episodes that we've had, you can go to the app, the AFR app, download it if you don't have it, and then you can go look at other shows that afr, American Family Radio offers. Debbie, if they want to write to us, where do they write?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Email compassivotorguide.com with any questions and or a topic for a future episode. Rick and I'll talk about it.
>> Rick Beggs: And Jesus is always our true north on the Compass.
for people who, they would love to do the digging, they would love to help, make decisions. Yeah.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, there are some of you out there, and I know you're out there, who, you're the person your friends go to and say, okay, everybody, who do I vote for? We all want to have that person. If you are that person or have that inclination to do the deep dive, we would love to have you, help I Voter Guide in the digging and in the evaluation. And we call that being a volunteer panelist. If you go to the ivoterguide.com website and in the top menu, click on Take Action, there is a, little tile that says volunteer as a panelist. And we would love for you to apply. So when you apply, we actually vet our panelists kind of similar to how we vet candidates. You will get to answer a questionnaire. Now, this will look very similar to what candidates get to see when they answer our questionnaire. Questions are going to be different, obviously, but we're looking for basic high level value positions to make sure we align biblical values. We're looking for worldview questions. So there will be some values questions on there. And it's also going to ask you for your references. And I will tell you we do call those references. And we ask, you know, can this person, you know, are they conservative? Can they be objective in looking at candidates? because that really is one of our challenges is to not be emotional in our ratings, but base it upon the data. So we ideally want one of those references to be your pastor because we'd like you know, some spiritual depth in there. And, would love. We're needing panelists right now for the general election, specifically. I know in Colorado and Utah, Wisconsin, Illinois. we need you to go to our website and apply if you're interested. Not everybody's going to get accepted, but would love for you to throw your hat in the ring. Maybe you know somebody who would be a good panelist. Maybe you have that friend who tells you, you know, gives you the advice and encourage them to check it out. it's a great service. You get to see the back end of ivoterguide and what goes in to those ratings. and honestly, what we've heard from voters or from panelists is that they feel like it makes them a more intelligent voter so that when they have a race on their ballot that I voter Guide is not covering, they know where to go to find the information. So it helps them to be a deeper diver and what to look for in their local candidates. So it makes you a m more intelligent voter.
>> Rick Beggs: It sounds, it sounds more intense than a lot of job interviews I had earlier in my life. I mean, I love that because it should be that way. I mean, we're looking for people who are going to be truth tellers because that's really what we anchor ourselves in, is just gathering the information. We'll let it tell the truth and then, it help you vote wisely.
You have to apply, you have to answer the leadership survey
Now there are about roughly, I would say 30 plus questions on this questionnaire that they have to answer.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: email m the leadership survey for the panelists or the candidates?
>> Rick Beggs: No, no, no. This is for the candidates, the leadership survey. I didn't give you a good transition there.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Context. Context is important. I would say the leadership survey is probably about 20 questions. So that doesn't take you a ton of time. and when you click on that page about applying, it'll give you some estimates on how much time would be involved. So you have to apply, you have to answer the questionnaire. we do have training, it is self paced online training to kind of learn what our criteria are for grading and how we look at all the data. So even that in itself is educational. And then once you get assigned your panel, which will be about 30 to 35 candidates, you will have the seven to 10 days to look at them. So, you know, we estimate it's about 20 hours over two to three weeks that it takes to be a panelist for I voter Guide. We have people who love it so much they will help us in every election in their state. And Sometimes they'll be like, you need somebody in Utah. I'll help you in Utah. Because, you know, the most of the information is available online. So, you know, a lot of retired people love to help us with this digging and we need almost a thousand of them every election cycle. So would encourage you to check it out if this checks your box or somebody that, you know, encourage them to apply.
We have 30 plus questions for candidates to answer on our questionnaire
>> Rick Beggs: Okay, now let me transition back to the questionnaire for the candidates. There's 30 plus questions.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yeah.
>> Rick Beggs: That they have to answer to and they're all over the place. I mean we mentioned a couple of them. Life, national security, border control, health care, Values. Health care, religious liberty. Yep. Yeah. So all those things. So we're trying to really cover it. And it's not the same every year, is it? For every. No, every level of office, it's, we
>> Debbie Wuthnow: update it once every election cycle. So we updated this questionnaire, almost a year ago. We were updating it because we had to start sending it in December for the, the primaries earlier this year. and we do it, it's a different questionnaire for every election, office. So we have federal questionnaires, state questionnaires, judicial questionnaires, education, school, board, it's all over there. And, and we've, we prayerfully spend a lot of time to get just the right questions to ask each candidate.
The primaries are getting ready to wrap. Elections are ramping back up
>> Rick Beggs: Well, speaking of that, you hear that sound? And that's exactly what we're going to talk about is primaries. So what's coming up this coming week, Debbie?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, primary circuit, you know, I've been talking about. We're in a lull in the hurricane. We in the eye of the hurricane. Well, we are back in the hurricane. Elections are ramping back up. The primaries are getting ready to wrap. So on this coming Tuesday, August 4th, it's a big day. Kansas, your election is finally here. So check out your personalized I voter guide ballot and get to the polls. Depends on locality. They might open at 6 or 7 o'. Clock. Check that [email protected] We've got a link for you. And then they will close at 7pm In Michigan, your election is also on Tuesday the 4th. And your polls are open from 7am to 8pm Missouri, my home state, time to vote. So get your [email protected] polls open at 6 and close at 7. Virginia, finally, your election day is here. Polls are open from six to seven. You guys had early voting for like
>> Rick Beggs: you said, Virginia for weeks.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: I know. And then Washington. You should have gotten your ballots by mail, and they do need to be returned by Tuesday because that is election day at 7pm and last is Tennessee. Your election will be on Thursday, August 6th. 6th. And your polls will be open from 7am to 8pm we still have states that are early voting. So Vermont, you have early voting. Your election will be on the 11th. Wyoming, your election will be on the 18th, but you can early vote now. Hawaii, early voting is underway. Your election will be on Saturday in just one week, on August 8th. In Wisconsin, early voting is underway. Your election will be on the 11th. Same for Minnesota. Connecticut, your early voting begins on the 3rd of August for your election on the 11th. And in Alaska, early voting begins on the 3rd. Year elections on the 17th.
>> Rick Beggs: Welcome, Alaska. We got it.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yep.
>> Rick Beggs: the next couple of weeks we're going to talk about the questionnaire and, and why judges don't get the same one as school board candidates. so we'll talk about that. coming up. You've been listening to iVoterGuide.com's radio show, the Compass. We're so glad you're here. if you want to listen to other episodes that we've had, you can go to the app, the AFR app, download it if you don't have it, and then you can go look at other shows that afr, American Family Radio offers. Debbie, if they want to write to us, where do they write?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Email compassivotorguide.com with any questions and or a topic for a future episode. Rick and I'll talk about it.
>> Rick Beggs: And Jesus is always our true north on the Compass.
Welcome back to the Compass. Debbie is the president of I Voter Guide
>> Rick Beggs: Welcome to the Compass. Navigating the public square together with faith, truth and conviction. Well, we're glad you're with us today on the compass and, can't believe how fast the summer is going. We're now looking at August 1st.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yep, it's like a slide and we're on the downhill.
>> Rick Beggs: Say hey. Debbie is the president of iVoterGuide. She is my co host with me. And, we talk about everything and even things we probably shouldn't even talk about. Say hey, Debbie.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Say hey, everybody. So good to be back with you, Rick and Willie B. And all of you listening. We just love doing the show. And, thank you for coming back.
iVoterGuide sends out a questionnaire to candidates ahead of primaries
>> Rick Beggs: Well, we have spent, a lot of time talking about what we do at iVoterGuide, how we collect data, yada, yada, yada. But one thing we haven't talked about a lot and I think people would be interested in, and I think we have so much information here that we may take a couple of shows to do this. But really is the questionnaire what we send out to candidates. And, we've titled this show why We Ask. And it's appropriate because I think a lot of people are wondering what we ask and why we ask it. Yeah. And, you can actually go find that out. So let me kind of set this up for you, Debbie, as you kind of take control of the direction we head today on the Compass. Okay. I Voter Guide. If you go to iboaterguide.com and you pull up your ballot, and how you do that is by placing your [email protected] you'll see a little box that pops up, put your address in and your ballot, will show up. hopefully if you haven't voted yet in your primaries, that will pop up for you as well. And Debbie's going to discuss primaries that are live in the next week coming up. But when you pull that up, it shows you all the different areas we cover with data. And one of those little blue bubbles, that you can go down and look at is called the questionnaire. And so what is it, Debbie, that we are trying to do through this questionnaire?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, in all our data points, we're trying to paint a picture of this candidate and what's important to them and what they'll do if we, you know, trust them with power, you know, starting with the campaign finance and the scorecards and the endorsements. But you know, a lot of times people are brand new candidates and they've never held office, so they don't have a, they don't have a voting record or, or you know, it's a down ballot office and they, and they, there is not, just not a lot of data out there. So really the place that most voters really they look for would be a ah, candidate answering a question, a questionnaire. So it is, it is one of the very important data points that we include. Most voters really think it's more important than it really is because I would prefer to have more data on actions like through campaign finance or votes or what they've done. Yeah, but we hear from voters that are like, you know, the candidate didn't answer the questionnaire. How can you rate them? Well, because we have other data points that are in there. But there are always new issues that, that you know, rise to the political, in the news or the political forefront that you know, maybe the candidate, even if they've been in there a long time, has never voted on that or spoken to that issue. So we, we try to give every, well we do, we give every candidate the opportunity to answer a questionnaire and I, we put a lot of time into updating the questionnaire into figuring out what questions we're going to ask. and especially in a party primary when you're choosing between candidates in one part in most, in most states where you have a Republican or a Democratic primary, you're choosing between candidates that are mostly aligned. Right. They, they agree with that party platform. But it's really it's important to be able to distinguish between them because we got to pick. Right. We can't just not vote. So the questionnaire, I know you've said this, when I'm trying to tie break, if, if candidates are kind of similar, I will do the same. I will look at the questionnaire and compare the candidates answers on one particular question. Do you have a, a favorite question that you look for when you're doing that?
>> Rick Beggs: Well, I actually, if it comes down to two candidates and one hasn't answered the questionnaire. Yeah, that already leans me. If they're, if they're equals, let's say, yeah, conservative, who gives them money, who they give money to? I, I will then look at the questionnaire. I, I use that really as my tiebreaker.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yes.
>> Rick Beggs: Yeah, there are a lot of great questions in there. We're going to kind of walk through that over the next couple of weeks. But I think the reason I like the questionnaire, Debbie, is I will never get a chance to sit before a candidate and ask them questions. That I'd like to know answers to. So to me, this is really like, I'm getting to interview them.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: It is. And you know, we've talked before and drawn the analogy that, this is kind of, this is like an interview process because the candidate, each of the candidates are applying for a job, right, to represent, right. You and what's important to you. And you can look at, you know, endorsements, in a way are references on a job description. we're looking at background and we're looking at experience and their votes and, and campaign finance. And then we're doing an interview. and if you get a chance to interview a candidate, I would highly encourage you to go and do that. Maybe that's a candidate forum or they're going to speak at, you know, a fundraiser in somebody's house so that you can actually interact with them. That will give you a lot of data, about that candidate. And you know, looking at ivoterguides questionnaire can guide you into questions. You might ask them. maybe it's on issues, maybe it's on their values. I, you know, when it comes for me, the values questions are my tiebreakers. If they've answered the questionnaire because I'd, I'd rather vote for somebody who shares my biblical worldview. Worldview than, you know, just somebody who, who's a pro life person. I will say I vowed early in my Christian walk that I will never vote for a pro abortion candidate. So I definitely look at their position on that. But, yeah, so the questionnaire is. It's important and we spend a lot of time getting candidate contact information, so that we can send them an email, which is how we send the questionnaire to the candidates. It's all done via email. So we are looking for the best email address for each candidate. If you are ever running for office, I would encourage you to reach out to ivoterguide and make sure we have your good contact information. If you fill out your, if you run for office, please fill out all the paperwork that has your contact information because that's where we get it from. sometimes when we don't wait. Well, sometimes when a, candidate won't answer a questionnaire, it's because we, we didn't have a good email address for them. So we've tried, but, you know, if they left it blank on the candidate filing papers or it's just not in the public record, we don't know how to reach them. And I hate, we hate that. We hate for that to happen. So we do send them emails. We will also call them. So we're looking for phone numbers as well as email address. We look for both the candidates and their campaign manager or somebody on the staff. And then we send them text messages as reminders. We call them with reminders. We're trying our best to get, the candidates to answer the questionnaire. I will also throw out to you that if you live in a state and you ever interact with candidates, ask them in person, do you answer the I voter grid questionnaire? Because that's really, really where I'm going to look for your responses. So plant that seed if you ever encounter somebody who's going to run. because then that they're, they're kind of watching for it, right when we send that email to them or they'll be looking for it. We've already received a few candidates contacting us to let us know they're going to run in 2028. So I love that the awareness is there. but then also get, you know, a lot of times, incumbents or people who've held office will say, you know, my record speaks for, for, for itself. And they don't answer the questionnaire. And it, you know, we do have a lot of data. I would still love to see their answers to the questionnaire. But, you know, they have a lot of things on their plate, so they don't always do that.
>> Rick Beggs: Okay, so let's kind of go backwards before we go forwards. if you kind of look at all the things that we measure, where does this fit in that research pipeline? Because there's a lot of data points. How much weight does the questionnaire have compared to all the other things?
Our philosophy is to look more at actions than at rhetoric
Where does it fit?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, honestly, it, it fits down at the bottom because it's, we, we, our philosophy is to look more at actions than at rhetoric. Candidates will sometimes say something and then do something different. So we would rather look at what they've done. So that's why we put more importance on vote ratings and campaign finance data and endorsements. Then down at the bottom we would put the questionnaire. Now, we certainly want them to say positive things. And the further down the ballot you go, it might be the only thing we, we have would be maybe what they've got on their website or they're answering our questionnaire. So it is important, especially down ballot.
Candidates get an opportunity to quality control questionnaire before it goes public
>> Rick Beggs: Well, I know you've told this story before, but tell it again quickly because I think it's humorous and I know where you're going. And yet it's Real serious. about the candidate who filled out his questionnaire.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yeah, but he didn't like his rating. So the other thing you should know is.
>> Rick Beggs: Wait, wait, wait, wait. What do you mean he didn't like his rating? So he, you rated him what?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: probably leans conservative, I don't remember.
>> Rick Beggs: So he wanted a more conservative.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Everybody wants verified conservative. Right. The conservatives really want verified conservative. So he wasn't happy. But, but you should know that we do give the candidates an opportunity to quality control what we're, what we're publishing before it goes public. So we do. And again it takes contact information, but we're sending that to the candidates. They get it 24, 36 hours to look at that and let us know if there are any errors. And when this candidate at the time they got to see what their rating was when they were quality controlling it. It works a little bit differently now. But he came back because he didn't like his rating. And his response was, didn't I tell you everything you wanted to hear?
>> Rick Beggs: That to me is so hilarious. Well, because that's all our fears, it's everybody's fear that that's what they're doing. They're just filling this out and hopefully giving the answers that they hope.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, they certainly know what you want to hear and they have consultants telling them what it will take to get voted. So. But what you want is somebody who's going to say what they're going to do. But yeah, you know, are they, are they really doing that? So that was just a humorous anecdote of of what's going on in these candidates heads.
There are people on the campaign trail who will recommend candidates not answer survey
>> Rick Beggs: there are people on the campaign trail who are with their, their particular candidate and they will recommend not to fill out the survey. Tell me a little bit about what, what, what's behind that thinking.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, I will let me go into that by saying I'm not a political consultant. So what I've heard is that, you know, there's cases where they, they fear that their opponent will use their answer against them either in the primary or more likely in, in the general election if they live in a, maybe it's even a blue state or a purple state or you know, it's a really swing district. They don't want to come out as super pro life because they've got to appeal to independent voters to be able to get elected. So they don't want to go on record. in that instance, I'm trying to think there's, there's a state or two that we've Heard their whole GOP will tell candidates don't answer surveys. And we're like voters really want to hear what candidates have to say. And you know, we, we do our best to work directly with the candidates, but if the consultants are going to tell them not to do it, you know, pray into that. If you have a voice to speak out there, it, you know, they're, they're trying to be very careful in curating their public Persona. We have even encountered. And you shouldn't be surprised. They'll, when they decide they're going to run for office, they'll go in and clean up their social media and go back historically and remove anything that might be perceived in the way they don't want to be perceived. So it's really this, you know, they're, they're trying to, they are, they're marketing themselves so they're trying to curate that carefully. but it, it, it is, in a way it's a disservice to the voters because we're just trying to get to the truth.
>> Rick Beggs: So out of all the things that we measure, which really are voting record, financial record, voting record is really important because you can actually see what they've done.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Right.
>> Rick Beggs: in the past. Financial record I think is really important because you can follow the money as we would say.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: No, and it's both. They've. Right.
>> Rick Beggs: Yeah.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Who gave to them and who did they support.
>> Rick Beggs: That's right. Which I, I love and I, I'm not sure anybody else is aggregating all this information like we do at I voter guide, but I love that it's right there. Voting record, financial record, who gave to them, who did they give to? Endorsements. and sometimes a, ah, liberal group will endorse a conservative group because they, they fought. They fall into a situation where it's a bipartisan issue that they both
>> Debbie Wuthnow: follow real, a lot of pro business type of groups. well, yeah, we'll endorse in that way too.
>> Rick Beggs: So you got voting record, financial records, you have endorsements. Now we're looking at website and social media, which is which I love on our website because you just go down to the little emblem there, the icon and just tap it and it goes right to what, what their pages are and then the questionnaire responses.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Right.
>> Rick Beggs: And so it is on the lower end. But it's so funny how I personally, when I'm doing my ballot, that is sort of my collective. That's your order that I do that. And then when I get to that one if they're even, that's my tiebreaker. And then if they both did it, then I look at some of the social issues like you described, whether it's, the life issue, religious freedoms, what they think about the border. So all those things and all those questions for them to respond to.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: The other thing that I will factor in and, the new comparison feature makes this really easy to do is I might look at who's endorsed the candidates, because people who do endorsements do a really deep dive and typically will spend time with each of the candidates. And then they're basically saying, I checked them all out, this is who I choose as my favorite. So, other than, comparing specific candidate questionnaire answers, and I will look at who's endorsed them, and if I recognize or one of the names means something to me, that helps me make that call. And you can use the comparison feature kind of like you would on the Best Buy website. You pick computers, you just put a check, you check the box next to the candidates. You want to compare up a side by side. I think you can do up to four candidates in one race. And then it's got little tabs to, to choose to look at campaign finance or vote ratings or endorsements or their questionnaire. And seeing their questionnaire answers side by side is super helpful if they've both answered it or all of them or whatever.
>> Rick Beggs: So, we mail them to all the candidates in all the races that we cover.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yep.
>> Rick Beggs: And, and then how do you. Is there sort of a tickler system that you keep prodding them and prodding them that sooner or later they might, they might bring their questionnaire to the table? Well, yeah, I mean, there's a lot of follow up.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yeah, there's a lot of follow up. And it all feel feeds into this timeline.
So I guess let me give a brief timeline of how we create voter guides
So I guess let me give a brief timeline of how we create these voter guides. So we have to wait until candidate filing deadlines have passed so that we know who's filed. Right. We can't start before every candidate has their deadline. And so that's our starting point. And then we have to, you know, find the contact information for the candidates. We've got to verify that with the candidates, which we. That's an email process. And then we start building their profile and matching them to campaign finance data and searching for their vote ratings and, you know, just building all of that research that we have at the same time in a parallel thread, we're recruiting volunteer panelists for that state and training those panelists so that once We've collected all of this data and we've verified it internally. We release that basically to the panelists and start them off. But so for the questionnaire, the candidates get seven to 10 days to answer the questionnaire. You won't be surprised that they usually wait till the deadline. So, you know, that's, that's what, that's human nature. Yeah, it's procrastination. And we get lots of, can you give me another day? I'm not ready, I didn't finish or I didn't see it in time or, you know, whatever. But, but that's where we'll, we'll typically hear from the candidates and they get to answer the questionnaire. And after we've got all of that is when it goes to the panelists. Now the panelists, get another seven to 10 days to do the deep dive. Right. That's when they get to see all of the data we've gathered. They can read the questionnaire answers, see the scorecards, but that's also when they start looking at their websites and their social media and doing some Internet searching and really doing the deep dive of digging and analyzing and prayerfully, matching each candidate with an evaluation on our gas gauge scale. And so that happens after 10 days. And then we're quality controlling all the data. We're trying to land on a consensus rating for each candidate, making sure that meets our criteria. Candidates get the quality control and then it goes out to the public. So there's times where we can't get all that done between when candidate filing ends and when ballots get mailed or early voting begins. And there are cases where we, we will let you know, you know, we didn't have time to get it done yet. If you got a ballot in the mail or you're going to vote by mail, set that aside and we'll let you know. because we don't want to shortchange the research. Right. And, and, and it's difficult to, to balance that, making sure we have the time for the good research. Frequently endorsements come out really late. They can be helpful, but they don't come out very early. So it's all in that process. And we do email and call and text whatever the candidates to try to get them to answer that questionnaire.
>> Rick Beggs: And remind me again, do they get an opportunity then to see how we rate them, prior to it being published?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, in previous cycles we did. We've stopped doing that. They get to quality control all the data points we've had.
>> Rick Beggs: Okay.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: And quality control that, you know, they answered the questions the way they thought they did because we'll get them saying, I didn't mean to do that. I meant, I meant to say this, fixed this, or, you know, I didn't do that, or I didn't give money to them. And there are, you know, there's instances we've actually found errors in the Federal Election Commission wrote they reported. So, you know, we understand that's why we're trying to make sure it's accurate and truthful and give the candidate the opportunity to fix any errors. they no longer see the, the rating until it goes public. but they get to check all the data points that led into it.
I Voter Guide is looking for volunteers to help with its ratings
>> Rick Beggs: this might be a great place to do, a little commercial for I Voter Guide in regards to volunteers, panelists, anybody who might. Because this is how we aggregate this information and bring it all together to make decisions. Talk a little bit about that. what we need actually at
Welcome back to the Compass. Debbie is the president of I Voter Guide
>> Rick Beggs: Welcome to the Compass. Navigating the public square together with faith, truth and conviction. Well, we're glad you're with us today on the compass and, can't believe how fast the summer is going. We're now looking at August 1st.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yep, it's like a slide and we're on the downhill.
>> Rick Beggs: Say hey. Debbie is the president of iVoterGuide. She is my co host with me. And, we talk about everything and even things we probably shouldn't even talk about. Say hey, Debbie.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Say hey, everybody. So good to be back with you, Rick and Willie B. And all of you listening. We just love doing the show. And, thank you for coming back.
iVoterGuide sends out a questionnaire to candidates ahead of primaries
>> Rick Beggs: Well, we have spent, a lot of time talking about what we do at iVoterGuide, how we collect data, yada, yada, yada. But one thing we haven't talked about a lot and I think people would be interested in, and I think we have so much information here that we may take a couple of shows to do this. But really is the questionnaire what we send out to candidates. And, we've titled this show why We Ask. And it's appropriate because I think a lot of people are wondering what we ask and why we ask it. Yeah. And, you can actually go find that out. So let me kind of set this up for you, Debbie, as you kind of take control of the direction we head today on the Compass. Okay. I Voter Guide. If you go to iboaterguide.com and you pull up your ballot, and how you do that is by placing your [email protected] you'll see a little box that pops up, put your address in and your ballot, will show up. hopefully if you haven't voted yet in your primaries, that will pop up for you as well. And Debbie's going to discuss primaries that are live in the next week coming up. But when you pull that up, it shows you all the different areas we cover with data. And one of those little blue bubbles, that you can go down and look at is called the questionnaire. And so what is it, Debbie, that we are trying to do through this questionnaire?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, in all our data points, we're trying to paint a picture of this candidate and what's important to them and what they'll do if we, you know, trust them with power, you know, starting with the campaign finance and the scorecards and the endorsements. But you know, a lot of times people are brand new candidates and they've never held office, so they don't have a, they don't have a voting record or, or you know, it's a down ballot office and they, and they, there is not, just not a lot of data out there. So really the place that most voters really they look for would be a ah, candidate answering a question, a questionnaire. So it is, it is one of the very important data points that we include. Most voters really think it's more important than it really is because I would prefer to have more data on actions like through campaign finance or votes or what they've done. Yeah, but we hear from voters that are like, you know, the candidate didn't answer the questionnaire. How can you rate them? Well, because we have other data points that are in there. But there are always new issues that, that you know, rise to the political, in the news or the political forefront that you know, maybe the candidate, even if they've been in there a long time, has never voted on that or spoken to that issue. So we, we try to give every, well we do, we give every candidate the opportunity to answer a questionnaire and I, we put a lot of time into updating the questionnaire into figuring out what questions we're going to ask. and especially in a party primary when you're choosing between candidates in one part in most, in most states where you have a Republican or a Democratic primary, you're choosing between candidates that are mostly aligned. Right. They, they agree with that party platform. But it's really it's important to be able to distinguish between them because we got to pick. Right. We can't just not vote. So the questionnaire, I know you've said this, when I'm trying to tie break, if, if candidates are kind of similar, I will do the same. I will look at the questionnaire and compare the candidates answers on one particular question. Do you have a, a favorite question that you look for when you're doing that?
>> Rick Beggs: Well, I actually, if it comes down to two candidates and one hasn't answered the questionnaire. Yeah, that already leans me. If they're, if they're equals, let's say, yeah, conservative, who gives them money, who they give money to? I, I will then look at the questionnaire. I, I use that really as my tiebreaker.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yes.
>> Rick Beggs: Yeah, there are a lot of great questions in there. We're going to kind of walk through that over the next couple of weeks. But I think the reason I like the questionnaire, Debbie, is I will never get a chance to sit before a candidate and ask them questions. That I'd like to know answers to. So to me, this is really like, I'm getting to interview them.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: It is. And you know, we've talked before and drawn the analogy that, this is kind of, this is like an interview process because the candidate, each of the candidates are applying for a job, right, to represent, right. You and what's important to you. And you can look at, you know, endorsements, in a way are references on a job description. we're looking at background and we're looking at experience and their votes and, and campaign finance. And then we're doing an interview. and if you get a chance to interview a candidate, I would highly encourage you to go and do that. Maybe that's a candidate forum or they're going to speak at, you know, a fundraiser in somebody's house so that you can actually interact with them. That will give you a lot of data, about that candidate. And you know, looking at ivoterguides questionnaire can guide you into questions. You might ask them. maybe it's on issues, maybe it's on their values. I, you know, when it comes for me, the values questions are my tiebreakers. If they've answered the questionnaire because I'd, I'd rather vote for somebody who shares my biblical worldview. Worldview than, you know, just somebody who, who's a pro life person. I will say I vowed early in my Christian walk that I will never vote for a pro abortion candidate. So I definitely look at their position on that. But, yeah, so the questionnaire is. It's important and we spend a lot of time getting candidate contact information, so that we can send them an email, which is how we send the questionnaire to the candidates. It's all done via email. So we are looking for the best email address for each candidate. If you are ever running for office, I would encourage you to reach out to ivoterguide and make sure we have your good contact information. If you fill out your, if you run for office, please fill out all the paperwork that has your contact information because that's where we get it from. sometimes when we don't wait. Well, sometimes when a, candidate won't answer a questionnaire, it's because we, we didn't have a good email address for them. So we've tried, but, you know, if they left it blank on the candidate filing papers or it's just not in the public record, we don't know how to reach them. And I hate, we hate that. We hate for that to happen. So we do send them emails. We will also call them. So we're looking for phone numbers as well as email address. We look for both the candidates and their campaign manager or somebody on the staff. And then we send them text messages as reminders. We call them with reminders. We're trying our best to get, the candidates to answer the questionnaire. I will also throw out to you that if you live in a state and you ever interact with candidates, ask them in person, do you answer the I voter grid questionnaire? Because that's really, really where I'm going to look for your responses. So plant that seed if you ever encounter somebody who's going to run. because then that they're, they're kind of watching for it, right when we send that email to them or they'll be looking for it. We've already received a few candidates contacting us to let us know they're going to run in 2028. So I love that the awareness is there. but then also get, you know, a lot of times, incumbents or people who've held office will say, you know, my record speaks for, for, for itself. And they don't answer the questionnaire. And it, you know, we do have a lot of data. I would still love to see their answers to the questionnaire. But, you know, they have a lot of things on their plate, so they don't always do that.
>> Rick Beggs: Okay, so let's kind of go backwards before we go forwards. if you kind of look at all the things that we measure, where does this fit in that research pipeline? Because there's a lot of data points. How much weight does the questionnaire have compared to all the other things?
Our philosophy is to look more at actions than at rhetoric
Where does it fit?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, honestly, it, it fits down at the bottom because it's, we, we, our philosophy is to look more at actions than at rhetoric. Candidates will sometimes say something and then do something different. So we would rather look at what they've done. So that's why we put more importance on vote ratings and campaign finance data and endorsements. Then down at the bottom we would put the questionnaire. Now, we certainly want them to say positive things. And the further down the ballot you go, it might be the only thing we, we have would be maybe what they've got on their website or they're answering our questionnaire. So it is important, especially down ballot.
Candidates get an opportunity to quality control questionnaire before it goes public
>> Rick Beggs: Well, I know you've told this story before, but tell it again quickly because I think it's humorous and I know where you're going. And yet it's Real serious. about the candidate who filled out his questionnaire.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yeah, but he didn't like his rating. So the other thing you should know is.
>> Rick Beggs: Wait, wait, wait, wait. What do you mean he didn't like his rating? So he, you rated him what?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: probably leans conservative, I don't remember.
>> Rick Beggs: So he wanted a more conservative.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Everybody wants verified conservative. Right. The conservatives really want verified conservative. So he wasn't happy. But, but you should know that we do give the candidates an opportunity to quality control what we're, what we're publishing before it goes public. So we do. And again it takes contact information, but we're sending that to the candidates. They get it 24, 36 hours to look at that and let us know if there are any errors. And when this candidate at the time they got to see what their rating was when they were quality controlling it. It works a little bit differently now. But he came back because he didn't like his rating. And his response was, didn't I tell you everything you wanted to hear?
>> Rick Beggs: That to me is so hilarious. Well, because that's all our fears, it's everybody's fear that that's what they're doing. They're just filling this out and hopefully giving the answers that they hope.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, they certainly know what you want to hear and they have consultants telling them what it will take to get voted. So. But what you want is somebody who's going to say what they're going to do. But yeah, you know, are they, are they really doing that? So that was just a humorous anecdote of of what's going on in these candidates heads.
There are people on the campaign trail who will recommend candidates not answer survey
>> Rick Beggs: there are people on the campaign trail who are with their, their particular candidate and they will recommend not to fill out the survey. Tell me a little bit about what, what, what's behind that thinking.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, I will let me go into that by saying I'm not a political consultant. So what I've heard is that, you know, there's cases where they, they fear that their opponent will use their answer against them either in the primary or more likely in, in the general election if they live in a, maybe it's even a blue state or a purple state or you know, it's a really swing district. They don't want to come out as super pro life because they've got to appeal to independent voters to be able to get elected. So they don't want to go on record. in that instance, I'm trying to think there's, there's a state or two that we've Heard their whole GOP will tell candidates don't answer surveys. And we're like voters really want to hear what candidates have to say. And you know, we, we do our best to work directly with the candidates, but if the consultants are going to tell them not to do it, you know, pray into that. If you have a voice to speak out there, it, you know, they're, they're trying to be very careful in curating their public Persona. We have even encountered. And you shouldn't be surprised. They'll, when they decide they're going to run for office, they'll go in and clean up their social media and go back historically and remove anything that might be perceived in the way they don't want to be perceived. So it's really this, you know, they're, they're trying to, they are, they're marketing themselves so they're trying to curate that carefully. but it, it, it is, in a way it's a disservice to the voters because we're just trying to get to the truth.
>> Rick Beggs: So out of all the things that we measure, which really are voting record, financial record, voting record is really important because you can actually see what they've done.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Right.
>> Rick Beggs: in the past. Financial record I think is really important because you can follow the money as we would say.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: No, and it's both. They've. Right.
>> Rick Beggs: Yeah.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Who gave to them and who did they support.
>> Rick Beggs: That's right. Which I, I love and I, I'm not sure anybody else is aggregating all this information like we do at I voter guide, but I love that it's right there. Voting record, financial record, who gave to them, who did they give to? Endorsements. and sometimes a, ah, liberal group will endorse a conservative group because they, they fought. They fall into a situation where it's a bipartisan issue that they both
>> Debbie Wuthnow: follow real, a lot of pro business type of groups. well, yeah, we'll endorse in that way too.
>> Rick Beggs: So you got voting record, financial records, you have endorsements. Now we're looking at website and social media, which is which I love on our website because you just go down to the little emblem there, the icon and just tap it and it goes right to what, what their pages are and then the questionnaire responses.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Right.
>> Rick Beggs: And so it is on the lower end. But it's so funny how I personally, when I'm doing my ballot, that is sort of my collective. That's your order that I do that. And then when I get to that one if they're even, that's my tiebreaker. And then if they both did it, then I look at some of the social issues like you described, whether it's, the life issue, religious freedoms, what they think about the border. So all those things and all those questions for them to respond to.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: The other thing that I will factor in and, the new comparison feature makes this really easy to do is I might look at who's endorsed the candidates, because people who do endorsements do a really deep dive and typically will spend time with each of the candidates. And then they're basically saying, I checked them all out, this is who I choose as my favorite. So, other than, comparing specific candidate questionnaire answers, and I will look at who's endorsed them, and if I recognize or one of the names means something to me, that helps me make that call. And you can use the comparison feature kind of like you would on the Best Buy website. You pick computers, you just put a check, you check the box next to the candidates. You want to compare up a side by side. I think you can do up to four candidates in one race. And then it's got little tabs to, to choose to look at campaign finance or vote ratings or endorsements or their questionnaire. And seeing their questionnaire answers side by side is super helpful if they've both answered it or all of them or whatever.
>> Rick Beggs: So, we mail them to all the candidates in all the races that we cover.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yep.
>> Rick Beggs: And, and then how do you. Is there sort of a tickler system that you keep prodding them and prodding them that sooner or later they might, they might bring their questionnaire to the table? Well, yeah, I mean, there's a lot of follow up.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yeah, there's a lot of follow up. And it all feel feeds into this timeline.
So I guess let me give a brief timeline of how we create voter guides
So I guess let me give a brief timeline of how we create these voter guides. So we have to wait until candidate filing deadlines have passed so that we know who's filed. Right. We can't start before every candidate has their deadline. And so that's our starting point. And then we have to, you know, find the contact information for the candidates. We've got to verify that with the candidates, which we. That's an email process. And then we start building their profile and matching them to campaign finance data and searching for their vote ratings and, you know, just building all of that research that we have at the same time in a parallel thread, we're recruiting volunteer panelists for that state and training those panelists so that once We've collected all of this data and we've verified it internally. We release that basically to the panelists and start them off. But so for the questionnaire, the candidates get seven to 10 days to answer the questionnaire. You won't be surprised that they usually wait till the deadline. So, you know, that's, that's what, that's human nature. Yeah, it's procrastination. And we get lots of, can you give me another day? I'm not ready, I didn't finish or I didn't see it in time or, you know, whatever. But, but that's where we'll, we'll typically hear from the candidates and they get to answer the questionnaire. And after we've got all of that is when it goes to the panelists. Now the panelists, get another seven to 10 days to do the deep dive. Right. That's when they get to see all of the data we've gathered. They can read the questionnaire answers, see the scorecards, but that's also when they start looking at their websites and their social media and doing some Internet searching and really doing the deep dive of digging and analyzing and prayerfully, matching each candidate with an evaluation on our gas gauge scale. And so that happens after 10 days. And then we're quality controlling all the data. We're trying to land on a consensus rating for each candidate, making sure that meets our criteria. Candidates get the quality control and then it goes out to the public. So there's times where we can't get all that done between when candidate filing ends and when ballots get mailed or early voting begins. And there are cases where we, we will let you know, you know, we didn't have time to get it done yet. If you got a ballot in the mail or you're going to vote by mail, set that aside and we'll let you know. because we don't want to shortchange the research. Right. And, and, and it's difficult to, to balance that, making sure we have the time for the good research. Frequently endorsements come out really late. They can be helpful, but they don't come out very early. So it's all in that process. And we do email and call and text whatever the candidates to try to get them to answer that questionnaire.
>> Rick Beggs: And remind me again, do they get an opportunity then to see how we rate them, prior to it being published?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, in previous cycles we did. We've stopped doing that. They get to quality control all the data points we've had.
>> Rick Beggs: Okay.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: And quality control that, you know, they answered the questions the way they thought they did because we'll get them saying, I didn't mean to do that. I meant, I meant to say this, fixed this, or, you know, I didn't do that, or I didn't give money to them. And there are, you know, there's instances we've actually found errors in the Federal Election Commission wrote they reported. So, you know, we understand that's why we're trying to make sure it's accurate and truthful and give the candidate the opportunity to fix any errors. they no longer see the, the rating until it goes public. but they get to check all the data points that led into it.
I Voter Guide is looking for volunteers to help with its ratings
>> Rick Beggs: this might be a great place to do, a little commercial for
Welcome back to the Compass. Debbie is the president of I Voter Guide
>> Rick Beggs: Welcome to the Compass. Navigating the public square together with faith, truth and conviction. Well, we're glad you're with us today on the compass and, can't believe how fast the summer is going. We're now looking at August 1st.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yep, it's like a slide and we're on the downhill.
>> Rick Beggs: Say hey. Debbie is the president of iVoterGuide. She is my co host with me. And, we talk about everything and even things we probably shouldn't even talk about. Say hey, Debbie.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Say hey, everybody. So good to be back with you, Rick and Willie B. And all of you listening. We just love doing the show. And, thank you for coming back.
iVoterGuide sends out a questionnaire to candidates ahead of primaries
>> Rick Beggs: Well, we have spent, a lot of time talking about what we do at iVoterGuide, how we collect data, yada, yada, yada. But one thing we haven't talked about a lot and I think people would be interested in, and I think we have so much information here that we may take a couple of shows to do this. But really is the questionnaire what we send out to candidates. And, we've titled this show why We Ask. And it's appropriate because I think a lot of people are wondering what we ask and why we ask it. Yeah. And, you can actually go find that out. So let me kind of set this up for you, Debbie, as you kind of take control of the direction we head today on the Compass. Okay. I Voter Guide. If you go to iboaterguide.com and you pull up your ballot, and how you do that is by placing your [email protected] you'll see a little box that pops up, put your address in and your ballot, will show up. hopefully if you haven't voted yet in your primaries, that will pop up for you as well. And Debbie's going to discuss primaries that are live in the next week coming up. But when you pull that up, it shows you all the different areas we cover with data. And one of those little blue bubbles, that you can go down and look at is called the questionnaire. And so what is it, Debbie, that we are trying to do through this questionnaire?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, in all our data points, we're trying to paint a picture of this candidate and what's important to them and what they'll do if we, you know, trust them with power, you know, starting with the campaign finance and the scorecards and the endorsements. But you know, a lot of times people are brand new candidates and they've never held office, so they don't have a, they don't have a voting record or, or you know, it's a down ballot office and they, and they, there is not, just not a lot of data out there. So really the place that most voters really they look for would be a ah, candidate answering a question, a questionnaire. So it is, it is one of the very important data points that we include. Most voters really think it's more important than it really is because I would prefer to have more data on actions like through campaign finance or votes or what they've done. Yeah, but we hear from voters that are like, you know, the candidate didn't answer the questionnaire. How can you rate them? Well, because we have other data points that are in there. But there are always new issues that, that you know, rise to the political, in the news or the political forefront that you know, maybe the candidate, even if they've been in there a long time, has never voted on that or spoken to that issue. So we, we try to give every, well we do, we give every candidate the opportunity to answer a questionnaire and I, we put a lot of time into updating the questionnaire into figuring out what questions we're going to ask. and especially in a party primary when you're choosing between candidates in one part in most, in most states where you have a Republican or a Democratic primary, you're choosing between candidates that are mostly aligned. Right. They, they agree with that party platform. But it's really it's important to be able to distinguish between them because we got to pick. Right. We can't just not vote. So the questionnaire, I know you've said this, when I'm trying to tie break, if, if candidates are kind of similar, I will do the same. I will look at the questionnaire and compare the candidates answers on one particular question. Do you have a, a favorite question that you look for when you're doing that?
>> Rick Beggs: Well, I actually, if it comes down to two candidates and one hasn't answered the questionnaire. Yeah, that already leans me. If they're, if they're equals, let's say, yeah, conservative, who gives them money, who they give money to? I, I will then look at the questionnaire. I, I use that really as my tiebreaker.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yes.
>> Rick Beggs: Yeah, there are a lot of great questions in there. We're going to kind of walk through that over the next couple of weeks. But I think the reason I like the questionnaire, Debbie, is I will never get a chance to sit before a candidate and ask them questions. That I'd like to know answers to. So to me, this is really like, I'm getting to interview them.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: It is. And you know, we've talked before and drawn the analogy that, this is kind of, this is like an interview process because the candidate, each of the candidates are applying for a job, right, to represent, right. You and what's important to you. And you can look at, you know, endorsements, in a way are references on a job description. we're looking at background and we're looking at experience and their votes and, and campaign finance. And then we're doing an interview. and if you get a chance to interview a candidate, I would highly encourage you to go and do that. Maybe that's a candidate forum or they're going to speak at, you know, a fundraiser in somebody's house so that you can actually interact with them. That will give you a lot of data, about that candidate. And you know, looking at ivoterguides questionnaire can guide you into questions. You might ask them. maybe it's on issues, maybe it's on their values. I, you know, when it comes for me, the values questions are my tiebreakers. If they've answered the questionnaire because I'd, I'd rather vote for somebody who shares my biblical worldview. Worldview than, you know, just somebody who, who's a pro life person. I will say I vowed early in my Christian walk that I will never vote for a pro abortion candidate. So I definitely look at their position on that. But, yeah, so the questionnaire is. It's important and we spend a lot of time getting candidate contact information, so that we can send them an email, which is how we send the questionnaire to the candidates. It's all done via email. So we are looking for the best email address for each candidate. If you are ever running for office, I would encourage you to reach out to ivoterguide and make sure we have your good contact information. If you fill out your, if you run for office, please fill out all the paperwork that has your contact information because that's where we get it from. sometimes when we don't wait. Well, sometimes when a, candidate won't answer a questionnaire, it's because we, we didn't have a good email address for them. So we've tried, but, you know, if they left it blank on the candidate filing papers or it's just not in the public record, we don't know how to reach them. And I hate, we hate that. We hate for that to happen. So we do send them emails. We will also call them. So we're looking for phone numbers as well as email address. We look for both the candidates and their campaign manager or somebody on the staff. And then we send them text messages as reminders. We call them with reminders. We're trying our best to get, the candidates to answer the questionnaire. I will also throw out to you that if you live in a state and you ever interact with candidates, ask them in person, do you answer the I voter grid questionnaire? Because that's really, really where I'm going to look for your responses. So plant that seed if you ever encounter somebody who's going to run. because then that they're, they're kind of watching for it, right when we send that email to them or they'll be looking for it. We've already received a few candidates contacting us to let us know they're going to run in 2028. So I love that the awareness is there. but then also get, you know, a lot of times, incumbents or people who've held office will say, you know, my record speaks for, for, for itself. And they don't answer the questionnaire. And it, you know, we do have a lot of data. I would still love to see their answers to the questionnaire. But, you know, they have a lot of things on their plate, so they don't always do that.
>> Rick Beggs: Okay, so let's kind of go backwards before we go forwards. if you kind of look at all the things that we measure, where does this fit in that research pipeline? Because there's a lot of data points. How much weight does the questionnaire have compared to all the other things?
Our philosophy is to look more at actions than at rhetoric
Where does it fit?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, honestly, it, it fits down at the bottom because it's, we, we, our philosophy is to look more at actions than at rhetoric. Candidates will sometimes say something and then do something different. So we would rather look at what they've done. So that's why we put more importance on vote ratings and campaign finance data and endorsements. Then down at the bottom we would put the questionnaire. Now, we certainly want them to say positive things. And the further down the ballot you go, it might be the only thing we, we have would be maybe what they've got on their website or they're answering our questionnaire. So it is important, especially down ballot.
Candidates get an opportunity to quality control questionnaire before it goes public
>> Rick Beggs: Well, I know you've told this story before, but tell it again quickly because I think it's humorous and I know where you're going. And yet it's Real serious. about the candidate who filled out his questionnaire.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yeah, but he didn't like his rating. So the other thing you should know is.
>> Rick Beggs: Wait, wait, wait, wait. What do you mean he didn't like his rating? So he, you rated him what?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: probably leans conservative, I don't remember.
>> Rick Beggs: So he wanted a more conservative.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Everybody wants verified conservative. Right. The conservatives really want verified conservative. So he wasn't happy. But, but you should know that we do give the candidates an opportunity to quality control what we're, what we're publishing before it goes public. So we do. And again it takes contact information, but we're sending that to the candidates. They get it 24, 36 hours to look at that and let us know if there are any errors. And when this candidate at the time they got to see what their rating was when they were quality controlling it. It works a little bit differently now. But he came back because he didn't like his rating. And his response was, didn't I tell you everything you wanted to hear?
>> Rick Beggs: That to me is so hilarious. Well, because that's all our fears, it's everybody's fear that that's what they're doing. They're just filling this out and hopefully giving the answers that they hope.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, they certainly know what you want to hear and they have consultants telling them what it will take to get voted. So. But what you want is somebody who's going to say what they're going to do. But yeah, you know, are they, are they really doing that? So that was just a humorous anecdote of of what's going on in these candidates heads.
There are people on the campaign trail who will recommend candidates not answer survey
>> Rick Beggs: there are people on the campaign trail who are with their, their particular candidate and they will recommend not to fill out the survey. Tell me a little bit about what, what, what's behind that thinking.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, I will let me go into that by saying I'm not a political consultant. So what I've heard is that, you know, there's cases where they, they fear that their opponent will use their answer against them either in the primary or more likely in, in the general election if they live in a, maybe it's even a blue state or a purple state or you know, it's a really swing district. They don't want to come out as super pro life because they've got to appeal to independent voters to be able to get elected. So they don't want to go on record. in that instance, I'm trying to think there's, there's a state or two that we've Heard their whole GOP will tell candidates don't answer surveys. And we're like voters really want to hear what candidates have to say. And you know, we, we do our best to work directly with the candidates, but if the consultants are going to tell them not to do it, you know, pray into that. If you have a voice to speak out there, it, you know, they're, they're trying to be very careful in curating their public Persona. We have even encountered. And you shouldn't be surprised. They'll, when they decide they're going to run for office, they'll go in and clean up their social media and go back historically and remove anything that might be perceived in the way they don't want to be perceived. So it's really this, you know, they're, they're trying to, they are, they're marketing themselves so they're trying to curate that carefully. but it, it, it is, in a way it's a disservice to the voters because we're just trying to get to the truth.
>> Rick Beggs: So out of all the things that we measure, which really are voting record, financial record, voting record is really important because you can actually see what they've done.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Right.
>> Rick Beggs: in the past. Financial record I think is really important because you can follow the money as we would say.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: No, and it's both. They've. Right.
>> Rick Beggs: Yeah.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Who gave to them and who did they support.
>> Rick Beggs: That's right. Which I, I love and I, I'm not sure anybody else is aggregating all this information like we do at
Welcome back to the Compass. Debbie is the president of I Voter Guide
>> Rick Beggs: Welcome to the Compass. Navigating the public square together with faith, truth and conviction. Well, we're glad you're with us today on the compass and, can't believe how fast the summer is going. We're now looking at August 1st.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yep, it's like a slide and we're on the downhill.
>> Rick Beggs: Say hey. Debbie is the president of iVoterGuide. She is my co host with me. And, we talk about everything and even things we probably shouldn't even talk about. Say hey, Debbie.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Say hey, everybody. So good to be back with you, Rick and Willie B. And all of you listening. We just love doing the show. And, thank you for coming back.
iVoterGuide sends out a questionnaire to candidates ahead of primaries
>> Rick Beggs: Well, we have spent, a lot of time talking about what we do at iVoterGuide, how we collect data, yada, yada, yada. But one thing we haven't talked about a lot and I think people would be interested in, and I think we have so much information here that we may take a couple of shows to do this. But really is the questionnaire what we send out to candidates. And, we've titled this show why We Ask. And it's appropriate because I think a lot of people are wondering what we ask and why we ask it. Yeah. And, you can actually go find that out. So let me kind of set this up for you, Debbie, as you kind of take control of the direction we head today on the Compass. Okay. iVoterGuide. If you go to ivoterguide.com and you pull up your ballot, and how you do that is by placing your [email protected] you'll see a little box that pops up, put your address in and your ballot, will show up. hopefully if you haven't voted yet in your primaries, that will pop up for you as well. And Debbie's going to discuss primaries that are live in the next week coming up. But when you pull that up, it shows you all the different areas we cover with data. And one of those little blue bubbles, that you can go down and look at is called the questionnaire. And so what is it, Debbie, that we are trying to do through this questionnaire?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, in all our data points, we're trying to paint a picture of this candidate and what's important to them and what they'll do if we, you know, trust them with power, you know, starting with the campaign finance and the scorecards and the endorsements. But you know, a lot of times people are brand new candidates and they've never held office, so they don't have a, they don't have a voting record or, or you know, it's a down ballot office and they, and they, there is not, just not a lot of data out there. So really the place that most voters really they look for would be a ah, candidate answering a question, a questionnaire. So it is, it is one of the very important data points that we include. Most voters really think it's more important than it really is because I would prefer to have more data on actions like through campaign finance or votes or what they've done. Yeah, but we hear from voters that are like, you know, the candidate didn't answer the questionnaire. How can you rate them? Well, because we have other data points that are in there. But there are always new issues that, that you know, rise to the political, in the news or the political forefront that you know, maybe the candidate, even if they've been in there a long time, has never voted on that or spoken to that issue. So we, we try to give every, well we do, we give every candidate the opportunity to answer a questionnaire and I, we put a lot of time into updating the questionnaire into figuring out what questions we're going to ask. and especially in a party primary when you're choosing between candidates in one part in most, in most states where you have a Republican or a Democratic primary, you're choosing between candidates that are mostly aligned. Right. They, they agree with that party platform. But it's really it's important to be able to distinguish between them because we got to pick. Right. We can't just not vote. So the questionnaire, I know you've said this, when I'm trying to tie break, if, if candidates are kind of similar, I will do the same. I will look at the questionnaire and compare the candidates answers on one particular question. Do you have a, a favorite question that you look for when you're doing that?
>> Rick Beggs: Well, I actually, if it comes down to two candidates and one hasn't answered the questionnaire. Yeah, that already leans me. If they're, if they're equals, let's say, yeah, conservative, who gives them money, who they give money to? I, I will then look at the questionnaire. I, I use that really as my tiebreaker.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yes.
>> Rick Beggs: Yeah, there are a lot of great questions in there. We're going to kind of walk through that over the next couple of weeks. But I think the reason I like the questionnaire, Debbie, is I will never get a chance to sit before a candidate and ask them questions. That I'd like to know answers to. So to me, this is really like, I'm getting to interview them.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: It is. And you know, we've talked before and drawn the analogy that, this is kind of, this is like an interview process because the candidate, each of the candidates are applying for a job, right, to represent, right. You and what's important to you. And you can look at, you know, endorsements, in a way are references on a job description. we're looking at background and we're looking at experience and their votes and, and campaign finance. And then we're doing an interview. and if you get a chance to interview a candidate, I would highly encourage you to go and do that. Maybe that's a candidate forum or they're going to speak at, you know, a fundraiser in somebody's house so that you can actually interact with them. That will give you a lot of data, about that candidate. And you know, looking at iVoterGuides questionnaire can guide you into questions. You might ask them. maybe it's on issues, maybe it's on their values. I, you know, when it comes for me, the values questions are my tiebreakers. If they've answered the questionnaire because I'd, I'd rather vote for somebody who shares my biblical worldview. Worldview than, you know, just somebody who, who's a pro life person. I will say I vowed early in my Christian walk that I will never vote for a pro abortion candidate. So I definitely look at their position on that. But, yeah, so the questionnaire is. It's important and we spend a lot of time getting candidate contact information, so that we can send them an email, which is how we send the questionnaire to the candidates. It's all done via email. So we are looking for the best email address for each candidate. If you are ever running for office, I would encourage you to reach out to iVoterGuide and make sure we have your good contact information. If you fill out your, if you run for office, please fill out all the paperwork that has your contact information because that's where we get it from. sometimes when we don't wait. Well, sometimes when a, candidate won't answer a questionnaire, it's because we, we didn't have a good email address for them. So we've tried, but, you know, if they left it blank on the candidate filing papers or it's just not in the public record, we don't know how to reach them. And I hate, we hate that. We hate for that to happen. So we do send them emails. We will also call them. So we're looking for phone numbers as well as email address. We look for both the candidates and their campaign manager or somebody on the staff. And then we send them text messages as reminders. We call them with reminders. We're trying our best to get, the candidates to answer the questionnaire. I will also throw out to you that if you live in a state and you ever interact with candidates, ask them in person, do you answer the I voter grid questionnaire? Because that's really, really where I'm going to look for your responses. So plant that seed if you ever encounter somebody who's going to run. because then that they're, they're kind of watching for it, right when we send that email to them or they'll be looking for it. We've already received a few candidates contacting us to let us know they're going to run in 2028. So I love that the awareness is there. but then also get, you know, a lot of times, incumbents or people who've held office will say, you know, my record speaks for, for, for itself. And they don't answer the questionnaire. And it, you know, we do have a lot of data. I would still love to see their answers to the questionnaire. But, you know, they have a lot of things on their plate, so they don't always do that.
>> Rick Beggs: Okay, so let's kind of go backwards before we go forwards. if you kind of look at all the things that we measure, where does this fit in that research pipeline? Because there's a lot of data points. How much weight does the questionnaire have compared to all the other things?
Our philosophy is to look more at actions than at rhetoric
Where does it fit?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, honestly, it, it fits down at the bottom because it's, we, we, our philosophy is to look more at actions than at rhetoric. Candidates will sometimes say something and then do something different. So we would rather look at what they've done. So that's why we put more importance on vote ratings and campaign finance data and endorsements. Then down at the bottom we would put the questionnaire. Now, we certainly want them to say positive things. And the further down the ballot you go, it might be the only thing we, we have would be maybe what they've got on their website or they're answering our questionnaire. So it is important, especially down ballot.
Candidates get an opportunity to quality control questionnaire before it goes public
>> Rick Beggs: Well, I know you've told this story before, but tell it again quickly because I think it's humorous and I know where you're going. And yet it's Real serious. about the candidate who filled out his questionnaire.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yeah, but he didn't like his rating. So the other thing you should know is.
>> Rick Beggs: Wait, wait, wait, wait. What do you mean he didn't like his rating? So he, you rated him what?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: probably leans conservative, I don't remember.
>> Rick Beggs: So he wanted a more conservative.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Everybody wants verified conservative. Right. The conservatives really want verified conservative. So he wasn't happy. But, but you should know that we do give the candidates an opportunity to quality control what we're, what we're publishing before it goes public. So we do. And again it takes contact information, but we're sending that to the candidates. They get it 24, 36 hours to look at that and let us know if there are any errors. And when this candidate at the time they got to see what their rating was when they were quality controlling it. It works a little bit differently now. But he came back because he didn't like his rating. And his response was, didn't I tell you everything you wanted to hear?
>> Rick Beggs: That to me is so hilarious. Well, because that's all our fears, it's everybody's fear that that's what they're doing. They're just filling this out and hopefully giving the answers that they hope.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, they certainly know what you want to hear and they have consultants telling them what it will take to get voted. So. But what you want is somebody who's going to say what they're going to do. But yeah, you know, are they, are they really doing that? So that was just a humorous anecdote of of what's going on in these candidates heads.
There are people on the campaign trail who will recommend candidates not answer survey
>> Rick Beggs: there are people on the campaign trail who are with their, their particular candidate and they will recommend not to fill out the survey. Tell me a little bit about what, what, what's behind that thinking.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, I will let me go into that by saying I'm not a political consultant. So what I've heard is that, you know, there's cases where they, they fear that their opponent will use their answer against them either in the primary or more likely in, in the general election if they live in a, maybe it's even a blue state or a purple state or you know, it's a really swing district. They don't want to come out as super pro life because they've got to appeal to independent voters to be able to get elected. So they don't want to go on record. in that instance, I'm trying to think there's, there's a state or two that we've Heard their whole GOP will tell candidates don't answer surveys. And we're like voters really want to hear what candidates have to say. And you know, we, we do our best to work directly with the candidates, but if the consultants are going to tell them not to do it, you know, pray into that. If you have a voice to speak out there, it, you know, they're, they're trying to be very careful in curating their public Persona. We have even encountered. And you shouldn't be surprised. They'll, when they decide they're going to run for office, they'll go in and clean up their social media and go back historically and remove anything that might be perceived in the way they don't want to be perceived. So it's really this, you know, they're, they're trying to, they are, they're marketing themselves so they're trying to curate that carefully. but it, it, it is, in a way it's a disservice to the voters because we're just trying to get to the truth.
>> Rick Beggs: So out of all the things that we measure, which really are voting record, financial record, voting record is really important because you can actually see what they've done.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Right.
>> Rick Beggs: in the past. Financial record I think is really important because you can follow the money as we would say.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: No, and it's both. They've. Right.
>> Rick Beggs: Yeah.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Who gave to them and who did they support.
>> Rick Beggs: That's right. Which I, I love and I, I'm not sure anybody else is aggregating all this information like we do at iVoterGuide, but I love that it's right there. Voting record, financial record, who gave to them, who did they give to? Endorsements. and sometimes a, ah, liberal group will endorse a conservative group because they, they fought. They fall into a situation where it's a bipartisan issue that they both
>> Debbie Wuthnow: follow real, a lot of pro business type of groups. well, yeah, we'll endorse in that way too.
>> Rick Beggs: So you got voting record, financial records, you have endorsements. Now we're looking at website and social media, which is which I love on our website because you just go down to the little emblem there, the icon and just tap it and it goes right to what, what their pages are and then the questionnaire responses.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Right.
>> Rick Beggs: And so it is on the lower end. But it's so funny how I personally, when I'm doing my ballot, that is sort of my collective. That's your order that I do that. And then when I get to that one if they're even, that's my tiebreaker. And then if they both did it, then I look at some of the social issues like you described, whether it's, the life issue, religious freedoms, what they think about the border. So all those things and all those questions for them to respond to.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: The other thing that I will factor in and, the new comparison feature makes this really easy to do is I might look at who's endorsed the candidates, because people who do endorsements do a really deep dive and typically will spend time with each of the candidates. And then they're basically saying, I checked them all out, this is who I choose as my favorite. So, other than, comparing specific candidate questionnaire answers, and I will look at who's endorsed them, and if I recognize or one of the names means something to me, that helps me make that call. And you can use the comparison feature kind of like you would on the Best Buy website. You pick computers, you just put a check, you check the box next to the candidates. You want to compare up a side by side. I think you can do up to four candidates in one race. And then it's got little tabs to, to choose to look at campaign finance or vote ratings or endorsements or their questionnaire. And seeing their questionnaire answers side by side is super helpful if they've both answered it or all of them or whatever.
>> Rick Beggs: So, we mail them to all the candidates in all the races that we cover.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yep.
>> Rick Beggs: And, and then how do you. Is there sort of a tickler system that you keep prodding them and prodding them that sooner or later they might, they might bring their questionnaire to the table? Well, yeah, I mean, there's a lot of follow up.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yeah, there's a lot of follow up. And it all feel feeds into this timeline.
So I guess let me give a brief timeline of how we create voter guides
So I guess let me give a brief timeline of how we create these voter guides. So we have to wait until candidate filing deadlines have passed so that we know who's filed. Right. We can't start before every candidate has their deadline. And so that's our starting point. And then we have to, you know, find the contact information for the candidates. We've got to verify that with the candidates, which we. That's an email process. And then we start building their profile and matching them to campaign finance data and searching for their vote ratings and, you know, just building all of that research that we have at the same time in a parallel thread, we're recruiting volunteer panelists for that state and training those panelists so that once We've collected all of this data and we've verified it internally. We release that basically to the panelists and start them off. But so for the questionnaire, the candidates get seven to 10 days to answer the questionnaire. You won't be surprised that they usually wait till the deadline. So, you know, that's, that's what, that's human nature. Yeah, it's procrastination. And we get lots of, can you give me another day? I'm not ready, I didn't finish or I didn't see it in time or, you know, whatever. But, but that's where we'll, we'll typically hear from the candidates and they get to answer the questionnaire. And after we've got all of that is when it goes to the panelists. Now the panelists, get another seven to 10 days to do the deep dive. Right. That's when they get to see all of the data we've gathered. They can read the questionnaire answers, see the scorecards, but that's also when they start looking at their websites and their social media and doing some Internet searching and really doing the deep dive of digging and analyzing and prayerfully, matching each candidate with an evaluation on our gas gauge scale. And so that happens after 10 days. And then we're quality controlling all the data. We're trying to land on a consensus rating for each candidate, making sure that meets our criteria. Candidates get the quality control and then it goes out to the public. So there's times where we can't get all that done between when candidate filing ends and when ballots get mailed or early voting begins. And there are cases where we, we will let you know, you know, we didn't have time to get it done yet. If you got a ballot in the mail or you're going to vote by mail, set that aside and we'll let you know. because we don't want to shortchange the research. Right. And, and, and it's difficult to, to balance that, making sure we have the time for the good research. Frequently endorsements come out really late. They can be helpful, but they don't come out very early. So it's all in that process. And we do email and call and text whatever the candidates to try to get them to answer that questionnaire.
>> Rick Beggs: And remind me again, do they get an opportunity then to see how we rate them, prior to it being published?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, in previous cycles we did. We've stopped doing that. They get to quality control all the data points we've had.
>> Rick Beggs: Okay.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: And quality control that, you know, they answered the questions the way they thought they did because we'll get them saying, I didn't mean to do that. I meant, I meant to say this, fixed this, or, you know, I didn't do that, or I didn't give money to them. And there are, you know, there's instances we've actually found errors in the Federal Election Commission wrote they reported. So, you know, we understand that's why we're trying to make sure it's accurate and truthful and give the candidate the opportunity to fix any errors. they no longer see the, the rating until it goes public. but they get to check all the data points that led into it.
iVoterGuide is looking for volunteers to help with its ratings
>> Rick Beggs: this might be a great place to do, a little commercial for iVoterGuide in regards to volunteers, panelists, anybody who might. Because this is how we aggregate this information and bring it all together to make decisions. Talk a little bit about that. what we need actually at iVoterGuide for people who, they would love to do the digging, they would love to help, make decisions. Yeah.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, there are some of you out there, and I know you're out there, who, you're the person your friends go to and say, okay, everybody, who do I vote for? We all want to have that person. If you are that person or have that inclination to do the deep dive, we would love to have you, help I Voter Guide in the digging and in the evaluation. And we call that being a volunteer panelist. If you go to the ivoterguide.com website and in the top menu, click on Take Action, there is a, little tile that says volunteer as a panelist. And we would love for you to apply. So when you apply, we actually vet our panelists kind of similar to how we vet candidates. You will get to answer a questionnaire. Now, this will look very similar to what candidates get to see when they answer our questionnaire. Questions are going to be different, obviously, but we're looking for basic high level value positions to make sure we align biblical values. We're looking for worldview questions. So there will be some values questions on there. And it's also going to ask you for your references. And I will tell you we do call those references. And we ask, you know, can this person, you know, are they conservative? Can they be objective in looking at candidates? because that really is one of our challenges is to not be emotional in our ratings, but base it upon the data. So we ideally want one of those references to be your pastor because we'd like you know, some spiritual depth in there. And, would love. We're needing panelists right now for the general election, specifically. I know in Colorado and Utah, Wisconsin, Illinois. we need you to go to our website and apply if you're interested. Not everybody's going to get accepted, but would love for you to throw your hat in the ring. Maybe you know somebody who would be a good panelist. Maybe you have that friend who tells you, you know, gives you the advice and encourage them to check it out. it's a great service. You get to see the back end of ivoterguide and what goes in to those ratings. and honestly, what we've heard from voters or from panelists is that they feel like it makes them a more intelligent voter so that when they have a race on their ballot that I voter Guide is not covering, they know where to go to find the information. So it helps them to be a deeper diver and what to look for in their local candidates. So it makes you a m more intelligent voter.
>> Rick Beggs: It sounds, it sounds more intense than a lot of job interviews I had earlier in my life. I mean, I love that because it should be that way. I mean, we're looking for people who are going to be truth tellers because that's really what we anchor ourselves in, is just gathering the information. We'll let it tell the truth and then, it help you vote wisely.
You have to apply, you have to answer the leadership survey
Now there are about roughly, I would say 30 plus questions on this questionnaire that they have to answer.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: email m the leadership survey for the panelists or the candidates?
>> Rick Beggs: No, no, no. This is for the candidates, the leadership survey. I didn't give you a good transition there.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Context. Context is important. I would say the leadership survey is probably about 20 questions. So that doesn't take you a ton of time. and when you click on that page about applying, it'll give you some estimates on how much time would be involved. So you have to apply, you have to answer the questionnaire. we do have training, it is self paced online training to kind of learn what our criteria are for grading and how we look at all the data. So even that in itself is educational. And then once you get assigned your panel, which will be about 30 to 35 candidates, you will have the seven to 10 days to look at them. So, you know, we estimate it's about 20 hours over two to three weeks that it takes to be a panelist for I voter Guide. We have people who love it so much they will help us in every election in their state. And Sometimes they'll be like, you need somebody in Utah. I'll help you in Utah. Because, you know, the most of the information is available online. So, you know, a lot of retired people love to help us with this digging and we need almost a thousand of them every election cycle. So would encourage you to check it out if this checks your box or somebody that, you know, encourage them to apply.
We have 30 plus questions for candidates to answer on our questionnaire
>> Rick Beggs: Okay, now let me transition back to the questionnaire for the candidates. There's 30 plus questions.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yeah.
>> Rick Beggs: That they have to answer to and they're all over the place. I mean we mentioned a couple of them. Life, national security, border control, health care, Values. Health care, religious liberty. Yep. Yeah. So all those things. So we're trying to really cover it. And it's not the same every year, is it? For every. No, every level of office, it's, we
>> Debbie Wuthnow: update it once every election cycle. So we updated this questionnaire, almost a year ago. We were updating it because we had to start sending it in December for the, the primaries earlier this year. and we do it, it's a different questionnaire for every election, office. So we have federal questionnaires, state questionnaires, judicial questionnaires, education, school, board, it's all over there. And, and we've, we prayerfully spend a lot of time to get just the right questions to ask each candidate.
The primaries are getting ready to wrap. Elections are ramping back up
>> Rick Beggs: Well, speaking of that, you hear that sound? And that's exactly what we're going to talk about is primaries. So what's coming up this coming week, Debbie?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, primary circuit, you know, I've been talking about. We're in a lull in the hurricane. We in the eye of the hurricane. Well, we are back in the hurricane. Elections are ramping back up. The primaries are getting ready to wrap. So on this coming Tuesday, August 4th, it's a big day. Kansas, your election is finally here. So check out your personalized I voter guide ballot and get to the polls. Depends on locality. They might open at 6 or 7 o'. Clock. Check that [email protected] We've got a link for you. And then they will close at 7pm In Michigan, your election is also on Tuesday the 4th. And your polls are open from 7am to 8pm Missouri, my home state, time to vote. So get your [email protected] polls open at 6 and close at 7. Virginia, finally, your election day is here. Polls are open from six to seven. You guys had early voting for like
>> Rick Beggs: you said, Virginia for weeks.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: I know. And then Washington. You should have gotten your ballots by mail, and they do need to be returned by Tuesday because that is election day at 7pm and last is Tennessee. Your election will be on Thursday, August 6th. 6th. And your polls will be open from 7am to 8pm we still have states that are early voting. So Vermont, you have early voting. Your election will be on the 11th. Wyoming, your election will be on the 18th, but you can early vote now. Hawaii, early voting is underway. Your election will be on Saturday in just one week, on August 8th. In Wisconsin, early voting is underway. Your election will be on the 11th. Same for Minnesota. Connecticut, your early voting begins on the 3rd of August for your election on the 11th. And in Alaska, early voting begins on the 3rd. Year elections on the 17th.
>> Rick Beggs: Welcome, Alaska. We got it.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yep.
>> Rick Beggs: the next couple of weeks we're going to talk about the questionnaire and, and why judges don't get the same one as school board candidates. so we'll talk about that. coming up. You've been listening to iBoaterGuide.com's radio show, the Compass. We're so glad you're here. if you want to listen to other episodes that we've had, you can go to the app, the AFR app, download it if you don't have it, and then you can go look at other shows that afr, American Family Radio offers. Debbie, if they want to write to us, where do they write?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Email compassivotorguide.com with any questions and or a topic for a future episode. Rick and I'll talk about it.
>> Rick Beggs: And Jesus is always our true north on the Compass.
, but I love that it's right there. Voting record, financial record, who gave to them, who did they give to? Endorsements. and sometimes a, ah, liberal group will endorse a conservative group because they, they fought. They fall into a situation where it's a bipartisan issue that they both
>> Debbie Wuthnow: follow real, a lot of pro business type of groups. well, yeah, we'll endorse in that way too.
>> Rick Beggs: So you got voting record, financial records, you have endorsements. Now we're looking at website and social media, which is which I love on our website because you just go down to the little emblem there, the icon and just tap it and it goes right to what, what their pages are and then the questionnaire responses.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Right.
>> Rick Beggs: And so it is on the lower end. But it's so funny how I personally, when I'm doing my ballot, that is sort of my collective. That's your order that I do that. And then when I get to that one if they're even, that's my tiebreaker. And then if they both did it, then I look at some of the social issues like you described, whether it's, the life issue, religious freedoms, what they think about the border. So all those things and all those questions for them to respond to.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: The other thing that I will factor in and, the new comparison feature makes this really easy to do is I might look at who's endorsed the candidates, because people who do endorsements do a really deep dive and typically will spend time with each of the candidates. And then they're basically saying, I checked them all out, this is who I choose as my favorite. So, other than, comparing specific candidate questionnaire answers, and I will look at who's endorsed them, and if I recognize or one of the names means something to me, that helps me make that call. And you can use the comparison feature kind of like you would on the Best Buy website. You pick computers, you just put a check, you check the box next to the candidates. You want to compare up a side by side. I think you can do up to four candidates in one race. And then it's got little tabs to, to choose to look at campaign finance or vote ratings or endorsements or their questionnaire. And seeing their questionnaire answers side by side is super helpful if they've both answered it or all of them or whatever.
>> Rick Beggs: So, we mail them to all the candidates in all the races that we cover.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yep.
>> Rick Beggs: And, and then how do you. Is there sort of a tickler system that you keep prodding them and prodding them that sooner or later they might, they might bring their questionnaire to the table? Well, yeah, I mean, there's a lot of follow up.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yeah, there's a lot of follow up. And it all feel feeds into this timeline.
So I guess let me give a brief timeline of how we create voter guides
So I guess let me give a brief timeline of how we create these voter guides. So we have to wait until candidate filing deadlines have passed so that we know who's filed. Right. We can't start before every candidate has their deadline. And so that's our starting point. And then we have to, you know, find the contact information for the candidates. We've got to verify that with the candidates, which we. That's an email process. And then we start building their profile and matching them to campaign finance data and searching for their vote ratings and, you know, just building all of that research that we have at the same time in a parallel thread, we're recruiting volunteer panelists for that state and training those panelists so that once We've collected all of this data and we've verified it internally. We release that basically to the panelists and start them off. But so for the questionnaire, the candidates get seven to 10 days to answer the questionnaire. You won't be surprised that they usually wait till the deadline. So, you know, that's, that's what, that's human nature. Yeah, it's procrastination. And we get lots of, can you give me another day? I'm not ready, I didn't finish or I didn't see it in time or, you know, whatever. But, but that's where we'll, we'll typically hear from the candidates and they get to answer the questionnaire. And after we've got all of that is when it goes to the panelists. Now the panelists, get another seven to 10 days to do the deep dive. Right. That's when they get to see all of the data we've gathered. They can read the questionnaire answers, see the scorecards, but that's also when they start looking at their websites and their social media and doing some Internet searching and really doing the deep dive of digging and analyzing and prayerfully, matching each candidate with an evaluation on our gas gauge scale. And so that happens after 10 days. And then we're quality controlling all the data. We're trying to land on a consensus rating for each candidate, making sure that meets our criteria. Candidates get the quality control and then it goes out to the public. So there's times where we can't get all that done between when candidate filing ends and when ballots get mailed or early voting begins. And there are cases where we, we will let you know, you know, we didn't have time to get it done yet. If you got a ballot in the mail or you're going to vote by mail, set that aside and we'll let you know. because we don't want to shortchange the research. Right. And, and, and it's difficult to, to balance that, making sure we have the time for the good research. Frequently endorsements come out really late. They can be helpful, but they don't come out very early. So it's all in that process. And we do email and call and text whatever the candidates to try to get them to answer that questionnaire.
>> Rick Beggs: And remind me again, do they get an opportunity then to see how we rate them, prior to it being published?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, in previous cycles we did. We've stopped doing that. They get to quality control all the data points we've had.
>> Rick Beggs: Okay.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: And quality control that, you know, they answered the questions the way they thought they did because we'll get them saying, I didn't mean to do that. I meant, I meant to say this, fixed this, or, you know, I didn't do that, or I didn't give money to them. And there are, you know, there's instances we've actually found errors in the Federal Election Commission wrote they reported. So, you know, we understand that's why we're trying to make sure it's accurate and truthful and give the candidate the opportunity to fix any errors. they no longer see the, the rating until it goes public. but they get to check all the data points that led into it.
I Voter Guide is looking for volunteers to help with its ratings
>> Rick Beggs: this might be a great place to do, a little commercial for iVoterGuide in regards to volunteers, panelists, anybody who might. Because this is how we aggregate this information and bring it all together to make decisions. Talk a little bit about that. what we need actually at I Voter Guide for people who, they would love to do the digging, they would love to help, make decisions. Yeah.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, there are some of you out there, and I know you're out there, who, you're the person your friends go to and say, okay, everybody, who do I vote for? We all want to have that person. If you are that person or have that inclination to do the deep dive, we would love to have you, help I Voter Guide in the digging and in the evaluation. And we call that being a volunteer panelist. If you go to the ivoterguide.com website and in the top menu, click on Take Action, there is a, little tile that says volunteer as a panelist. And we would love for you to apply. So when you apply, we actually vet our panelists kind of similar to how we vet candidates. You will get to answer a questionnaire. Now, this will look very similar to what candidates get to see when they answer our questionnaire. Questions are going to be different, obviously, but we're looking for basic high level value positions to make sure we align biblical values. We're looking for worldview questions. So there will be some values questions on there. And it's also going to ask you for your references. And I will tell you we do call those references. And we ask, you know, can this person, you know, are they conservative? Can they be objective in looking at candidates? because that really is one of our challenges is to not be emotional in our ratings, but base it upon the data. So we ideally want one of those references to be your pastor because we'd like you know, some spiritual depth in there. And, would love. We're needing panelists right now for the general election, specifically. I know in Colorado and Utah, Wisconsin, Illinois. we need you to go to our website and apply if you're interested. Not everybody's going to get accepted, but would love for you to throw your hat in the ring. Maybe you know somebody who would be a good panelist. Maybe you have that friend who tells you, you know, gives you the advice and encourage them to check it out. it's a great service. You get to see the back end of ivoterguide and what goes in to those ratings. and honestly, what we've heard from voters or from panelists is that they feel like it makes them a more intelligent voter so that when they have a race on their ballot that I voter Guide is not covering, they know where to go to find the information. So it helps them to be a deeper diver and what to look for in their local candidates. So it makes you a m more intelligent voter.
>> Rick Beggs: It sounds, it sounds more intense than a lot of job interviews I had earlier in my life. I mean, I love that because it should be that way. I mean, we're looking for people who are going to be truth tellers because that's really what we anchor ourselves in, is just gathering the information. We'll let it tell the truth and then, it help you vote wisely.
You have to apply, you have to answer the leadership survey
Now there are about roughly, I would say 30 plus questions on this questionnaire that they have to answer.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: email m the leadership survey for the panelists or the candidates?
>> Rick Beggs: No, no, no. This is for the candidates, the leadership survey. I didn't give you a good transition there.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Context. Context is important. I would say the leadership survey is probably about 20 questions. So that doesn't take you a ton of time. and when you click on that page about applying, it'll give you some estimates on how much time would be involved. So you have to apply, you have to answer the questionnaire. we do have training, it is self paced online training to kind of learn what our criteria are for grading and how we look at all the data. So even that in itself is educational. And then once you get assigned your panel, which will be about 30 to 35 candidates, you will have the seven to 10 days to look at them. So, you know, we estimate it's about 20 hours over two to three weeks that it takes to be a panelist for I voter Guide. We have people who love it so much they will help us in every election in their state. And Sometimes they'll be like, you need somebody in Utah. I'll help you in Utah. Because, you know, the most of the information is available online. So, you know, a lot of retired people love to help us with this digging and we need almost a thousand of them every election cycle. So would encourage you to check it out if this checks your box or somebody that, you know, encourage them to apply.
We have 30 plus questions for candidates to answer on our questionnaire
>> Rick Beggs: Okay, now let me transition back to the questionnaire for the candidates. There's 30 plus questions.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yeah.
>> Rick Beggs: That they have to answer to and they're all over the place. I mean we mentioned a couple of them. Life, national security, border control, health care, Values. Health care, religious liberty. Yep. Yeah. So all those things. So we're trying to really cover it. And it's not the same every year, is it? For every. No, every level of office, it's, we
>> Debbie Wuthnow: update it once every election cycle. So we updated this questionnaire, almost a year ago. We were updating it because we had to start sending it in December for the, the primaries earlier this year. and we do it, it's a different questionnaire for every election, office. So we have federal questionnaires, state questionnaires, judicial questionnaires, education, school, board, it's all over there. And, and we've, we prayerfully spend a lot of time to get just the right questions to ask each candidate.
The primaries are getting ready to wrap. Elections are ramping back up
>> Rick Beggs: Well, speaking of that, you hear that sound? And that's exactly what we're going to talk about is primaries. So what's coming up this coming week, Debbie?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, primary circuit, you know, I've been talking about. We're in a lull in the hurricane. We in the eye of the hurricane. Well, we are back in the hurricane. Elections are ramping back up. The primaries are getting ready to wrap. So on this coming Tuesday, August 4th, it's a big day. Kansas, your election is finally here. So check out your personalized I voter guide ballot and get to the polls. Depends on locality. They might open at 6 or 7 o'. Clock. Check that [email protected] We've got a link for you. And then they will close at 7pm In Michigan, your election is also on Tuesday the 4th. And your polls are open from 7am to 8pm Missouri, my home state, time to vote. So get your [email protected] polls open at 6 and close at 7. Virginia, finally, your election day is here. Polls are open from six to seven. You guys had early voting for like
>> Rick Beggs: you said, Virginia for weeks.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: I know. And then Washington. You should have gotten your ballots by mail, and they do need to be returned by Tuesday because that is election day at 7pm and last is Tennessee. Your election will be on Thursday, August 6th. 6th. And your polls will be open from 7am to 8pm we still have states that are early voting. So Vermont, you have early voting. Your election will be on the 11th. Wyoming, your election will be on the 18th, but you can early vote now. Hawaii, early voting is underway. Your election will be on Saturday in just one week, on August 8th. In Wisconsin, early voting is underway. Your election will be on the 11th. Same for Minnesota. Connecticut, your early voting begins on the 3rd of August for your election on the 11th. And in Alaska, early voting begins on the 3rd. Year elections on the 17th.
>> Rick Beggs: Welcome, Alaska. We got it.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yep.
>> Rick Beggs: the next couple of weeks we're going to talk about the questionnaire and, and why judges don't get the same one as school board candidates. so we'll talk about that. coming up. You've been listening to iBoaterGuide.com's radio show, the Compass. We're so glad you're here. if you want to listen to other episodes that we've had, you can go to the app, the AFR app, download it if you don't have it, and then you can go look at other shows that afr, American Family Radio offers. Debbie, if they want to write to us, where do they write?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Email compassivotorguide.com with any questions and or a topic for a future episode. Rick and I'll talk about it.
>> Rick Beggs: And Jesus is always our true north on the Compass.
in regards to volunteers, panelists, anybody who might. Because this is how we aggregate this information and bring it all together to make decisions. Talk a little bit about that. what we need actually at I Voter Guide for people who, they would love to do the digging, they would love to help, make decisions. Yeah.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, there are some of you out there, and I know you're out there, who, you're the person your friends go to and say, okay, everybody, who do I vote for? We all want to have that person. If you are that person or have that inclination to do the deep dive, we would love to have you, help I Voter Guide in the digging and in the evaluation. And we call that being a volunteer panelist. If you go to the ivoterguide.com website and in the top menu, click on Take Action, there is a, little tile that says volunteer as a panelist. And we would love for you to apply. So when you apply, we actually vet our panelists kind of similar to how we vet candidates. You will get to answer a questionnaire. Now, this will look very similar to what candidates get to see when they answer our questionnaire. Questions are going to be different, obviously, but we're looking for basic high level value positions to make sure we align biblical values. We're looking for worldview questions. So there will be some values questions on there. And it's also going to ask you for your references. And I will tell you we do call those references. And we ask, you know, can this person, you know, are they conservative? Can they be objective in looking at candidates? because that really is one of our challenges is to not be emotional in our ratings, but base it upon the data. So we ideally want one of those references to be your pastor because we'd like you know, some spiritual depth in there. And, would love. We're needing panelists right now for the general election, specifically. I know in Colorado and Utah, Wisconsin, Illinois. we need you to go to our website and apply if you're interested. Not everybody's going to get accepted, but would love for you to throw your hat in the ring. Maybe you know somebody who would be a good panelist. Maybe you have that friend who tells you, you know, gives you the advice and encourage them to check it out. it's a great service. You get to see the back end of ivoterguide and what goes in to those ratings. and honestly, what we've heard from voters or from panelists is that they feel like it makes them a more intelligent voter so that when they have a race on their ballot that I voter Guide is not covering, they know where to go to find the information. So it helps them to be a deeper diver and what to look for in their local candidates. So it makes you a m more intelligent voter.
>> Rick Beggs: It sounds, it sounds more intense than a lot of job interviews I had earlier in my life. I mean, I love that because it should be that way. I mean, we're looking for people who are going to be truth tellers because that's really what we anchor ourselves in, is just gathering the information. We'll let it tell the truth and then, it help you vote wisely.
You have to apply, you have to answer the leadership survey
Now there are about roughly, I would say 30 plus questions on this questionnaire that they have to answer.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: email m the leadership survey for the panelists or the candidates?
>> Rick Beggs: No, no, no. This is for the candidates, the leadership survey. I didn't give you a good transition there.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Context. Context is important. I would say the leadership survey is probably about 20 questions. So that doesn't take you a ton of time. and when you click on that page about applying, it'll give you some estimates on how much time would be involved. So you have to apply, you have to answer the questionnaire. we do have training, it is self paced online training to kind of learn what our criteria are for grading and how we look at all the data. So even that in itself is educational. And then once you get assigned your panel, which will be about 30 to 35 candidates, you will have the seven to 10 days to look at them. So, you know, we estimate it's about 20 hours over two to three weeks that it takes to be a panelist for I voter Guide. We have people who love it so much they will help us in every election in their state. And Sometimes they'll be like, you need somebody in Utah. I'll help you in Utah. Because, you know, the most of the information is available online. So, you know, a lot of retired people love to help us with this digging and we need almost a thousand of them every election cycle. So would encourage you to check it out if this checks your box or somebody that, you know, encourage them to apply.
We have 30 plus questions for candidates to answer on our questionnaire
>> Rick Beggs: Okay, now let me transition back to the questionnaire for the candidates. There's 30 plus questions.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yeah.
>> Rick Beggs: That they have to answer to and they're all over the place. I mean we mentioned a couple of them. Life, national security, border control, health care, Values. Health care, religious liberty. Yep. Yeah. So all those things. So we're trying to really cover it. And it's not the same every year, is it? For every. No, every level of office, it's, we
>> Debbie Wuthnow: update it once every election cycle. So we updated this questionnaire, almost a year ago. We were updating it because we had to start sending it in December for the, the primaries earlier this year. and we do it, it's a different questionnaire for every election, office. So we have federal questionnaires, state questionnaires, judicial questionnaires, education, school, board, it's all over there. And, and we've, we prayerfully spend a lot of time to get just the right questions to ask each candidate.
The primaries are getting ready to wrap. Elections are ramping back up
>> Rick Beggs: Well, speaking of that, you hear that sound? And that's exactly what we're going to talk about is primaries. So what's coming up this coming week, Debbie?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, primary circuit, you know, I've been talking about. We're in a lull in the hurricane. We in the eye of the hurricane. Well, we are back in the hurricane. Elections are ramping back up. The primaries are getting ready to wrap. So on this coming Tuesday, August 4th, it's a big day. Kansas, your election is finally here. So check out your personalized I voter guide ballot and get to the polls. Depends on locality. They might open at 6 or 7 o'. Clock. Check that [email protected] We've got a link for you. And then they will close at 7pm In Michigan, your election is also on Tuesday the 4th. And your polls are open from 7am to 8pm Missouri, my home state, time to vote. So get your [email protected] polls open at 6 and close at 7. Virginia, finally, your election day is here. Polls are open from six to seven. You guys had early voting for like
>> Rick Beggs: you said, Virginia for weeks.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: I know. And then Washington. You should have gotten your ballots by mail, and they do need to be returned by Tuesday because that is election day at 7pm and last is Tennessee. Your election will be on Thursday, August 6th. 6th. And your polls will be open from 7am to 8pm we still have states that are early voting. So Vermont, you have early voting. Your election will be on the 11th. Wyoming, your election will be on the 18th, but you can early vote now. Hawaii, early voting is underway. Your election will be on Saturday in just one week, on August 8th. In Wisconsin, early voting is underway. Your election will be on the 11th. Same for Minnesota. Connecticut, your early voting begins on the 3rd of August for your election on the 11th. And in Alaska, early voting begins on the 3rd. Year elections on the 17th.
>> Rick Beggs: Welcome, Alaska. We got it.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yep.
>> Rick Beggs: the next couple of weeks we're going to talk about the questionnaire and, and why judges don't get the same one as school board candidates. so we'll talk about that. coming up. You've been listening to iBoaterGuide.com's radio show, the Compass. We're so glad you're here. if you want to listen to other episodes that we've had, you can go to the app, the AFR app, download it if you don't have it, and then you can go look at other shows that afr, American Family Radio offers. Debbie, if they want to write to us, where do they write?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Email compassivotorguide.com with any questions and or a topic for a future episode. Rick and I'll talk about it.
>> Rick Beggs: And Jesus is always our true north on the Compass.
for people who, they would love to do the digging, they would love to help, make decisions. Yeah.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, there are some of you out there, and I know you're out there, who, you're the person your friends go to and say, okay, everybody, who do I vote for? We all want to have that person. If you are that person or have that inclination to do the deep dive, we would love to have you, help I Voter Guide in the digging and in the evaluation. And we call that being a volunteer panelist. If you go to the ivoterguide.com website and in the top menu, click on Take Action, there is a, little tile that says volunteer as a panelist. And we would love for you to apply. So when you apply, we actually vet our panelists kind of similar to how we vet candidates. You will get to answer a questionnaire. Now, this will look very similar to what candidates get to see when they answer our questionnaire. Questions are going to be different, obviously, but we're looking for basic high level value positions to make sure we align biblical values. We're looking for worldview questions. So there will be some values questions on there. And it's also going to ask you for your references. And I will tell you we do call those references. And we ask, you know, can this person, you know, are they conservative? Can they be objective in looking at candidates? because that really is one of our challenges is to not be emotional in our ratings, but base it upon the data. So we ideally want one of those references to be your pastor because we'd like you know, some spiritual depth in there. And, would love. We're needing panelists right now for the general election, specifically. I know in Colorado and Utah, Wisconsin, Illinois. we need you to go to our website and apply if you're interested. Not everybody's going to get accepted, but would love for you to throw your hat in the ring. Maybe you know somebody who would be a good panelist. Maybe you have that friend who tells you, you know, gives you the advice and encourage them to check it out. it's a great service. You get to see the back end of ivoterguide and what goes in to those ratings. and honestly, what we've heard from voters or from panelists is that they feel like it makes them a more intelligent voter so that when they have a race on their ballot that I voter Guide is not covering, they know where to go to find the information. So it helps them to be a deeper diver and what to look for in their local candidates. So it makes you a m more intelligent voter.
>> Rick Beggs: It sounds, it sounds more intense than a lot of job interviews I had earlier in my life. I mean, I love that because it should be that way. I mean, we're looking for people who are going to be truth tellers because that's really what we anchor ourselves in, is just gathering the information. We'll let it tell the truth and then, it help you vote wisely.
You have to apply, you have to answer the leadership survey
Now there are about roughly, I would say 30 plus questions on this questionnaire that they have to answer.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: email m the leadership survey for the panelists or the candidates?
>> Rick Beggs: No, no, no. This is for the candidates, the leadership survey. I didn't give you a good transition there.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Context. Context is important. I would say the leadership survey is probably about 20 questions. So that doesn't take you a ton of time. and when you click on that page about applying, it'll give you some estimates on how much time would be involved. So you have to apply, you have to answer the questionnaire. we do have training, it is self paced online training to kind of learn what our criteria are for grading and how we look at all the data. So even that in itself is educational. And then once you get assigned your panel, which will be about 30 to 35 candidates, you will have the seven to 10 days to look at them. So, you know, we estimate it's about 20 hours over two to three weeks that it takes to be a panelist for I voter Guide. We have people who love it so much they will help us in every election in their state. And Sometimes they'll be like, you need somebody in Utah. I'll help you in Utah. Because, you know, the most of the information is available online. So, you know, a lot of retired people love to help us with this digging and we need almost a thousand of them every election cycle. So would encourage you to check it out if this checks your box or somebody that, you know, encourage them to apply.
We have 30 plus questions for candidates to answer on our questionnaire
>> Rick Beggs: Okay, now let me transition back to the questionnaire for the candidates. There's 30 plus questions.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yeah.
>> Rick Beggs: That they have to answer to and they're all over the place. I mean we mentioned a couple of them. Life, national security, border control, health care, Values. Health care, religious liberty. Yep. Yeah. So all those things. So we're trying to really cover it. And it's not the same every year, is it? For every. No, every level of office, it's, we
>> Debbie Wuthnow: update it once every election cycle. So we updated this questionnaire, almost a year ago. We were updating it because we had to start sending it in December for the, the primaries earlier this year. and we do it, it's a different questionnaire for every election, office. So we have federal questionnaires, state questionnaires, judicial questionnaires, education, school, board, it's all over there. And, and we've, we prayerfully spend a lot of time to get just the right questions to ask each candidate.
The primaries are getting ready to wrap. Elections are ramping back up
>> Rick Beggs: Well, speaking of that, you hear that sound? And that's exactly what we're going to talk about is primaries. So what's coming up this coming week, Debbie?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, primary circuit, you know, I've been talking about. We're in a lull in the hurricane. We in the eye of the hurricane. Well, we are back in the hurricane. Elections are ramping back up. The primaries are getting ready to wrap. So on this coming Tuesday, August 4th, it's a big day. Kansas, your election is finally here. So check out your personalized I voter guide ballot and get to the polls. Depends on locality. They might open at 6 or 7 o'. Clock. Check that [email protected] We've got a link for you. And then they will close at 7pm In Michigan, your election is also on Tuesday the 4th. And your polls are open from 7am to 8pm Missouri, my home state, time to vote. So get your [email protected] polls open at 6 and close at 7. Virginia, finally, your election day is here. Polls are open from six to seven. You guys had early voting for like
>> Rick Beggs: you said, Virginia for weeks.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: I know. And then Washington. You should have gotten your ballots by mail, and they do need to be returned by Tuesday because that is election day at 7pm and last is Tennessee. Your election will be on Thursday, August 6th. 6th. And your polls will be open from 7am to 8pm we still have states that are early voting. So Vermont, you have early voting. Your election will be on the 11th. Wyoming, your election will be on the 18th, but you can early vote now. Hawaii, early voting is underway. Your election will be on Saturday in just one week, on August 8th. In Wisconsin, early voting is underway. Your election will be on the 11th. Same for Minnesota. Connecticut, your early voting begins on the 3rd of August for your election on the 11th. And in Alaska, early voting begins on the 3rd. Year elections on the 17th.
>> Rick Beggs: Welcome, Alaska. We got it.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yep.
>> Rick Beggs: the next couple of weeks we're going to talk about the questionnaire and, and why judges don't get the same one as school board candidates. so we'll talk about that. coming up. You've been listening to iVoterGuide.com's radio show, the Compass. We're so glad you're here. if you want to listen to other episodes that we've had, you can go to the app, the AFR app, download it if you don't have it, and then you can go look at other shows that afr, American Family Radio offers. Debbie, if they want to write to us, where do they write?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Email compassivotorguide.com with any questions and or a topic for a future episode. Rick and I'll talk about it.
>> Rick Beggs: And Jesus is always our true north on the Compass.
00:00 - Welcome back to the Compass. Debbie is the president of iVoterGuide
00:49 - iVoterGuide sends out a questionnaire to candidates ahead of primaries
08:57 - Our philosophy is to look more at actions than at rhetoric
09:39 - Candidates get an opportunity to quality control questionnaire before it goes public
11:21 - There are people on the campaign trail who will recommend candidates not answer survey
16:23 - So I guess let me give a brief timeline of how we create voter guides
19:43 - iVoterGuide is looking for volunteers to help with its ratings
22:51 - You have to apply, you have to answer the leadership survey
24:13 - We have 30 plus questions for candidates to answer on our questionnaire
25:21 - The primaries are getting ready to wrap. Elections are ramping back up
✍️ Episode References
iVoterGuide
https://ivoterguide.com
American Family Radio
https://afr.net
00:00 - Welcome back to the Compass. Debbie is the president of iVoterGuide
00:49 - iVoterGuide sends out a questionnaire to candidates ahead of primaries
08:57 - Our philosophy is to look more at actions than at rhetoric
09:39 - Candidates get an opportunity to quality control questionnaire before it goes public
11:21 - There are people on the campaign trail who will recommend candidates not answer survey
16:23 - So I guess let me give a brief timeline of how we create voter guides
19:43 - iVoterGuide is looking for volunteers to help with its ratings
22:51 - You have to apply, you have to answer the leadership survey
24:13 - We have 30 plus questions for candidates to answer on our questionnaire
25:21 - The primaries are getting ready to wrap. Elections are ramping back up
✍️ Episode References
iVoterGuide
https://ivoterguide.com
American Family Radio
https://afr.net
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