Rick Beggs Welcome to the Compass. Navigating the public square together with faith, truth and conviction. Well, we are so glad you decided to join us today on the Compass. The Compass is the official, radio show of ivoterguide. And I just happen to have the president of ivoterguide with me as my co host, Debbie Wuthnow Debbie, say hey.
Debbie Wuthnow Hello everybody. Hey Rick. Good to be back with you.
Rick Beggs As always, we're going to talk about all things voting and culture.
Debbie Wuthnow Tis the season.
Rick Beggs Yeah, that's right. and we're gonna, I think we're gonna finish officially our fourth episode with our time with George Barna. Although I think he's gonna probably leave it.
Debbie Wuthnow There's so many nuggets that we will be dropping. We'll call them George Nuggets, Barna Nuggets.
Rick Beggs Well, I thought I would start our time today, with a verse out of Colossians 3. Colossians 3. And most of you have, are very familiar with the verse. But 3 verse 23 says whatever you do, do your work heartily as for the Lord rather than for men. And I think we are trying to do that in regards to what we're putting out with I voter guidelines. We want to do this work because we think it helps the kingdom, but we want to do it heartily as unto the Lord. This is really. We try to be agenda free from, what we put out. We want truth.
Debbie Wuthnow Well, I would say, I would add to that, I agree completely. But add to that that, every staff member, every volunteer views ivoterguide as a ministry. We may be researching political candidates and updating questionnaires and telling people to vote, but this is what we feel God has called us to do as ministry. It is our role, it is the mindset of every staff member. And that Colossians of ours sums it all up, right? We're not doing this for a particular candidate. We're certainly not doing this for a party. A party. We're doing this for the audience of one, individually and collectively. That is the role of iVoterGuide voter guide. If you look at the values for our organization, our number one value is objective truth. And that is God's truth. And our goal is in researching candidates to find truth, to share truth. So we're really asking as we're researching, you know, there's a lot of spin out there you may not have noticed. So we're, you know, what is truth? And that is our goal is to find that and to share that and to be trusted and accurate and, and
Rick Beggs truth tellers and, and we're carrying a torch for the men who came before us.
Debbie Wuthnow Carrying the torch on.
Rick Beggs Yeah, yeah. From how iVoterGuide started and what it all represents. And, and thankfully, iVoterGuide Voter Guide exists because I, I'm not sure today how people vote if they don't have good information or enough information. And we found that out on our last episode, that is the one thing that people are missing, their information.
Debbie Wuthnow Yep. We're talking about the George Barna data. So just kind of to sum up for those of you who are joining, maybe hearing this for the first time, iVoterGuide worked with, an AFA action, worked with George Barna to do some polling of down ballot voting. And what he found is that while 85% of voters will fill in a race at the top of the ticket, that only 55% will fill in the whole ballot. the rest are skipping 30, 30 point drop, skipping and dropping. Not voting on a race and to not make your own voice heard is allowing somebody else to choose for you. It is not neutrality, it is consent, really. And so we, then asked what would change their behavior. Well, they don't vote because they don't know what would change their behavior is more information, specifically a trusted voter guide. And that's really what iVoterGuide does. And especially in school board races, because we asked about all the races across your ballot, where is it most needed? And school board was the answer. So now we know we've got a tool that is needed. And the question is, you know, who can we move and how do we get to them? And really that's what we want to talk about today.
Rick Beggs Yeah. And George really came up with two, potential areas that we should consider. Independent, voters and millennials.
Debbie Wuthnow And I think he was surprised by some of that.
Rick Beggs Yeah, I bet it's hard to surprise George today, all this polling news.
Debbie Wuthnow Well, I think that the independents didn't surprise him. If you think about it, there's fewer parties. You know, some people are moving from the Democratic to the Republican Party. There's probably about a third of voters who are Democratic, about a third, I'm very generalizing, that are Republican. And the, middle third are the independent voters. They don't want to side with either party, which means their mind is not made up in the November election. Right. They're looking for who are they gonna pick. It could be some third party candidate. It could be they're gonna swing Republican or Democrat. So really, for any candidate to win, they have to reach and persuade. I sometimes call Them, the mushy middle, but the independent voters in the middle. And what we learned through this is that information that can be trusted is what will move them more likely more so than anybody else.
Rick Beggs Well let's hear George's words on it.
Debbie Wuthnow Let's do it.
George Barna Clip 13A I think independence probably more than people who are aligned with the Democrat or Republican parties are persuadable. They're independent for a reason. And that reason is that they're, they're trying to figure out which way to go. And neither party seems to represent how they're thinking very consistently. And so yes, they're movable.
Rick Beggs Well they're movable and I think as you said Debbie, the more information they have, the better off that they can make a decision for a candidate.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah, trusted in because you know there's other polls out there that I don't have the numbers in front of me. If people don't trust the media now that AI's out, they don't even know what to trust on social media and you know anything can be said there. So it's really seeking for what is information they can trust to be true and not spun.
Rick Beggs Now what is interesting about independents is that they are actually looking for information. It's not that we gotta shove it to them. They're looking for it because they can't decide. A D and an R doesn't make any difference to them.
Debbie Wuthnow They're looking for specific issues or specific positions. So they're looking for trusted information. I mean that's part of why ivoterguide on our tech side has been working at increasing our ranking in the search engines. Because frequently those people seeking something or will go to a search engine, whichever one they prefer to find the information they'll do. The questions what are the candidates positions on this? Or who can I vote for here? And so we have been working very diligently and greatly increasing our rankings in the search engine.
Rick Beggs And oddly even though that we're a Christian organization, not only that our parent company AFA is a Christian organization but if a liberal came to iVoterGuide they would get all the information they need because what we are trying to do is present truth on every candidate and they can find out about their candidates as well as the conservative side.
Debbie Wuthnow That's true because we, we gather data from both the left and the right, both Democrats and Republicans. Scorecards, endorsements, campaign finance, it's all there. So it truly is just as useful because it is truth. And my view is that we portray Ourselves as grounded and God rooted in research. We are a Christian ministry. Truth is our goal and we're hoping that on either side of the aisle that they would trust us to be a worthy source. Maybe this truth will help move somebody across that spectrum and when they see both sides of a story. A lot of times a lot of media is very opinion. It's not fact, it's opinion. And it's, portrayed in a way to persuade you or change you. And, and we just want the truth to do that.
George Barna Yeah.
Rick Beggs and now you make the decision. That's why our little tag is votewisely. Yes, we did the research so you can come look at it. If you don't know how to get to ivoterguide, go to ivoterguide.com it's pretty easy.
Debbie Wuthnow It's pretty easy.
Rick Beggs And what do you do, Debbie, when you go there?
Debbie Wuthnow Well, it's designed to give you a free personalized ballot. So you enter your voting address and that allows us to make sure we're showing you just the races and districts that will be on your ballot. You don't need to know your congressional district three or state senate district two, or even what school district you vote in if we're covering them. If you enter your address, you will get your personalized ballot, along with candidates, photos, their research that we've gathered and what I think is the best is the rating that gas gauge of where do they land on the political spectrum? We are, you know, working on getting all that out, I think evaluating 8,500 candidates just for this November election.
Rick Beggs Glad it's not me.
Debbie Wuthnow You get to tell people to use it.
Rick Beggs I lose myself. That's right. I'm all about telling people. Yeah, we are a team. Interesting friends of mine who are independent voters, I like telling them about iVoterGuide voter guide because they don't have to have a, thought about what is it I'm shoving down their throat. They actually get to go there and see, oh, I can see both sides.
Debbie Wuthnow Right.
Rick Beggs And now I can make.
Debbie Wuthnow Because we Frequently you see a source and you're like, oh, I know that that's kind of a left leaning source, or I know that's a right leaning source, or you know, every. We view everything through a lens, through a perspective. And I voter guide's perspective or lens is truth, which is helpful to everybody.
Rick Beggs Well, when George did his polling, his surveying for us, he found that independents, for the most part, 54% of them lack information. That's what they're looking for. That was the hype that they could
Debbie Wuthnow make most the average, I mean, the norm. Because he can slice and dice the data any way he wants, really. And so by generations, or if he looked at all likely voters, none of them hit a. It was only independents that went over the majority who were looking for that information.
Rick Beggs Yeah. and I think they're more willing to admit they don't have the information
Debbie Wuthnow well, and they also cross multiple generations, too. But we also asked George what surprised him, and that was another movable group of the millennials.
Rick Beggs And here we go. Because this one is, to me, crazy.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah, it's a hard group, he said, to reach. So let's hear what George said in 13B.
George Barna Another group that I think is potentially movable are millennials, you know, who are in their 20s to early 40s at this point. Why are they movable? Because now they're becoming parents. They're taking on greater responsibility in their own lives and in the culture itself. And it's a group that wants to do well. They're not sure what that means, what it looks like. And so if there are organizations that can create tools and opportunities that come alongside them and help them rise up to become better at who it is they see themselves becoming, who they have the opportunity to be, they're going to appreciate those tools. And so I think know voter guides, as an example, would be such a tool that they would appreciate because they don't know how to dig for this kind of information.
Debbie Wuthnow Interesting.
Rick Beggs Yeah, I, I know millennials are real interested in relationship. I really. I really believe that, they don't take things at face value. They want to know something. They want to know people. I think sometimes they may even get involved.
Debbie Wuthnow Are they slower to trust?
Rick Beggs Oh, I. Absolutely. I think so. And, but I, I think the thing that really, I don't know if it bothered me. I. I shouldn't even be surprised by this. But social media plays a huge role in how they make decisions, and we know that because they're on their phones. They're. They're involved in everything from, you know, Facebook, TikTok. I'm mentioning things that older people are involved in. They don't even get involved in some of these things anymore. But, you know, it's like my son called it one time, he called it, fossil book. I said, why do you call it fossil book? He says, that's where all you older people are. And I'm going, okay, good point. Probably is very true.
Debbie Wuthnow We found it, and then they left, is what happened.
Rick Beggs That's Right. Yeah. Anyway, so. But they're really moved by what they read in social media.
Debbie Wuthnow They are. And trust is really big for them. So George had some. Something to say about trust in clip. I believe C7.
George Barna One of the most important, sources of information is social media, which is really disappointing to me. It's kind of heartbreaking. It's like, really, that jungle of lies out there that becomes your bedrock source of information. So that was discouraging.
Rick Beggs Well, I'm with him. I was so discouraged when I read that, but it makes complete sense. I don't know why I would be discouraged, because that's really their whole life.
Debbie Wuthnow Well, they get their news from there. That's where their noses are glued. You know, you've seen the memes of, a fascinating party for millennials, and they're all sitting on the sofa, looking at their phone. Right. Where are they getting the information? But knowing where they can get information that they can trust is what's helpful.
Rick Beggs Well, I can. I. All I have to do is go into a restaurant, you see who's all on their phones and who's not.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah.
Rick Beggs You know, I've been. I. I got to tell you, you can. We can all get captured by that so much that, you know, when you go to places, you got to make sure you're trying to put your phone away. I do.
Debbie Wuthnow Well, there's certain rules. Yeah.
Rick Beggs Because relationship is so important. But millennials sometimes believe social media is their relationship.
Debbie Wuthnow That's true. They're friends, right? They're their friends. They're their followers. And I think that I'm viewing this as a potential opportunity or a direction for ivoterguide. We know there's a lack. We know there's a need, for information. We've got it on our website. So if somebody's looking for a voter guide or doing some Internet searching, they're going to find us. At ivoterguide, I'm taking this as an action to make sure that people can find us on social media. I want to find the people where they are, and if the younger generations, the independent voters, millennials, are on these social media platforms, that is really the direction that I think that iVoterGuide Voter guide, maybe AFA and AFR need to move in, so that those people who need what we've got can find us. And I'm real excited. You know, we've brought in a new staff member to guide our marketing. She's a young, millennial, and I just love that God brought her. It's a great story that Just the providential leading her to ivoterguide. And I think for such a time as this, to start to reach that younger generation, to get the information where they're looking for it. Right. We want to give what we've got, because I think we've got part of the answer, but we need to. To put it in a place where they can find it.
Rick Beggs Yeah. And. And you and I aren't the people to do that. I mean, we don't have the ability yourself, but.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah, no, no, you're right.
Rick Beggs I forgot how involved you were on social media.
Debbie Wuthnow Honestly. I don't do social media.
Rick Beggs I know. That's why that line is so funny.
Debbie Wuthnow Scopes. What do they call it? Creeping. You want to go see what everybody else is posting. And, it's changed over time. I know that I can't always trust what's there. I know to verify it. So I just, you know, it's a. It's interesting to see what's going on and watch some funny videos, cat videos, you know, comedy routines.
Rick Beggs Now you're telling your age. Cat videos.
Debbie Wuthnow I don't watch cat videos. I'm a dog person, but. Okay, you're a cat person.
Rick Beggs Okay. This is not a personal show. This is not about my viewing. Yeah. but social media wasn't the only way that they're gathering information. It is their largest.
Debbie Wuthnow For millennials.
Rick Beggs Yeah, for millennials.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah. Yeah.
Rick Beggs What did I think George found? It was 40% social. media was their top source for local election information.
Debbie Wuthnow Right. They also do online searches, like search engines. You know, they. They probably use a little bit of AI as well. Now, you go to Claude or Grok or whoever your favorite AI engine is to answer questions, but they also go to friends and family. you know, we all have sources. We wish we had that guy. Right. Somebody to help me. hopefully you've got a guy who's telling you how important it is to vote, and that's getting you to then start to ask the questions of who do I vote for?
Rick Beggs Do your adult children come to you and ask you who to vote for?
Debbie Wuthnow one of the three. I have conversations with some.
Rick Beggs Well, I'm not going to out anyone.
Debbie Wuthnow No, we're not going to do that. We have those discussions. One still lives with me, so we have those discussions. And I will admit for. I will go to ivoterguide.com and I've told everybody my process. I get my sample ballot, I fill it in with ivoterguide, I print it out on paper, and I'll print two copies And I'll hand one to my husband and I'll hand one to my son. Said, this is just what I'm doing. I'm not telling you what to do, but I did the research, so.
Rick Beggs Yeah, I,
Debbie Wuthnow Do you do that?
Rick Beggs Yes. We actually have, like, a team meeting the night before we go vote. And, just with, one son, the other two are very independent. And. And, and they do good research. Once in a while, one of mine, that does their own research will come to me and ask me who I know. But I would never tell them how to vote. You know, they don't like to be told how to vote.
Debbie Wuthnow Well, right. We want to give them. It's like, even in parenting, once they become adults, you move from the dictator, the authoritarian, to the coach. I might do it this way. Or this is what I'm going to do.
Rick Beggs It's a suggestion.
Debbie Wuthnow Yes, it is exactly a suggestion. For those of you parents out there
Rick Beggs listening, I know how your parenting went.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah.
Rick Beggs Dictator. You used the word dictator with parenting.
Debbie Wuthnow Sorry, that was my dad. He's up with Jesus now.
Rick Beggs Yeah, that's right. Okay.
Debbie Wuthnow He knows I love him.
Rick Beggs anyway, it's just interesting how they gather their information, but ivoterguide could be one of those online searches if we could just get them to recognize that we exist.
Debbie Wuthnow Yes, it's part name recognition, and we certainly are on the search engines. We rank very highly for people doing that search. Check it out for yourself. if you know to go there directly, that's great. But, that's our goal, is to put the information in places where voters will look for it, where voters will find it, because that's what's important. Everybody needs information. And so, we're creating PSAs radio PSAs that you may have heard on American Family Radio. We have. Excuse me. We have a page on our website where, those are all gathered if you want to see them. And maybe you own a radio station, you want to air them yourself. They're on social media. You can help us in amplifying information. If you are not like Rick and I, and you are active on social media, maybe you go follow ivoterguide on whatever platform you use. Instagram, x, Facebook, and start to share our post, amplify them out. there's reels, there's all kinds of information that you can use, on social media. You can text them to your friends. Be that person. Be that person to let other people know that there is good information that you can trust. and it's out there.
Rick Beggs Yeah. Well, let's hear from George. clip a seven.
George Barna If you can build the trust with them, and trust is huge, they're big on relationships. If you can build that trust with them where they say, you know, when I go to this tool, I know it's reliable, I'm going to trust it. it's going to guide my steps. That's gonna be a big deal. Well, he's talking about generation in America right now.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah, well, he's talking about that millennial generation. Right. And I think that's part of why iVoterGuide seeks to not just tell you. We don't tell you who to vote for. It's the tools. It's the, information. We give you the sources of the information that you make a decision so you can decide, right. If you go in and click on any candidate profile page, you can, you know, we'll give you links to everything and everything that is there. We give you the source information. So we've verified it ourselves. We also let it. Let you read it for yourselves on those ballot measures. That's super important because, you know, those radio ads that talk about those ballot measures are, can be slanted and confusing. But what is the truth? That is a kind. One of my recurring mantra questions. What is the truth and what am I supposed to do with it? So check out the sources, so that you can trust it. And that's part of what we do to be trusted.
Rick Beggs They can go get or, we have up on our website the whole report, don't we? George's.
Debbie Wuthnow If you go to ivoterguide.com, we do. There's a red banner at the top of the page that says download the Barna report. it's free. You can download that. It also signs you up for our email list, so you'll start to get our weekly emails that my team helps me write about. Some of the stuff we talk about on the Compass and what's the Bible say about different. And it will also give you election updates that are specific to your address and your district. So especially, you know, after November next year, there's probably gonna be a bunch of special elections as congressmen, state legislators retire. Special elections are a fabulous opportunity to move the needle because so few people vote. But if you get on our email list, we'll make sure that you know when that's happening in your area so that you can have that most the best bargain deal in your vote make the best.
Rick Beggs Now they're not going to get all the numbers that we saw. What they're getting is a summary version.
Debbie Wuthnow It's kind of a maybe a 10,000 foot version of the Barna report. It does have some numbers of the different choices that people could choose, the responses and the questions.
Rick Beggs But it's fascinating reading. It's just amazing what he has figured out and encouraging and I think that's really what we want to do with this show is really encourage you in your citizenship to really abide in the Lord and strive forward in, in regards to getting good information out there. let's play the C8 clip.
George Barna I'd encourage people to read this and then do a deep self examination and say what a citizen am I, what kind of a citizen of America but also what kind of a citizen of heaven am I doing the background work to be great at what I do, you know, because I love to read Colossians 3 where it says do everything that you do with excellence because you're doing it for God. And that pertains to voting as well as anything else.
Rick Beggs Well it couldn't be better said than that.
Debbie Wuthnow What can you add?
Rick Beggs Right. Yeah. Well that's why we opened the show with it and I'm choosing the amenity as our clothes as well because I do think sometimes when we get in the midst of all this we lose perspective. I'm not here representing me and I'm not here representing iVoterGuide or afa. Those are all wonderful things. But I'm here as a servant of the king. Yeah I'm, I'm here at Jesus wish and to do as he has asked me to do. And thankfully we get to do some things together for all the clay being
Debbie Wuthnow modeled by the master.
Rick Beggs And we do believe that God's called us to bring Ivoter guide to the forefront so that people use it. By the way, it's free. So anybody you know, and I always say if it's free it's me. But this is a great.
Debbie Wuthnow Don't even need a coupon.
Rick Beggs You don't need a coupon. My wife will be so excited to hear that. anyway, I thank so much that you even had the thought Debbie of going after George and asking him about this because I know that not only were you interested in this but you really sought out who could I trust.
Rick Beggs With this information.
Debbie Wuthnow And there's nobody more trustworthy than George and honest the voting perspective but also the, the Christian worldview perspective to give us that slice of finding people who share our values and making sure we reach them, but also how do we move the needle? And the opportunity is there if we get the information. and so that's why we're here.
Rick Beggs Well, I think, you would agree with this. I just want to be found as a well worn tool in Jesus hand. And there's nothing more exciting than to feel like he has be in this place at this time, for this moment.
Debbie Wuthnow M. I 100% believe that this is a calling, this is ministry. And when God's called you to do something, you do it to the best of your ability. And that is what I believe. I know that's what you believe. And our entire ivoterguide team, God called us to do this to equip you, the voters we'd love for you to use this tool we created. Go to ivoterguide.com and use it before you vote. Get ready to vote. You're voting in many places.
Rick Beggs Yeah. and, speaking of that, I don't know if you can hear that sound.
Debbie Wuthnow I do.
Rick Beggs But this is where we get caught up on what voting looks like coming up this week.
Debbie Wuthnow Well, we're getting close. The election's just a couple of weeks away. In, lots of states, you've got early voting going on. If you're doing that, make sure you go to ivoterguide.com before you early vote. But this year, and actually today, early voting begins in Massachusetts and Nevada. It begins on the 19th in Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Texas, Florida, North Dakota and South Carolina on the 20th. early in person absentee voting begins in Hawaii, Louisiana, Missouri, Utah and Wisconsin. Begins on the 21st. I mean, it's almost everybody. West Virginia, Delaware and Maryland. and this week we'll be releasing the remainder of all of the voter guides. So if yours has not been out, it should be coming out this week. By Friday, next Friday, we'll have all the voter guides released. So make sure you be informed and then vote.
Rick Beggs Well, that was fast. It was a fast half hour. 28 minutes, actually. Anyway, we are so glad that you joined us. I want to say I actually want to send, out. Incredible. thanks to AFA for trusting us with, this radio show. But we want to say thank you to our listeners. So, however, you're listening to us either on the AFR app or at afr.net or even on the Compass on our website. We want you to know that we are grounded in God and rooted in research. And you can reach [email protected] but always remember the true north on the compass will always be Jesus. Therefore, if you've been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above.
Rick Beggs Welcome to the Compass. Navigating the public square together with faith, truth and conviction. Well, we are so glad you decided to join us today on the Compass. The Compass is the official, radio show of ivoterguide. And I just happen to have the president of ivoterguide with me as my co host, Debbie Wuthnow Debbie, say hey.
Debbie Wuthnow Hello everybody. Hey Rick. Good to be back with you.
Rick Beggs As always, we're going to talk about all things voting and culture.
Debbie Wuthnow Tis the season.
Rick Beggs Yeah, that's right. and we're gonna, I think we're gonna finish officially our fourth episode with our time with George Barna. Although I think he's gonna probably leave it.
Debbie Wuthnow There's so many nuggets that we will be dropping. We'll call them George Nuggets, Barna Nuggets.
Rick Beggs Well, I thought I would start our time today, with a verse out of Colossians 3. Colossians 3. And most of you have, are very familiar with the verse. But 3 verse 23 says whatever you do, do your work heartily as for the Lord rather than for men. And I think we are trying to do that in regards to what we're putting out with I voter guidelines. We want to do this work because we think it helps the kingdom, but we want to do it heartily as unto the Lord. This is really. We try to be agenda free from, what we put out. We want truth.
Debbie Wuthnow Well, I would say, I would add to that, I agree completely. But add to that that, every staff member, every volunteer views ivoterguide as a ministry. We may be researching political candidates and updating questionnaires and telling people to vote, but this is what we feel God has called us to do as ministry. It is our role, it is the mindset of every staff member. And that Colossians of ours sums it all up, right? We're not doing this for a particular candidate. We're certainly not doing this for a party. A party. We're doing this for the audience of one, individually and collectively. That is the role of iVoterGuide voter guide. If you look at the values for our organization, our number one value is objective truth. And that is God's truth. And our goal is in researching candidates to find truth, to share truth. So we're really asking as we're researching, you know, there's a lot of spin out there you may not have noticed. So we're, you know, what is truth? And that is our goal is to find that and to share that and to be trusted and accurate and, and
Rick Beggs truth tellers and, and we're carrying a torch for the men who came before us.
Debbie Wuthnow Carrying the torch on.
Rick Beggs Yeah, yeah. From how iVoterGuide started and what it all represents. And, and thankfully, iVoterGuide Voter Guide exists because I, I'm not sure today how people vote if they don't have good information or enough information. And we found that out on our last episode, that is the one thing that people are missing, their information.
Debbie Wuthnow Yep. We're talking about the George Barna data. So just kind of to sum up for those of you who are joining, maybe hearing this for the first time, iVoterGuide worked with, an AFA action, worked with George Barna to do some polling of down ballot voting. And what he found is that while 85% of voters will fill in a race at the top of the ticket, that only 55% will fill in the whole ballot. the rest are skipping 30, 30 point drop, skipping and dropping. Not voting on a race and to not make your own voice heard is allowing somebody else to choose for you. It is not neutrality, it is consent, really. And so we, then asked what would change their behavior. Well, they don't vote because they don't know what would change their behavior is more information, specifically a trusted voter guide. And that's really what iVoterGuide does. And especially in school board races, because we asked about all the races across your ballot, where is it most needed? And school board was the answer. So now we know we've got a tool that is needed. And the question is, you know, who can we move and how do we get to them? And really that's what we want to talk about today.
Rick Beggs Yeah. And George really came up with two, potential areas that we should consider. Independent, voters and millennials.
Debbie Wuthnow And I think he was surprised by some of that.
Rick Beggs Yeah, I bet it's hard to surprise George today, all this polling news.
Debbie Wuthnow Well, I think that the independents didn't surprise him. If you think about it, there's fewer parties. You know, some people are moving from the Democratic to the Republican Party. There's probably about a third of voters who are Democratic, about a third, I'm very generalizing, that are Republican. And the, middle third are the independent voters. They don't want to side with either party, which means their mind is not made up in the November election. Right. They're looking for who are they gonna pick. It could be some third party candidate. It could be they're gonna swing Republican or Democrat. So really, for any candidate to win, they have to reach and persuade. I sometimes call Them, the mushy middle, but the independent voters in the middle. And what we learned through this is that information that can be trusted is what will move them more likely more so than anybody else.
Rick Beggs Well let's hear George's words on it.
Debbie Wuthnow Let's do it.
George Barna Clip 13A I think independence probably more than people who are aligned with the Democrat or Republican parties are persuadable. They're independent for a reason. And that reason is that they're, they're trying to figure out which way to go. And neither party seems to represent how they're thinking very consistently. And so yes, they're movable.
Rick Beggs Well they're movable and I think as you said Debbie, the more information they have, the better off that they can make a decision for a candidate.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah, trusted in because you know there's other polls out there that I don't have the numbers in front of me. If people don't trust the media now that AI's out, they don't even know what to trust on social media and you know anything can be said there. So it's really seeking for what is information they can trust to be true and not spun.
Rick Beggs Now what is interesting about independents is that they are actually looking for information. It's not that we gotta shove it to them. They're looking for it because they can't decide. A D and an R doesn't make any difference to them.
Debbie Wuthnow They're looking for specific issues or specific positions. So they're looking for trusted information. I mean that's part of why ivoterguide on our tech side has been working at increasing our ranking in the search engines. Because frequently those people seeking something or will go to a search engine, whichever one they prefer to find the information they'll do. The questions what are the candidates positions on this? Or who can I vote for here? And so we have been working very diligently and greatly increasing our rankings in the search engine.
Rick Beggs And oddly even though that we're a Christian organization, not only that our parent company AFA is a Christian organization but if a liberal came to iVoterGuide they would get all the information they need because what we are trying to do is present truth on every candidate and they can find out about their candidates as well as the conservative side.
Debbie Wuthnow That's true because we, we gather data from both the left and the right, both Democrats and Republicans. Scorecards, endorsements, campaign finance, it's all there. So it truly is just as useful because it is truth. And my view is that we portray Ourselves as grounded and God rooted in research. We are a Christian ministry. Truth is our goal and we're hoping that on either side of the aisle that they would trust us to be a worthy source. Maybe this truth will help move somebody across that spectrum and when they see both sides of a story. A lot of times a lot of media is very opinion. It's not fact, it's opinion. And it's, portrayed in a way to persuade you or change you. And, and we just want the truth to do that.
George Barna Yeah.
Rick Beggs and now you make the decision. That's why our little tag is votewisely. Yes, we did the research so you can come look at it. If you don't know how to get to ivoterguide, go to ivoterguide.com it's pretty easy.
Debbie Wuthnow It's pretty easy.
Rick Beggs And what do you do, Debbie, when you go there?
Debbie Wuthnow Well, it's designed to give you a free personalized ballot. So you enter your voting address and that allows us to make sure we're showing you just the races and districts that will be on your ballot. You don't need to know your congressional district three or state senate district two, or even what school district you vote in if we're covering them. If you enter your address, you will get your personalized ballot, along with candidates, photos, their research that we've gathered and what I think is the best is the rating that gas gauge of where do they land on the political spectrum? We are, you know, working on getting all that out, I think evaluating 8,500 candidates just for this November election.
Rick Beggs Glad it's not me.
Debbie Wuthnow You get to tell people to use it.
Rick Beggs I lose myself. That's right. I'm all about telling people. Yeah, we are a team. Interesting friends of mine who are independent voters, I like telling them about iVoterGuide voter guide because they don't have to have a, thought about what is it I'm shoving down their throat. They actually get to go there and see, oh, I can see both sides.
Debbie Wuthnow Right.
Rick Beggs And now I can make.
Debbie Wuthnow Because we Frequently you see a source and you're like, oh, I know that that's kind of a left leaning source, or I know that's a right leaning source, or you know, every. We view everything through a lens, through a perspective. And I voter guide's perspective or lens is truth, which is helpful to everybody.
Rick Beggs Well, when George did his polling, his surveying for us, he found that independents, for the most part, 54% of them lack information. That's what they're looking for. That was the hype that they could
Debbie Wuthnow make most the average, I mean, the norm. Because he can slice and dice the data any way he wants, really. And so by generations, or if he looked at all likely voters, none of them hit a. It was only independents that went over the majority who were looking for that information.
Rick Beggs Yeah. and I think they're more willing to admit they don't have the information
Debbie Wuthnow well, and they also cross multiple generations, too. But we also asked George what surprised him, and that was another movable group of the millennials.
Rick Beggs And here we go. Because this one is, to me, crazy.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah, it's a hard group, he said, to reach. So let's hear what George said in 13B.
George Barna Another group that I think is potentially movable are millennials, you know, who are in their 20s to early 40s at this point. Why are they movable? Because now they're becoming parents. They're taking on greater responsibility in their own lives and in the culture itself. And it's a group that wants to do well. They're not sure what that means, what it looks like. And so if there are organizations that can create tools and opportunities that come alongside them and help them rise up to become better at who it is they see themselves becoming, who they have the opportunity to be, they're going to appreciate those tools. And so I think know voter guides, as an example, would be such a tool that they would appreciate because they don't know how to dig for this kind of information.
Debbie Wuthnow Interesting.
Rick Beggs Yeah, I, I know millennials are real interested in relationship. I really. I really believe that, they don't take things at face value. They want to know something. They want to know people. I think sometimes they may even get involved.
Debbie Wuthnow Are they slower to trust?
Rick Beggs Oh, I. Absolutely. I think so. And, but I, I think the thing that really, I don't know if it bothered me. I. I shouldn't even be surprised by this. But social media plays a huge role in how they make decisions, and we know that because they're on their phones. They're. They're involved in everything from, you know, Facebook, TikTok. I'm mentioning things that older people are involved in. They don't even get involved in some of these things anymore. But, you know, it's like my son called it one time, he called it, fossil book. I said, why do you call it fossil book? He says, that's where all you older people are. And I'm going, okay, good point. Probably is very true.
Debbie Wuthnow We found it, and then they left, is what happened.
Rick Beggs That's Right. Yeah. Anyway, so. But they're really moved by what they read in social media.
Debbie Wuthnow They are. And trust is really big for them. So George had some. Something to say about trust in clip. I believe C7.
George Barna One of the most important, sources of information is social media, which is really disappointing to me. It's kind of heartbreaking. It's like, really, that jungle of lies out there that becomes your bedrock source of information. So that was discouraging.
Rick Beggs Well, I'm with him. I was so discouraged when I read that, but it makes complete sense. I don't know why I would be discouraged, because that's really their whole life.
Debbie Wuthnow Well, they get their news from there. That's where their noses are glued. You know, you've seen the memes of, a fascinating party for millennials, and they're all sitting on the sofa, looking at their phone. Right. Where are they getting the information? But knowing where they can get information that they can trust is what's helpful.
Rick Beggs Well, I can. I. All I have to do is go into a restaurant, you see who's all on their phones and who's not.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah.
Rick Beggs You know, I've been. I. I got to tell you, you can. We can all get captured by that so much that, you know, when you go to places, you got to make sure you're trying to put your phone away. I do.
Debbie Wuthnow Well, there's certain rules. Yeah.
Rick Beggs Because relationship is so important. But millennials sometimes believe social media is their relationship.
Debbie Wuthnow That's true. They're friends, right? They're their friends. They're their followers. And I think that I'm viewing this as a potential opportunity or a direction for ivoterguide. We know there's a lack. We know there's a need, for information. We've got it on our website. So if somebody's looking for a voter guide or doing some Internet searching, they're going to find us. At ivoterguide, I'm taking this as an action to make sure that people can find us on social media. I want to find the people where they are, and if the younger generations, the independent voters, millennials, are on these social media platforms, that is really the direction that I think that iVoterGuide Voter guide, maybe AFA and AFR need to move in, so that those people who need what we've got can find us. And I'm real excited. You know, we've brought in a new staff member to guide our marketing. She's a young, millennial, and I just love that God brought her. It's a great story that Just the providential leading her to ivoterguide. And I think for such a time as this, to start to reach that younger generation, to get the information where they're looking for it. Right. We want to give what we've got, because I think we've got part of the answer, but we need to. To put it in a place where they can find it.
Rick Beggs Yeah. And. And you and I aren't the people to do that. I mean, we don't have the ability yourself, but.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah, no, no, you're right.
Rick Beggs I forgot how involved you were on social media.
Debbie Wuthnow Honestly. I don't do social media.
Rick Beggs I know. That's why that line is so funny.
Debbie Wuthnow Scopes. What do they call it? Creeping. You want to go see what everybody else is posting. And, it's changed over time. I know that I can't always trust what's there. I know to verify it. So I just, you know, it's a. It's interesting to see what's going on and watch some funny videos, cat videos, you know, comedy routines.
Rick Beggs Now you're telling your age. Cat videos.
Debbie Wuthnow I don't watch cat videos. I'm a dog person, but. Okay, you're a cat person.
Rick Beggs Okay. This is not a personal show. This is not about my viewing. Yeah. but social media wasn't the only way that they're gathering information. It is their largest.
Debbie Wuthnow For millennials.
Rick Beggs Yeah, for millennials.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah. Yeah.
Rick Beggs What did I think George found? It was 40% social. media was their top source for local election information.
Debbie Wuthnow Right. They also do online searches, like search engines. You know, they. They probably use a little bit of AI as well. Now, you go to Claude or Grok or whoever your favorite AI engine is to answer questions, but they also go to friends and family. you know, we all have sources. We wish we had that guy. Right. Somebody to help me. hopefully you've got a guy who's telling you how important it is to vote, and that's getting you to then start to ask the questions of who do I vote for?
Rick Beggs Do your adult children come to you and ask you who to vote for?
Debbie Wuthnow one of the three. I have conversations with some.
Rick Beggs Well, I'm not going to out anyone.
Debbie Wuthnow No, we're not going to do that. We have those discussions. One still lives with me, so we have those discussions. And I will admit for. I will go to ivoterguide.com and I've told everybody my process. I get my sample ballot, I fill it in with ivoterguide, I print it out on paper, and I'll print two copies And I'll hand one to my husband and I'll hand one to my son. Said, this is just what I'm doing. I'm not telling you what to do, but I did the research, so.
Rick Beggs Yeah, I,
Debbie Wuthnow Do you do that?
Rick Beggs Yes. We actually have, like, a team meeting the night before we go vote. And, just with, one son, the other two are very independent. And. And, and they do good research. Once in a while, one of mine, that does their own research will come to me and ask me who I know. But I would never tell them how to vote. You know, they don't like to be told how to vote.
Debbie Wuthnow Well, right. We want to give them. It's like, even in parenting, once they become adults, you move from the dictator, the authoritarian, to the coach. I might do it this way. Or this is what I'm going to do.
Rick Beggs It's a suggestion.
Debbie Wuthnow Yes, it is exactly a suggestion. For those of you parents out there
Rick Beggs listening, I know how your parenting went.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah.
Rick Beggs Dictator. You used the word dictator with parenting.
Debbie Wuthnow Sorry, that was my dad. He's up with Jesus now.
Rick Beggs Yeah, that's right. Okay.
Debbie Wuthnow He knows I love him.
Rick Beggs anyway, it's just interesting how they gather their information, but ivoterguide could be one of those online searches if we could just get them to recognize that we exist.
Debbie Wuthnow Yes, it's part name recognition, and we certainly are on the search engines. We rank very highly for people doing that search. Check it out for yourself. if you know to go there directly, that's great. But, that's our goal, is to put the information in places where voters will look for it, where voters will find it, because that's what's important. Everybody needs information. And so, we're creating PSAs radio PSAs that you may have heard on American Family Radio. We have. Excuse me. We have a page on our website where, those are all gathered if you want to see them. And maybe you own a radio station, you want to air them yourself. They're on social media. You can help us in amplifying information. If you are not like Rick and I, and you are active on social media, maybe you go follow ivoterguide on whatever platform you use. Instagram, x, Facebook, and start to share our post, amplify them out. there's reels, there's all kinds of information that you can use, on social media. You can text them to your friends. Be that person. Be that person to let other people know that there is good information that you can trust. and it's out there.
Rick Beggs Yeah. Well, let's hear from George. clip a seven.
George Barna If you can build the trust with them, and trust is huge, they're big on relationships. If you can build that trust with them where they say, you know, when I go to this tool, I know it's reliable, I'm going to trust it. it's going to guide my steps. That's gonna be a big deal. Well, he's talking about generation in America right now.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah, well, he's talking about that millennial generation. Right. And I think that's part of why iVoterGuide seeks to not just tell you. We don't tell you who to vote for. It's the tools. It's the, information. We give you the sources of the information that you make a decision so you can decide, right. If you go in and click on any candidate profile page, you can, you know, we'll give you links to everything and everything that is there. We give you the source information. So we've verified it ourselves. We also let it. Let you read it for yourselves on those ballot measures. That's super important because, you know, those radio ads that talk about those ballot measures are, can be slanted and confusing. But what is the truth? That is a kind. One of my recurring mantra questions. What is the truth and what am I supposed to do with it? So check out the sources, so that you can trust it. And that's part of what we do to be trusted.
Rick Beggs They can go get or, we have up on our website the whole report, don't we? George's.
Debbie Wuthnow If you go to ivoterguide.com, we do. There's a red banner at the top of the page that says download the Barna report. it's free. You can download that. It also signs you up for our email list, so you'll start to get our weekly emails that my team helps me write about. Some of the stuff we talk about on the Compass and what's the Bible say about different. And it will also give you election updates that are specific to your address and your district. So especially, you know, after November next year, there's probably gonna be a bunch of special elections as congressmen, state legislators retire. Special elections are a fabulous opportunity to move the needle because so few people vote. But if you get on our email list, we'll make sure that you know when that's happening in your area so that you can have that most the best bargain deal in your vote make the best.
Rick Beggs Now they're not going to get all the numbers that we saw. What they're getting is a summary version.
Debbie Wuthnow It's kind of a maybe a 10,000 foot version of the Barna report. It does have some numbers of the different choices that people could choose, the responses and the questions.
Rick Beggs But it's fascinating reading. It's just amazing what he has figured out and encouraging and I think that's really what we want to do with this show is really encourage you in your citizenship to really abide in the Lord and strive forward in, in regards to getting good information out there. let's play the C8 clip.
George Barna I'd encourage people to read this and then do a deep self examination and say what a citizen am I, what kind of a citizen of America but also what kind of a citizen of heaven am I doing the background work to be great at what I do, you know, because I love to read Colossians 3 where it says do everything that you do with excellence because you're doing it for God. And that pertains to voting as well as anything else.
Rick Beggs Well it couldn't be better said than that.
Debbie Wuthnow What can you add?
Rick Beggs Right. Yeah. Well that's why we opened the show with it and I'm choosing the amenity as our clothes as well because I do think sometimes when we get in the midst of all this we lose perspective. I'm not here representing me and I'm not here representing iVoterGuide or afa. Those are all wonderful things. But I'm here as a servant of the king. Yeah I'm, I'm here at Jesus wish and to do as he has asked me to do. And thankfully we get to do some things together for all the clay being
Debbie Wuthnow modeled by the master.
Rick Beggs And we do believe that God's called us to bring Ivoter guide to the forefront so that people use it. By the way, it's free. So anybody you know, and I always say if it's free it's me. But this is a great.
Debbie Wuthnow Don't even need a coupon.
Rick Beggs You don't need a coupon. My wife will be so excited to hear that. anyway, I thank so much that you even had the thought Debbie of going after George and asking him about this because I know that not only were you interested in this but you really sought out who could I trust.
Rick Beggs With this information.
Debbie Wuthnow And there's nobody more trustworthy than George and honest the voting perspective but also the, the Christian worldview perspective to give us that slice of finding people who share our values and making sure we reach them, but also how do we move the needle? And the opportunity is there if we get the information. and so that's why we're here.
Rick Beggs Well, I think, you would agree with this. I just want to be found as a well worn tool in Jesus hand. And there's nothing more exciting than to feel like he has be in this place at this time, for this moment.
Debbie Wuthnow M. I 100% believe that this is a calling, this is ministry. And when God's called you to do something, you do it to the best of your ability. And that is what I believe. I know that's what you believe. And our entire ivoterguide team, God called us to do this to equip you, the voters we'd love for you to use this tool we created. Go to ivoterguide.com and use it before you vote. Get ready to vote. You're voting in many places.
Rick Beggs Yeah. and, speaking of that, I don't know if you can hear that sound.
Debbie Wuthnow I do.
Rick Beggs But this is where we get caught up on what voting looks like coming up this week.
Debbie Wuthnow Well, we're getting close. The election's just a couple of weeks away. In, lots of states, you've got early voting going on. If you're doing that, make sure you go to ivoterguide.com before you early vote. But this year, and actually today, early voting begins in Massachusetts and Nevada. It begins on the 19th in Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Texas, Florida, North Dakota and South Carolina on the 20th. early in person absentee voting begins in Hawaii, Louisiana, Missouri, Utah and Wisconsin. Begins on the 21st. I mean, it's almost everybody. West Virginia, Delaware and Maryland. and this week we'll be releasing the remainder of all of the voter guides. So if yours has not been out, it should be coming out this week. By Friday, next Friday, we'll have all the voter guides released. So make sure you be informed and then vote.
Rick Beggs Well, that was fast. It was a fast half hour. 28 minutes, actually. Anyway, we are so glad that you joined us. I want to say I actually want to send, out. Incredible. thanks to AFA for trusting us with, this radio show. But we want to say thank you to our listeners. So, however, you're listening to us either on the AFR app or at afr.net or even on the Compass on our website. We want you to know that we are grounded in God and rooted in research. And you can reach [email protected] but always remember the true north on the compass will always be Jesus. Therefore, if you've been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above.
In this episode of the Compass, we navigate the intricacies of voting and culture with the president of iVoterGuide, Debbie Wuthnow. Join us as we explore the importance of informed voting, the challenges faced by independuident voters and millennials, and how iVoterGuide serves as a vital resource in this election season. With insights from George Barna's polling data, we discuss the critical need for trustworthy information and how to empower voters to make their voices heard. Tune in for a thought-provoking conversation that emphasizes the role of faith and truth in civic engagement.
Live
Did you know American Family Radio is listener-supported? Your monthly financial support will allow us to continue upholding Godly values through our numerous channels, like American Family Radio, One Million Moms, The Stand magazine, and many more.
Become a Great Commission Partner TODAY to help AFR transform culture by rebuilding the family. When you donate today, you’ll get access to:
