Welcome to the Compass Podcast: Introducing iVoterGuide and Election Day Information
Rick Beggs Welcome to the Compass, navigating the public
square together with faith, truth and conviction.
Rick Beggs Well, we couldn't be more grateful that you're with us today on the Compass. The Compass is the official radio show of iVoterGuide Speaking of iVoterGuide I have the president of iVoterGuide Voter Guide, Debbie Wuthnow, now with me. say hey, Debbie.
Debbie Wuthnow Hey, Rick. Good to be back with everybody. It's. We're getting close to election day. It's getting exciting.
Rick Beggs Oh, we are.
Understanding Voter Guides and Early Voting: States with Released Guides and Upcoming Releases
You know what? Why don't we start the program today with who can go vote now? Do you have that information for us?
Debbie Wuthnow I do. Well, you know, we used to have election day, and now we have. It's not even election month. It's election season because there are seven states where you can already go vote for the November election, and those states are Minnesota, South Dakota, Virginia, Vermont, Illinois, Missouri, and Mississippi. Now, we have not released voter guides in all of those states. We're working really hard on it. But the. The states where we have released voter guides are, Alaska, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Maryland, Mississippi, Montana, NewSong Jersey, NewSong Mexico, NewSong York City, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, Vermont, and coming out today, Wisconsin. So, those are out now. And then in this upcoming week. So before, Before Compass comes back to you guys, we'll be releasing voter guides in Georgia, Iowa, Oregon and South Carolina. So I would tell you, if you don't know if yours is out or not, go to ivoterguide.com Enter your address to pull up your personalized ballot.
Navigating Voter Guides: Identifying Released Guides and the Importance of Waiting for Information
If you see races and candidates with a gauge, the gas gauge, that is the iVoterGuide rating means that your voter guide is released if you just see names of candidates and maybe at their website or social media, we call that a candidate list. We are still feverishly working on evaluating those candidates and verifying all the information and getting that released. So I would ask you sign up for our email list, but then say a prayer for our team as they are evaluating thousands of candidates to get all of these voter guides out. We're about, a third of the way through, releasing voter guides. We're close to half and, it's coming. So sign up for our email list and we'll make sure you have that information. A ballot in the mail and iVoterGuide is not available yet in your state. Please just set it aside and, and don't vote by guessing. Wait till you have the information and the research, and use iVoterGuide as your resource.
Rick Beggs Well, I think we're just about out of time, Debbie.
An In-Depth Conversation with Dr. George Barna: A Long-Awaited Collaboration with iVoterGuide
For our show.
Debbie Wuthnow There's a lot going on.
Rick Beggs It almost took 30 minutes to do that. Oh, we had an incredible treat, in these, past recent weeks, where you came and were with me in Atlanta in person. Yes.
Debbie Wuthnow Which doesn't happen.
Rick Beggs we had a. We had a tv, station that allowed us to use their studios here in Atlanta. And we got the biggest treat, which was to spend time with Dr. George Barna. And, I don't know, Debbie, about you, but it seems like he's been around forever, which would say I've been around forever because we're about the same age and hey, but. But he was delightful and. And I have talked to him before, but never in depth like we got to do a couple weeks ago. So, any take before we kind of jump into what we asked George to do for us?
Debbie Wuthnow Well, I just. I have always. First. When I first. I was. My first introduction to George Barna was probably when I, you know, was named executive director iVoterGuide Voter Guide, and remember being at an event where he had done research in, getting ready for the 2016 presidential election. And just his. His depth and his, depth of research, his methodology, his. I mean, he's just so respected and trusted. Every time I see him speak, I will swear to you, he's like paparazzi on PowerPoint. I mean, every. There are more phones taking pictures of his PowerPoint slides. He just has so much information. I've really wanted to work him for a long time. And you know, back in 2018, iVoterGuide voter guide presented him an award at an event we held. So I got to meet him and meet him in person, and that's when he gave a great presentation. And at that point, I'm like, george, I would love to have you do something with Ivoter Guide. But, you know, the timing wasn't right. And it, was really a blessing that Walker showered on me of finally saying, yeah, let's. Let's do something with George, which kind of put us on this path to where we are today.
George Barna So.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah.
Behind the Scenes: Filming the Interview with George Barna and Promoting iVoterGuide on Social Media
Rick Beggs And, when we. When we spent some time with him, which, by the way, when I introduced him on our show and we did a, we. We actually videotaped it. So, yeah, people are going to get a chance to see you and I in person if they'd like to.
Debbie Wuthnow But I think we're working on that on our YouTube channel or, we'll be putting it on some of our social, media. So if you don't follow, I voterguide on on social media. Go check us out on Facebook and X and Pinterest and Instagram. follow us at ivoterguide. And I think we also have a YouTube channel where I think it's almost a one hour interview and we'll be posting it to our, our YouTube channel.
Rick Beggs We've become like a television show now.
George Barna's Humility and Calling: Focusing on Christian Behavior and Unique Polling Assignments
We've done like 10 minutes of commercials before we even get.
Debbie Wuthnow I wish we got ad money like
Rick Beggs that, but that would be helpful, huh? well, as I was saying when I introduced him, and course his bio is so lengthy, you know, just all the things he's involved in. but I think what I love the most about his bio, his opening line, is that he's a grateful follower of Jesus, but imperfect.
Debbie Wuthnow So true. I was gonna say so true for him, but so humble, but so true of us.
Rick Beggs Yeah, yeah, for all of us. Anyway, we, we chose or, your relationship with George allowed us to, to ask him directly if he would do some polling, some surveying for us. So what exactly, ah, as we set this up, Debbie, what exactly did you ask him to do?
Debbie Wuthnow Well, I still remember that first phone call with him where Walker had given the okay. And we're meeting with, you know, George and his team and he's like, well, you know, I've done lots of polling before. He's, I mean, he, he polls on worldview, which is part of why I was excited to work with him. But he also does political polling and voter participation and things like that.
The Challenge of Down-Ballot Voting: Identifying a Gap in Polling and the Need for More Information
And he said, you know, I want to do something that's different. I don't want to do the same thing I've always done. So he says, debbie, go back and, and find, find me something different to poll on.
Rick Beggs Find me different.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah, I thought, oh my gosh, the professor has given me a research assignment because he is a professor at Arizona Christian. And I did go school and I felt like I literally printed out all of his, the research that was available at Arizona Christian that he had done. They had, I mean, it was pages and pages and pages and read through all of them and when summarizing them and what did they find? And there the gap that I found was all the times that he'd asked about, you know, why don't you vote in this election? Or, you know, do you vote in this election? Or, you know, he would ask, you know, it was in reference to the president or to the Senate, because these were frequently paid by organizations or candidates that were at the top of the ticket. And I thought, you know, what iVoterGuide voter guide is unique in that. and it certainly, it's in my heart, is to go down ballot, because that's where I myself as a voter know I need more information. So I said, george, can we look more about voter participation down ballot? And you know, do they vote? If they don't, why? What would change that behavior? And he's like, that would be interesting. And so that's kind of what I hope. I got an A on my report. But, you might be sitting up
Rick Beggs front in class and taking all the notes. I know exactly how you are. Yeah.
The Invisible Part of Elections: Researching Down-Ballot Offices and Their Impact on Our Lives
Debbie Wuthnow So that's what got us started. And, you know, I think George was excited about it. I think, yeah, it was, it was great information. He was excited to do it, but I think we asked him that question and we can play a clip.
Rick Beggs Okay, why don't we go to clip 1?
George Barna Research for about 50 years, which is about as long as I've been doing research. And this one is different because usually what you're asked to take, a look at are things that will put particular candidates over the top or parties get enough seats to have a majority in their, chamber or whatever. What are the driving issues? This one is all about the invisible part of the elections.
Rick Beggs Yeah.
George Barna Which is the offices that are at the end of the ballot. And I never get asked to research that because, first of all, those candidates don't have the money to do it. Secondly, don't care about those offices. Thirdly, people aren't looking for that information very often. And so it's a forgotten element of the electoral process.
The Importance of Down-Ballot Races: Understanding Their Impact and Personal Voter Experiences
And yet down ballot offices are incredibly influential in our lives. In many ways more influential than the high profile offices.
Rick Beggs Well, that was such a great way to start. I know he was talking about me years ago. You know, I was that guy going down ballot, and I got to something I didn't understand, or maybe it was apathy and I didn't care and I didn't bother to look for information, so I skipped it. And so he's speaking to how I was, of course, before you and I, started hanging out and doing this together. But that was me, Debbie.
Debbie Wuthnow I think that's most voters, you know, pre ivoterguide days, it was probably me because, you know, when I was trained to take tests, if I don't know the answer, I skip it. If I don't know who those people are or what they're going to do, I just left it blank. And, But I've come to learn those races are even more important impacting our families, our communities, our churches, school boards set curriculum, local judges determine custody cases and even election law and other things.
Key Findings on Voter Participation: A Significant Drop in Ballot Completion for Down-Ballot Races
There's so much that goes on and that has impacted, how that impacts us. And what he found in this study I thought was super, I guess, confirming of what I kind of assumed because, you know, in the past he'd asked, did you have enough information about the candidates? But that was about president and governor. We have. We're swimming. I mean, that's all we see on the news is information up at the top of the ticket. But once you get down to the bottom, you're lucky to know their names. You're lucky to have seen a road sign, or, you know, a sign in somebody's yard about that candidate. So what he found in this study was that, you know, we study, he polled 2,000 likely voters across the nation across the demographics. It's only got a plus 2.2percent, plus or minus 2 margin of error. And of those, likely voters, 85% said that they were going to, you know, vote. They were highly likely to vote in this November election, but only 55% of them were going to fill out the whole ballot. That's a 30 point drop of people who are doing.
Rick Beggs Say that again, Debbie. I think that's really important. Say those numbers again.
Debbie Wuthnow So, we polled likely voters and 85% of them will vote at the top of the ticket. Top of the 85, 85%, but only 55% will vote all the way down to the bottom, which means 30% of ballots. People are skipping races. They're not filling in a name.
Confirmation and Affirmation: How George Barna's Research Validates iVoterGuide's Mission
And so that's, it was shocking, but in a way it was also confirming and affirming that we knew that was happening. We know we had done it right. But it was great to have some, some affirmation from George Barna, the trusted source, that that was going on. really it confirmed that we were doing the right thing and moving in the right direction at iVoterGuide Voter guide, as we have sought to cover more down ballot races, more judges, more ballot measures, school boards, because that's really where it's a lack of information that is, causing the problem.
Rick Beggs So when you look at that, Debbie, what do you think, Christians are saying by not going down ballot? I think you mentioned, lack of information. I used to think it was apathy. what do you. What's going on? Is it both?
Debbie Wuthnow I think it's, it's like it's. I think. Well, the number one response we got was that it was lack of information. But we'll dive into that deeper later. I think Christians don't want to get it wrong and they don't want to vote for the wrong guy and they don't want to guess.
The Consequences of Not Voting Down-Ballot: Surrendering Influence and the Concept of Silence as Consent
So they just skip it or, you know, and don't. They haven't prepped in advance to know who's going to be on the ballot and to do the research. but it's a, ah, in a way it's surrendering our influence, by not filling in every race on the ballot because if you're not voting, somebody else is going to vote for you. We'll say there's a biblical concept that silence is consent and not filling something in is being silent. It's not just, it's a choice. It's a choice and you're allowing the other side to. Or other people to vote for you. And I think that's a sad thing. it's something we'd love to change. And so I'm going to challenge our listeners that they need to not be in that 30 points. Let's vow each pledge to each other that we're going to vote in every election and we're going to vote a, complete ballot by doing the research. And iVoterGuide is a great start at doing that.
Rick Beggs So voters mean well, they're just not finishing well when it comes to their ballot. And a lot of it is a lack of information.
Debbie Wuthnow Yep.
Encouraging Full Ballot Participation: Recognizing Our Responsibility to Influence and Transform Culture
I think George spoke too.
George Barna Yeah.
Rick Beggs Yeah. What did he say about that?
Debbie Wuthnow Well, I think it's clip two. Can we listen to clip two?
George Barna The, the other thing that's interesting is that it's so hard to get people to vote at all. And then it's so discouraging to see that many of those who bother to vote don't bother to vote by the time you get to the end of the ballot. So you've got kind of these, you know, people who mean well, but they don't finish well. And I think that's one of the things that we want to encourage God's people at least to be doing, is to recognize that part of our responsibility we're called to influence the culture. We're called to transform the culture. We're not called to be completely invested in politics. We're supposed to be completely invested in Christ. But he calls us society for his purposes. And politics and government is part of what determines how people live, how much opportunity they're going to have to know him, to serve Him.
Stewardship and Worldview: The Critical Role of Down-Ballot Offices and the State of Christian Worldviews
All of those kinds of things. So these offices are very critical.
Rick Beggs Wow.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah. yeah. It all comes down to stewardship.
Rick Beggs Yeah. And, what I love about George is that he gets the hard data. He does the survey and the polling, but he is able to clip it to really talk about our citizenship, what it means to be in Christ, and what our responsibilities are.
Debbie Wuthnow Well, I think that's. Honestly, George's calling is to study Christians and their behavior and their beliefs and their actions. he has a great study where he's looking even at worldview and how many, you know, supposed Christians truly have a biblical worldview. And it's a shocking number. It's like 6% of Americans only have a biblical worldview. So many 65% of Americans will say they're Christian, but only 6% have a biblical worldview. And your worldview is how. What. How you view the world, really. It's what the word says. It's like the lens you're looking through, how it's the.
Faith and Politics Intersectionality: How George Barna's Research Informs Christian Citizenship and Cultural Engagement
It taints or slants or guides or directs, how we view things and how we react to things and our actions. So that is part of why I was so excited to work with George is not just political polling, but that intersectionality with faith and Christians and different faith groups and what guides their behavior. And, he is a, as you started with, a humble servant of Christ and really views this as what God has called him. To do is to bring information, to bring clarity, and, you know, sometimes even to step on some toes as he shares what's going on in culture in America, relating to Christians and politics.
Rick Beggs Well, we've been kind of beating this drum as we've gone around the country, about citizenship, and what really is expected of us as Christians. I think a lot of people, say they don't want to mix the two. That couldn't be farther from the truth.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah, yeah. No, Jesus wasn't. Jesus spoke to all of the issues. Jesus spoke to all of the areas of culture. You know, he went into the temple and turned over the tables. That was. In a way, that was the government system and the religious system. he. He spoke to social, you know, socialism and work ethic and caring for widows and orphans and all of those things that, you know, we might. Some might say are politics. But it. It's just part of being a good Christian and being engaged and being salt and light. And as George said, you know, we're supposed to impact culture. We're supposed to transform culture. We're supposed to make disciples that do the same. That Impact culture. and part of our culture is guided by who we elect. So being involved in politics is something. I mean, it may be dirty because the ungodly that are there too. but it's something that all of us should be in. In fact, if it's too ungodly, it's probably because the Christians haven't engaged in it. So we all need to do our part. And I love George's heart for that as well as yours, Rick.
The Sensitive Issue of Church Participation: Examining the Impact of Votes, Especially in School Board Races
Rick Beggs we sort of turned the corner a little bit with him in this discussion because we sort of, I don't know if we bumped our elbow against or stubbed our toe against something that can be really sensitive. And that is the whole idea of the church's participation.
Debbie Wuthnow Or lack of.
Rick Beggs Yes, or, or lack of. And then how, how votes. How, how sometimes very few votes can make a difference, especially down ballot school board races. that's the one. You know that, that breaks my heart.
The Power of Few Votes: How Targeted Voting and a Remnant Can Impact Elections Significantly
Yeah.
Debbie Wuthnow Yes, he did.
Rick Beggs Yeah.
Debbie Wuthnow Should we hear, clip three?
Rick Beggs Yeah, let's do it.
George Barna One of the things that struck me in going through this research is how few votes make a huge difference. And so, you know, again, having been a campaign manager and still doing campaign polling and whatnot for various candidates, one of the things that I, you know, came to the forefront in this research is that targeting of votes is so critical because when you have low turnout, or in this case only a part of what actually turns out bothers to vote in your particular race, targeting becomes so much more critical. And so for those of us in the church, to be visible as a group of people that can be counted on to vote in a particular way, first of all to vote and then to vote in a particular way, that, that's really significant.
Debbie Wuthnow That's huge. And yeah, it reminds me of that statistic that I share a lot of times when I speak about when we started covering school board races, the, was it 20, 24? We covered almost 300 races. And in a third of those races, the winning margin was less than 400 votes in a school board race.
Rick Beggs That's a small church.
Debbie Wuthnow It is a small church. Medium sized church. If they would, as they, as George said, if they would turn up to vote and vote a full ballot, they could swing that election. And it just shows that, it's within reach.
Winning by a Margin: The Critical Role of Individual Votes in Local and State Elections
And honestly, God doesn't want to work through majority. He wants to work through a remnant. He'd like to work in the small numbers and in the margins. but if we do our part, it's Certainly achievable. A lot of us get focused on the millions of voters who vote for president and the, you know, hundreds of thousands who are voting for governor. But when you get down to those local races, it's. We're talking hundreds and sometimes dozens that are the winning difference. And so it's really important that all of us do our part.
Rick Beggs And we. You have, you have several stories of where races were won and lost by hundred, less than a hundred.
Debbie Wuthnow Well, there's quite a few. There's even races that have been won and lost by one. I was just reading this morning a reminder. In, Virginia, the control of their state legislature was in a tie and it was down. Was it somebody won by one vote and. No, it was a flat out tie in this one race. And whoever won that one race would give that party control of that chamber. And it literally came down to a coin toss to determine who won that one race, who then controlled the chamber of the state legislature in that state. One vote. There's lots of times when that happens in school boards and city councils. It's, you know, I'm remembering, a congressman from Ohio. Not Ohio, Iowa, who literally won by six votes. So, every vote does count. Sometimes it's very lopsided, but there are plenty of stories of it being very, very achievable. It could be your small group who makes the difference in a local election.
Encouraging Voter Participation: Talking About Voting, Making Plans, and Assisting Others
Rick Beggs Well, and I think that's why we have to be talking about this, in our peer groups, in our neighborhoods, in our churches.
Debbie Wuthnow Yep. In fact, I would, I would challenge you. Just ask the people in your group, are you registered and do you plan to vote? You don't have to talk about who they're voting for. If they, you know, if they ask you say, well, I have this tool I could send you to that has some research you could use. Doesn't tell you who to vote. It's just a tool. And that would, of course be iVoterGuide voter guide, but just challenge them. Are you going to vote? Make a plan and make it. Make your plan. maybe go together. Were you talking about taking your mom to vote, Rick?
Rick Beggs Yeah, yeah, I was. and she's in a wheelchair. And so, you know, I, was thinking, why not gather a bunch of people. I may ask the assisted living, to make sure that they're taking people to vote because I think they're probably field trip. Yeah. Yeah. Including lunch, because they love to eat, so. Ah, they could make activity and. Yeah. And then they come home for a nap. Actually, that sounds Good to me.
The Importance of Trusted Resources: Navigating Political Information and Utilizing iVoterGuide
but I, you know, a lot of times I think those people are forgotten and sometimes it only takes somebody to go pick them up and take them out to vote. But their, their vote counts because as you said, sometimes it's 100, sometimes it's 10, sometimes it's 1.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah.
Rick Beggs And that will make the difference. Do you think, this is kind of a wild hair thought. You think anybody ever asked George who he votes for and should they vote for the same people? Is he that go to guy that we all have in our relationships? We have go to person who's going to tell us everything.
Debbie Wuthnow I know that, you know, sometimes I, I used to have a guy actually was an iVoterGuide voter guide researcher, but I'm not, I wasn't just plugged in locally. So I would, I would go to that guy and, and get information because honestly it's, it's hard to get good information. It's hard to know who you're going to vote for. and it's, you know, you get flyers in the mail and you get text. Now my phone's blowing up with text messages or you see hard signs. So, it's always good to have a trusted resource and I would pray for those of you listening that you check out iVoterGuide and it might become your trusted resource now.
Rick Beggs Debbie, is this research accessible?
Accessing the Barna Report: Downloading Research and Staying Informed with iVoterGuide
I mean, can people go look for this on our site?
Debbie Wuthnow Excellent point, Rick. if you go to I voter, it is, you can download it. If you go to ivoterguide.com you will see a red banner up at the top. It's kind of hard to miss that says download the Barna Report. And if you sign up on that form, not only will you get to download the Barna report and read, I mean we've, we're barely scratching the surface, Rick. I think we're going to be talking about this for a couple of weeks.
Rick Beggs I'm thinking we're. Yeah, I think we're going to do two or three shows, maybe 12, I don't know.
Debbie Wuthnow But I would encourage, yes, encourage you to download it. It'll also put you on our email list. So we'll let you know when we're releasing your voter guide. So if you don't know if it's out yet, I'd encourage you to go to ivoterguide.com and download that Barna report. And you know, if you find it informational, tell your friends and your neighbors about it. Information is power. And when we find something good, we want to be. We want to share it. So I would hope you would do that as well.
Rick Beggs Well, and we can only do so many shows, but really we're encouraging people, go read the research yourself. But we're highlighting here basically what George has said.
Encouragement to Engage: Reading the Research and Not Letting Down-Ballot Voting Suffer
But there are so many nuggets in the study. And we, as Debbie said, we want to encourage you, really, to go read this research for yourself, use
Debbie Wuthnow it to encourage you to play your part just to have a better understanding of the environment we're in and as an encouragement.
Rick Beggs Yeah, let's not let down balloting be, a suffering issue, especially from the church. So we want to encourage you to go do that. We, we will talk about George again, next week. I, I can't believe that we got those, those special moments, to be with him. And, the fact that he was excited to do this, that's pretty special too. He did something for us he's never done before, ever.
Connecting with the Compass: Emailing Questions and Staying Informed for Wise Voting
Oh, I love talking. Hey, Debbie, if somebody wants to write to us and ask us a question,
Debbie Wuthnow not George or us, send an email to. They would send an email to infoaterguide.com any question we'll talk about on air. just be informed and vote wisely.
Rick Beggs Go get the AFR app and remember, we're grounded in God, rooted in research and always, always on the compass. Jesus is the true north.
Welcome to the Compass Podcast: Introducing iVoterGuide and Election Day Information
Rick Beggs Welcome to the Compass, navigating the public
square together with faith, truth and conviction.
Rick Beggs Well, we couldn't be more grateful that you're with us today on the Compass. The Compass is the official radio show of iVoterGuide Speaking of iVoterGuide I have the president of iVoterGuide Voter Guide, Debbie Wuthnow, now with me. say hey, Debbie.
Debbie Wuthnow Hey, Rick. Good to be back with everybody. It's. We're getting close to election day. It's getting exciting.
Rick Beggs Oh, we are.
Understanding Voter Guides and Early Voting: States with Released Guides and Upcoming Releases
You know what? Why don't we start the program today with who can go vote now? Do you have that information for us?
Debbie Wuthnow I do. Well, you know, we used to have election day, and now we have. It's not even election month. It's election season because there are seven states where you can already go vote for the November election, and those states are Minnesota, South Dakota, Virginia, Vermont, Illinois, Missouri, and Mississippi. Now, we have not released voter guides in all of those states. We're working really hard on it. But the. The states where we have released voter guides are, Alaska, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Maryland, Mississippi, Montana, NewSong Jersey, NewSong Mexico, NewSong York City, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, Vermont, and coming out today, Wisconsin. So, those are out now. And then in this upcoming week. So before, Before Compass comes back to you guys, we'll be releasing voter guides in Georgia, Iowa, Oregon and South Carolina. So I would tell you, if you don't know if yours is out or not, go to ivoterguide.com Enter your address to pull up your personalized ballot.
Navigating Voter Guides: Identifying Released Guides and the Importance of Waiting for Information
If you see races and candidates with a gauge, the gas gauge, that is the iVoterGuide rating means that your voter guide is released if you just see names of candidates and maybe at their website or social media, we call that a candidate list. We are still feverishly working on evaluating those candidates and verifying all the information and getting that released. So I would ask you sign up for our email list, but then say a prayer for our team as they are evaluating thousands of candidates to get all of these voter guides out. We're about, a third of the way through, releasing voter guides. We're close to half and, it's coming. So sign up for our email list and we'll make sure you have that information. A ballot in the mail and iVoterGuide is not available yet in your state. Please just set it aside and, and don't vote by guessing. Wait till you have the information and the research, and use iVoterGuide as your resource.
Rick Beggs Well, I think we're just about out of time, Debbie.
An In-Depth Conversation with Dr. George Barna: A Long-Awaited Collaboration with iVoterGuide
For our show.
Debbie Wuthnow There's a lot going on.
Rick Beggs It almost took 30 minutes to do that. Oh, we had an incredible treat, in these, past recent weeks, where you came and were with me in Atlanta in person. Yes.
Debbie Wuthnow Which doesn't happen.
Rick Beggs we had a. We had a tv, station that allowed us to use their studios here in Atlanta. And we got the biggest treat, which was to spend time with Dr. George Barna. And, I don't know, Debbie, about you, but it seems like he's been around forever, which would say I've been around forever because we're about the same age and hey, but. But he was delightful and. And I have talked to him before, but never in depth like we got to do a couple weeks ago. So, any take before we kind of jump into what we asked George to do for us?
Debbie Wuthnow Well, I just. I have always. First. When I first. I was. My first introduction to George Barna was probably when I, you know, was named executive director iVoterGuide Voter Guide, and remember being at an event where he had done research in, getting ready for the 2016 presidential election. And just his. His depth and his, depth of research, his methodology, his. I mean, he's just so respected and trusted. Every time I see him speak, I will swear to you, he's like paparazzi on PowerPoint. I mean, every. There are more phones taking pictures of his PowerPoint slides. He just has so much information. I've really wanted to work him for a long time. And you know, back in 2018, iVoterGuide voter guide presented him an award at an event we held. So I got to meet him and meet him in person, and that's when he gave a great presentation. And at that point, I'm like, george, I would love to have you do something with Ivoter Guide. But, you know, the timing wasn't right. And it, was really a blessing that Walker showered on me of finally saying, yeah, let's. Let's do something with George, which kind of put us on this path to where we are today.
George Barna So.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah.
Behind the Scenes: Filming the Interview with George Barna and Promoting iVoterGuide on Social Media
Rick Beggs And, when we. When we spent some time with him, which, by the way, when I introduced him on our show and we did a, we. We actually videotaped it. So, yeah, people are going to get a chance to see you and I in person if they'd like to.
Debbie Wuthnow But I think we're working on that on our YouTube channel or, we'll be putting it on some of our social, media. So if you don't follow, I voterguide on on social media. Go check us out on Facebook and X and Pinterest and Instagram. follow us at ivoterguide. And I think we also have a YouTube channel where I think it's almost a one hour interview and we'll be posting it to our, our YouTube channel.
Rick Beggs We've become like a television show now.
George Barna's Humility and Calling: Focusing on Christian Behavior and Unique Polling Assignments
We've done like 10 minutes of commercials before we even get.
Debbie Wuthnow I wish we got ad money like
Rick Beggs that, but that would be helpful, huh? well, as I was saying when I introduced him, and course his bio is so lengthy, you know, just all the things he's involved in. but I think what I love the most about his bio, his opening line, is that he's a grateful follower of Jesus, but imperfect.
Debbie Wuthnow So true. I was gonna say so true for him, but so humble, but so true of us.
Rick Beggs Yeah, yeah, for all of us. Anyway, we, we chose or, your relationship with George allowed us to, to ask him directly if he would do some polling, some surveying for us. So what exactly, ah, as we set this up, Debbie, what exactly did you ask him to do?
Debbie Wuthnow Well, I still remember that first phone call with him where Walker had given the okay. And we're meeting with, you know, George and his team and he's like, well, you know, I've done lots of polling before. He's, I mean, he, he polls on worldview, which is part of why I was excited to work with him. But he also does political polling and voter participation and things like that.
The Challenge of Down-Ballot Voting: Identifying a Gap in Polling and the Need for More Information
And he said, you know, I want to do something that's different. I don't want to do the same thing I've always done. So he says, debbie, go back and, and find, find me something different to poll on.
Rick Beggs Find me different.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah, I thought, oh my gosh, the professor has given me a research assignment because he is a professor at Arizona Christian. And I did go school and I felt like I literally printed out all of his, the research that was available at Arizona Christian that he had done. They had, I mean, it was pages and pages and pages and read through all of them and when summarizing them and what did they find? And there the gap that I found was all the times that he'd asked about, you know, why don't you vote in this election? Or, you know, do you vote in this election? Or, you know, he would ask, you know, it was in reference to the president or to the Senate, because these were frequently paid by organizations or candidates that were at the top of the ticket. And I thought, you know, what iVoterGuide voter guide is unique in that. and it certainly, it's in my heart, is to go down ballot, because that's where I myself as a voter know I need more information. So I said, george, can we look more about voter participation down ballot? And you know, do they vote? If they don't, why? What would change that behavior? And he's like, that would be interesting. And so that's kind of what I hope. I got an A on my report. But, you might be sitting up
Rick Beggs front in class and taking all the notes. I know exactly how you are. Yeah.
The Invisible Part of Elections: Researching Down-Ballot Offices and Their Impact on Our Lives
Debbie Wuthnow So that's what got us started. And, you know, I think George was excited about it. I think, yeah, it was, it was great information. He was excited to do it, but I think we asked him that question and we can play a clip.
Rick Beggs Okay, why don't we go to clip 1?
George Barna Research for about 50 years, which is about as long as I've been doing research. And this one is different because usually what you're asked to take, a look at are things that will put particular candidates over the top or parties get enough seats to have a majority in their, chamber or whatever. What are the driving issues? This one is all about the invisible part of the elections.
Rick Beggs Yeah.
George Barna Which is the offices that are at the end of the ballot. And I never get asked to research that because, first of all, those candidates don't have the money to do it. Secondly, don't care about those offices. Thirdly, people aren't looking for that information very often. And so it's a forgotten element of the electoral process.
The Importance of Down-Ballot Races: Understanding Their Impact and Personal Voter Experiences
And yet down ballot offices are incredibly influential in our lives. In many ways more influential than the high profile offices.
Rick Beggs Well, that was such a great way to start. I know he was talking about me years ago. You know, I was that guy going down ballot, and I got to something I didn't understand, or maybe it was apathy and I didn't care and I didn't bother to look for information, so I skipped it. And so he's speaking to how I was, of course, before you and I, started hanging out and doing this together. But that was me, Debbie.
Debbie Wuthnow I think that's most voters, you know, pre ivoterguide days, it was probably me because, you know, when I was trained to take tests, if I don't know the answer, I skip it. If I don't know who those people are or what they're going to do, I just left it blank. And, But I've come to learn those races are even more important impacting our families, our communities, our churches, school boards set curriculum, local judges determine custody cases and even election law and other things.
Key Findings on Voter Participation: A Significant Drop in Ballot Completion for Down-Ballot Races
There's so much that goes on and that has impacted, how that impacts us. And what he found in this study I thought was super, I guess, confirming of what I kind of assumed because, you know, in the past he'd asked, did you have enough information about the candidates? But that was about president and governor. We have. We're swimming. I mean, that's all we see on the news is information up at the top of the ticket. But once you get down to the bottom, you're lucky to know their names. You're lucky to have seen a road sign, or, you know, a sign in somebody's yard about that candidate. So what he found in this study was that, you know, we study, he polled 2,000 likely voters across the nation across the demographics. It's only got a plus 2.2percent, plus or minus 2 margin of error. And of those, likely voters, 85% said that they were going to, you know, vote. They were highly likely to vote in this November election, but only 55% of them were going to fill out the whole ballot. That's a 30 point drop of people who are doing.
Rick Beggs Say that again, Debbie. I think that's really important. Say those numbers again.
Debbie Wuthnow So, we polled likely voters and 85% of them will vote at the top of the ticket. Top of the 85, 85%, but only 55% will vote all the way down to the bottom, which means 30% of ballots. People are skipping races. They're not filling in a name.
Confirmation and Affirmation: How George Barna's Research Validates iVoterGuide's Mission
And so that's, it was shocking, but in a way it was also confirming and affirming that we knew that was happening. We know we had done it right. But it was great to have some, some affirmation from George Barna, the trusted source, that that was going on. really it confirmed that we were doing the right thing and moving in the right direction at iVoterGuide Voter guide, as we have sought to cover more down ballot races, more judges, more ballot measures, school boards, because that's really where it's a lack of information that is, causing the problem.
Rick Beggs So when you look at that, Debbie, what do you think, Christians are saying by not going down ballot? I think you mentioned, lack of information. I used to think it was apathy. what do you. What's going on? Is it both?
Debbie Wuthnow I think it's, it's like it's. I think. Well, the number one response we got was that it was lack of information. But we'll dive into that deeper later. I think Christians don't want to get it wrong and they don't want to vote for the wrong guy and they don't want to guess.
The Consequences of Not Voting Down-Ballot: Surrendering Influence and the Concept of Silence as Consent
So they just skip it or, you know, and don't. They haven't prepped in advance to know who's going to be on the ballot and to do the research. but it's a, ah, in a way it's surrendering our influence, by not filling in every race on the ballot because if you're not voting, somebody else is going to vote for you. We'll say there's a biblical concept that silence is consent and not filling something in is being silent. It's not just, it's a choice. It's a choice and you're allowing the other side to. Or other people to vote for you. And I think that's a sad thing. it's something we'd love to change. And so I'm going to challenge our listeners that they need to not be in that 30 points. Let's vow each pledge to each other that we're going to vote in every election and we're going to vote a, complete ballot by doing the research. And iVoterGuide is a great start at doing that.
Rick Beggs So voters mean well, they're just not finishing well when it comes to their ballot. And a lot of it is a lack of information.
Debbie Wuthnow Yep.
Encouraging Full Ballot Participation: Recognizing Our Responsibility to Influence and Transform Culture
I think George spoke too.
George Barna Yeah.
Rick Beggs Yeah. What did he say about that?
Debbie Wuthnow Well, I think it's clip two. Can we listen to clip two?
George Barna The, the other thing that's interesting is that it's so hard to get people to vote at all. And then it's so discouraging to see that many of those who bother to vote don't bother to vote by the time you get to the end of the ballot. So you've got kind of these, you know, people who mean well, but they don't finish well. And I think that's one of the things that we want to encourage God's people at least to be doing, is to recognize that part of our responsibility we're called to influence the culture. We're called to transform the culture. We're not called to be completely invested in politics. We're supposed to be completely invested in Christ. But he calls us society for his purposes. And politics and government is part of what determines how people live, how much opportunity they're going to have to know him, to serve Him.
Stewardship and Worldview: The Critical Role of Down-Ballot Offices and the State of Christian Worldviews
All of those kinds of things. So these offices are very critical.
Rick Beggs Wow.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah. yeah. It all comes down to stewardship.
Rick Beggs Yeah. And, what I love about George is that he gets the hard data. He does the survey and the polling, but he is able to clip it to really talk about our citizenship, what it means to be in Christ, and what our responsibilities are.
Debbie Wuthnow Well, I think that's. Honestly, George's calling is to study Christians and their behavior and their beliefs and their actions. he has a great study where he's looking even at worldview and how many, you know, supposed Christians truly have a biblical worldview. And it's a shocking number. It's like 6% of Americans only have a biblical worldview. So many 65% of Americans will say they're Christian, but only 6% have a biblical worldview. And your worldview is how. What. How you view the world, really. It's what the word says. It's like the lens you're looking through, how it's the.
Faith and Politics Intersectionality: How George Barna's Research Informs Christian Citizenship and Cultural Engagement
It taints or slants or guides or directs, how we view things and how we react to things and our actions. So that is part of why I was so excited to work with George is not just political polling, but that intersectionality with faith and Christians and different faith groups and what guides their behavior. And, he is a, as you started with, a humble servant of Christ and really views this as what God has called him. To do is to bring information, to bring clarity, and, you know, sometimes even to step on some toes as he shares what's going on in culture in America, relating to Christians and politics.
Rick Beggs Well, we've been kind of beating this drum as we've gone around the country, about citizenship, and what really is expected of us as Christians. I think a lot of people, say they don't want to mix the two. That couldn't be farther from the truth.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah, yeah. No, Jesus wasn't. Jesus spoke to all of the issues. Jesus spoke to all of the areas of culture. You know, he went into the temple and turned over the tables. That was. In a way, that was the government system and the religious system. he. He spoke to social, you know, socialism and work ethic and caring for widows and orphans and all of those things that, you know, we might. Some might say are politics. But it. It's just part of being a good Christian and being engaged and being salt and light. And as George said, you know, we're supposed to impact culture. We're supposed to transform culture. We're supposed to make disciples that do the same. That Impact culture. and part of our culture is guided by who we elect. So being involved in politics is something. I mean, it may be dirty because the ungodly that are there too. but it's something that all of us should be in. In fact, if it's too ungodly, it's probably because the Christians haven't engaged in it. So we all need to do our part. And I love George's heart for that as well as yours, Rick.
The Sensitive Issue of Church Participation: Examining the Impact of Votes, Especially in School Board Races
Rick Beggs we sort of turned the corner a little bit with him in this discussion because we sort of, I don't know if we bumped our elbow against or stubbed our toe against something that can be really sensitive. And that is the whole idea of the church's participation.
Debbie Wuthnow Or lack of.
Rick Beggs Yes, or, or lack of. And then how, how votes. How, how sometimes very few votes can make a difference, especially down ballot school board races. that's the one. You know that, that breaks my heart.
The Power of Few Votes: How Targeted Voting and a Remnant Can Impact Elections Significantly
Yeah.
Debbie Wuthnow Yes, he did.
Rick Beggs Yeah.
Debbie Wuthnow Should we hear, clip three?
Rick Beggs Yeah, let's do it.
George Barna One of the things that struck me in going through this research is how few votes make a huge difference. And so, you know, again, having been a campaign manager and still doing campaign polling and whatnot for various candidates, one of the things that I, you know, came to the forefront in this research is that targeting of votes is so critical because when you have low turnout, or in this case only a part of what actually turns out bothers to vote in your particular race, targeting becomes so much more critical. And so for those of us in the church, to be visible as a group of people that can be counted on to vote in a particular way, first of all to vote and then to vote in a particular way, that, that's really significant.
Debbie Wuthnow That's huge. And yeah, it reminds me of that statistic that I share a lot of times when I speak about when we started covering school board races, the, was it 20, 24? We covered almost 300 races. And in a third of those races, the winning margin was less than 400 votes in a school board race.
Rick Beggs That's a small church.
Debbie Wuthnow It is a small church. Medium sized church. If they would, as they, as George said, if they would turn up to vote and vote a full ballot, they could swing that election. And it just shows that, it's within reach.
Winning by a Margin: The Critical Role of Individual Votes in Local and State Elections
And honestly, God doesn't want to work through majority. He wants to work through a remnant. He'd like to work in the small numbers and in the margins. but if we do our part, it's Certainly achievable. A lot of us get focused on the millions of voters who vote for president and the, you know, hundreds of thousands who are voting for governor. But when you get down to those local races, it's. We're talking hundreds and sometimes dozens that are the winning difference. And so it's really important that all of us do our part.
Rick Beggs And we. You have, you have several stories of where races were won and lost by hundred, less than a hundred.
Debbie Wuthnow Well, there's quite a few. There's even races that have been won and lost by one. I was just reading this morning a reminder. In, Virginia, the control of their state legislature was in a tie and it was down. Was it somebody won by one vote and. No, it was a flat out tie in this one race. And whoever won that one race would give that party control of that chamber. And it literally came down to a coin toss to determine who won that one race, who then controlled the chamber of the state legislature in that state. One vote. There's lots of times when that happens in school boards and city councils. It's, you know, I'm remembering, a congressman from Ohio. Not Ohio, Iowa, who literally won by six votes. So, every vote does count. Sometimes it's very lopsided, but there are plenty of stories of it being very, very achievable. It could be your small group who makes the difference in a local election.
Encouraging Voter Participation: Talking About Voting, Making Plans, and Assisting Others
Rick Beggs Well, and I think that's why we have to be talking about this, in our peer groups, in our neighborhoods, in our churches.
Debbie Wuthnow Yep. In fact, I would, I would challenge you. Just ask the people in your group, are you registered and do you plan to vote? You don't have to talk about who they're voting for. If they, you know, if they ask you say, well, I have this tool I could send you to that has some research you could use. Doesn't tell you who to vote. It's just a tool. And that would, of course be iVoterGuide voter guide, but just challenge them. Are you going to vote? Make a plan and make it. Make your plan. maybe go together. Were you talking about taking your mom to vote, Rick?
Rick Beggs Yeah, yeah, I was. and she's in a wheelchair. And so, you know, I, was thinking, why not gather a bunch of people. I may ask the assisted living, to make sure that they're taking people to vote because I think they're probably field trip. Yeah. Yeah. Including lunch, because they love to eat, so. Ah, they could make activity and. Yeah. And then they come home for a nap. Actually, that sounds Good to me.
The Importance of Trusted Resources: Navigating Political Information and Utilizing iVoterGuide
but I, you know, a lot of times I think those people are forgotten and sometimes it only takes somebody to go pick them up and take them out to vote. But their, their vote counts because as you said, sometimes it's 100, sometimes it's 10, sometimes it's 1.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah.
Rick Beggs And that will make the difference. Do you think, this is kind of a wild hair thought. You think anybody ever asked George who he votes for and should they vote for the same people? Is he that go to guy that we all have in our relationships? We have go to person who's going to tell us everything.
Debbie Wuthnow I know that, you know, sometimes I, I used to have a guy actually was an iVoterGuide voter guide researcher, but I'm not, I wasn't just plugged in locally. So I would, I would go to that guy and, and get information because honestly it's, it's hard to get good information. It's hard to know who you're going to vote for. and it's, you know, you get flyers in the mail and you get text. Now my phone's blowing up with text messages or you see hard signs. So, it's always good to have a trusted resource and I would pray for those of you listening that you check out iVoterGuide and it might become your trusted resource now.
Rick Beggs Debbie, is this research accessible?
Accessing the Barna Report: Downloading Research and Staying Informed with iVoterGuide
I mean, can people go look for this on our site?
Debbie Wuthnow Excellent point, Rick. if you go to I voter, it is, you can download it. If you go to ivoterguide.com you will see a red banner up at the top. It's kind of hard to miss that says download the Barna Report. And if you sign up on that form, not only will you get to download the Barna report and read, I mean we've, we're barely scratching the surface, Rick. I think we're going to be talking about this for a couple of weeks.
Rick Beggs I'm thinking we're. Yeah, I think we're going to do two or three shows, maybe 12, I don't know.
Debbie Wuthnow But I would encourage, yes, encourage you to download it. It'll also put you on our email list. So we'll let you know when we're releasing your voter guide. So if you don't know if it's out yet, I'd encourage you to go to ivoterguide.com and download that Barna report. And you know, if you find it informational, tell your friends and your neighbors about it. Information is power. And when we find something good, we want to be. We want to share it. So I would hope you would do that as well.
Rick Beggs Well, and we can only do so many shows, but really we're encouraging people, go read the research yourself. But we're highlighting here basically what George has said.
Encouragement to Engage: Reading the Research and Not Letting Down-Ballot Voting Suffer
But there are so many nuggets in the study. And we, as Debbie said, we want to encourage you, really, to go read this research for yourself, use
Debbie Wuthnow it to encourage you to play your part just to have a better understanding of the environment we're in and as an encouragement.
Rick Beggs Yeah, let's not let down balloting be, a suffering issue, especially from the church. So we want to encourage you to go do that. We, we will talk about George again, next week. I, I can't believe that we got those, those special moments, to be with him. And, the fact that he was excited to do this, that's pretty special too. He did something for us he's never done before, ever.
Connecting with the Compass: Emailing Questions and Staying Informed for Wise Voting
Oh, I love talking. Hey, Debbie, if somebody wants to write to us and ask us a question,
Debbie Wuthnow not George or us, send an email to. They would send an email to infoaterguide.com any question we'll talk about on air. just be informed and vote wisely.
Rick Beggs Go get the AFR app and remember, we're grounded in God, rooted in research and always, always on the compass. Jesus is the true north.
In this episode of Compass, we navigate the vital topic of voter participation with Debbie Wuthnow, president of iVoterGuide. As we approach election day, Debbie shares crucial insights on who can vote now, the importance of down-ballot races, and the findings from a recent study conducted by Dr. George Barna. Discover why understanding local elections is essential for making informed decisions and how you can empower yourself to cast a complete ballot this election season.
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