Transcript

Welcome to the Compass, navigating the public square together with faith, truth and conviction

>> Rick Beggs: Welcome to the Compass, navigating the public square together with faith, truth and conviction. Well, you've reached us today on the Compass and we're so glad that you took the time to be with us. I'm Rick Beggs and I am always joined by Debbie Wuthnow, who's the president of I Voter Guide and Debbie. we have another show.

>> Debbie Wuthnow: I'm so excited. We're back. Yay.

>> Rick Beggs: Well, I thought I'd start differently than we did the last two. If you haven't been with us for our first two, we've talked about really I Voter Guide, how it started last, week. We actually talked about, how I Voter Guide works and we're going to go a little bit different direction. Although this is really about why we're a data driven, truth telling organization.

I Voter Guide uses scripture to help voters identify deceptive and dishonest candidates

I want to read a scripture, Debbie, if you don't mind.

>> Debbie Wuthnow: I love it.

>> Rick Beggs: We're going to talk about second. Timothy 3, 12, 17 reads like this. Indeed. All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus, all the scripture breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete equipped for every good work. That's our scripture this week, Debbie. And why, why are we going to talk about this? Tell us the direction we're going.

>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, I vote OR Guide is grounded in the truth. So we love basing everything that we do on God's word. And that's really an applicable scripture for what I Voter guy does. there's a lot of good takeaways from there and I'm sure you have some of your of your own.

>> Rick Beggs: Well, yeah, I think this is just loaded with stuff. I think we probably want to, succinctly go to a specific portion of the scripture. You know, we are all promised persecution, which sometimes doesn't feel good to even say that, let alone know that we are going to, I mean we, we have been asked to join Christ in his crucifixion, in his death, in his resurrection, and that promises us persecution. So it's not denying if you're going to follow Jesus, you will be persecuted.

>> Debbie Wuthnow: Eyes wide open. Don't be surprised by bad stuff because it's a promise.

>> Rick Beggs: And there are evil people everywhere. evil people and imposters. Including on your ballot.

>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yes.

>> Rick Beggs: Aha. And so that's really kind of the place we want to start as to why we have chosen to be data driven and to be truth tellers about candidates. What say you?

>> Debbie Wuthnow: I say amen. you know, evil people are in the grocery store and in your church and sometimes even in your family, but they're on your ballot. So we, and their, their goal is to to deceive can be sometimes. So our goal is to not be deceived. And that's why I voter guide exists. That's why we, we do what we do is because you know, man has fallen. We need to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves and really know who we're choosing to elect to represent us because we're giving them power. so we need to, to, to really look at m. What what they say, what they do, so that we aren't deceived. You know, we've, we found instances of, you know, we call them sometimes wolves in sheep's clothing. People who run for elected office with maybe not the best intentions or they campaign as one thing and they do something different once they're elected. Occasionally an elected official will do that. So our goal is to be ahead of ahead of the curve I guess and identifying who, who will be those people before we elect them so that we can give power to people who share our values and our, our desire for you know, truth and biblical, positions on, on different items share you know, biblical worldview. So that's why I Voter guide looks at all of those candidates to try to figure out really who is those who are those that are trying to deceive us so that we won't be deceived.

Primaries are important before you get to the November elections

>> Rick Beggs: Now this may be for another show, but I think this would be a great place to point out that's why primaries are so important before you get to the elections. Because if you don't know even in the party that you're voting for that you should be looking at all of the candidates in the primary.

>> Rick Beggs: And go with what you believe. Truth is because by the time they get to them to the elections in November, you may not have had a good selection or you didn't. You the really everybody didn't vote for the right selection. Well, so few people never looked at the primary.

>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well and so few people typically vote in the primary because it's Harder to know, how to, harder to choose. It's easier in, in November to say, you know, I know this party or that party, and just use that as your guide. But in the primary, in most states, not all, but in most states, you're choosing people within a party. So you think that you would assume that they all align with the same, the platform, which, you know is, is consistent. Most, most legislators vote along the lines of that platform. But when you're trying to pick people within that party, that's where it's really the best bang for the buck. If you're going to vote, you may get the chance to really identify somebody who is, more conservative or maybe you want somebody more liberal. But that's where you get that option is during that primary. And it's harder to find information on candidates. So that's, part of why I voter guide covers, primaries.

>> Rick Beggs: Yeah, absolutely. Our mantra has been founded in God,

>> Debbie Wuthnow: Rooted, grounded in God. Grounded in God.

>> Rick Beggs: That's right. Why would I say founded then? It is grounded. But you know what I'm going to say it's both. It's not a bad thing to be founded.

>> Debbie Wuthnow: You're right.

>> Rick Beggs: But it's also, that's good. Okay. That I can see where this show's going today. So I, I, I think, because we're rooted in research, but our, our basis is to be grounded in God. It really points back to the scripture that we just read, and particularly this point where it says continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed. Knowing from who you learned it and how, from childhood. Which could mean if you come to Christ later in life as a child, like faith, sometimes that childhood starts for us spiritually. As an adult, you have been, acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus.

>> Debbie Wuthnow: Don't we all want to be wise?

>> Rick Beggs: Oh, that's why a voter God exists because it's, we want people to vote wisely. So how does it work? How do we acquire the data? what are we looking for? What's important? What should people want to know?

>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, I would, I will say that the, I guess the founding principle of all of that is that it's more important to look at what somebody does than what they say they're going to do. Because sometimes they say one thing and they do. And I mean, I think we gave a story in the very first episode about a candidate who didn't like their rating because didn't I tell you everything you wanted to hear? But he had done something different. Right. So I, I will frequently say we look at actions more than just rhetoric, because that's more telling. Right? Of what you do is more, it's what you've done.

>> Rick Beggs: So we follow what if they've already been in an elected official, we'll follow their voting record, let's say.

>> Debbie Wuthnow: Right. So the, the most important thing, if they've ever held office, the best action is how have they voted? If they, if we've, you know, they been a legislator at the state level or the federal level, there are there are hundreds actually of groups out there that have, their set of values. Right. You could be they're a pro life group, it could be they're a second amendment group, could be they're a climate change group. But they all look at the legislature and they determine certain bills or votes that the legislators will do that relate to their issue or all of their issues if they're a multi issue type of group. And then, so then they score the legislators based on how did you vote? That's really the, the ultimate action, of candidates or legislators. So we gather all of the scorecards that are out there, not just conservative ones, liberal ones as well, and some that are just more business and financial. So they're not strongly conservative or liberal. But yet there's still data points. Our goal, is to paint a picture, the most complete picture of every candidate and every data points. Basically a pixel if you think of it digitally. Starting with scorecards, we have a team that is going out there and finding and vetting and making sure that the scorecards are balanced, and objective and how they're scoring the candidates and we add them to our database.

IvoterGuide builds a profile on every candidate running for office

so we've got hundreds and hundreds

>> Rick Beggs: of scores in our system. These scorecards are all public knowledge. Right.

>> Debbie Wuthnow: actually every piece of data IvoterGuide has is available, publicly. We've just in a unique way been able to aggregate all of that into one place and basically and build a profile on everybody who's running for office.

>> Rick Beggs: So we start with scorecards, all that data. Okay, so you pull all that data from a scorecard which is out there for public knowledge. It's not like we're playing. We got you. We're just telling people what they've done.

>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yeah, we're just. And making it easier for the voter to digest because you know, it takes time to find all that stuff, even if you know where to look. And we're going to thousands of sources honestly between all the scorecards and the other data points we look at, yeah, we spend about four hours on each candidate. And as a voter, there's no way I have that time to spend on every candidate that's on my ballot. So that's what I want to say.

>> Rick Beggs: What if they've never run for office before and have never held and there's no real track record? Where do we start with those people?

>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, the best action for those people is many individuals. And you know, those of us who are listening have probably done this. They will support either candidates, running for office or sometimes they'll support, organizations that are ideologically aligned. Could be they're supporting a pro life ministry. Could be they're supporting, you know, as I Second Amendment, the climate change, any of those, immigration, whatever their issue is. They might support a, organization that aligns with those values. They might support certain candidates at various levels. So we, we look at money because a lot of people will, have, have, have shown their values through their money. Whether it's who, you know, I, as an individual choose to support because that shows, you know, you would think I would assume I will give money, to somebody who shares my value. Something you follow, that we align with. Right. And then likewise, once somebody is, holds or is running, they have to file campaign finance reports. So who they choose to accept money from, because, you know, they don't have to accept it, they can return it. So if they choose to accept it, you would assume that that person would, give to money who they align with, or they'd receive money from those that they align with. Or it could be somebody who's trying to purchase access or, influence over an elected official. So money is the second most important thing we look at and consider an action that's pretty telling of the political philosophy or ideology of the candidates.

>> Rick Beggs: So, and we all are concerned about money and how it affects politicians today. I think it's probably the one rooted thing that we go, oh, okay, I see where you gave money or oh, they gave you money. I mean those reactions we really have, we actually kind of follow those, you know, say a lot of things. Yeah. Oh yeah, it's, it's obvious.

>> Debbie Wuthnow: It's obvious. Yeah. You know, they're talking. I just heard a news story this morning about, you know, international people from outside the United States that are funding candidates and you know, everybody's trying to get influence and who you accept that from, it's, it's just pretty telling. So that's why we've downloaded the entire Campaign finance database from the Federal Election Commission. We've got every state where we go down ballot, we get that state's campaign finance database because every little donation is a pixel that can paint a more complete picture of every candidate.

>> Rick Beggs: So once you've looked at the scorecard.

>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yeah.

>> Rick Beggs: You've followed the money trail, both where they give, who gives to them, who they've accepted from.

>> Rick Beggs: where do you go from there?

>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, those are the two best actions.

The next, I guess I would call it, most important data point would be endorsements

The, the next, I guess I would call it, most important data point would be, I call it endorsements. So I'm sure a lot of you have heard about endorsements. It's not really an action of the candidate, although I have learned candidates seek those out. Right. They, once you're running for office, that's part of your job as a candidate is to go out and seek endorsements of the people that you want to recommend you. Right. So you will answer their survey, you'll talk to them, you, you, you hound them, you squeak at them to, to see if they will endorse. And, and so the endorsing, either individuals or organizations, I know everybody wants President Trump's endorsement. There's other big names that people look for the endorsements from. So we go to and it's actually tens of thousands of organizations and individuals who do endorse candidates at various levels. Some are, you know, national groups, some of them are state level groups. And you know, when we go down local, we're looking sometimes for, you know, some local influential person who really does the due diligence. So groups that endorse candidates go through a very, most of them, I would say I can't, I shouldn't generalize to all, but they go through a pretty intensive, vetting process. I know quite a few of them who will require a individual one on one interview with everybody who they might potentially endorse. So they're really sitting down with them and spending, you know, 30 minutes or more, learning more about why are you running. Tell me about your family. What do you want to change? I mean all of the, what's your, your goals in all of this? And at the end of it, those who are endorsing are looking at every candidate in a race and especially in a primary election, they're kind of choosing in a way, this is my favorite candidate. Like if I were to vote in this election, this is the person I'm telling you to vote for. So it's it can be pretty influential in a way. Those are the you know, we talked about if you have a friend, you call to tell me who to vote for. That's kind of what an endorsement is. some people, those types of endorsers will actually send out and they might call it a voter guide, but what it really is, in many cases is just a. A list of their endorsements. It's, you know, here's my pick. If I were to vote in this election, they might call it a slate. but it. Honestly, it is. It's helpful, but it's still just one data point. It's how that one person, would vote if they could vote. Well, you know, you have to look at that one person. What's important to them are they. How do they feel about parental rights or how do they feel about immigration? I mean, every issue. Because they all have a different, I guess a filter. Right. A lens.

>> Rick Beggs: Yeah.

>> Debbie Wuthnow: That they're looking at the candidates. So, you know, again, they're all pixels. But you have to look at what's motivating that individual, in choosing.

>> Rick Beggs: It's really part of completing a puzzle in some respects. We're building a puzzle on every candidate and we're looking for pieces to complete that puzzle. So somebody has a clear picture of a. Of a puzzle that's completed. Yes, if possible.

>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, and. And I will say that. Okay, keep going.

>> Rick Beggs: I was gonna say, but we can

>> Debbie Wuthnow: be fooled even to that point, and deceived and. And deceiving. Right. So we do need to. That's why.

>> Rick Beggs: Back to our scripture.

>> Debbie Wuthnow: I know. Doesn't it always go back to. God's word is to really look at each puzzle piece and look at it in the whole. Right. I don't. I, as a voter, would rather look at multiple endorsers and the campaign finance and the scorecards instead of just going to, you know, Johnny's picks and looking at Johnny, who Johnny has picked. Now, if that's all I have, I will use that. But I would like to find more data if I can, and especially data or evaluations from people who share my values and view things the same way that I view same issues that are important to them. And even when I go to I Voter Guide, actually in the primary election, when I go to I Voter Guide, sometimes they'll be. In fact, frequently there will be more than one candidate that I Voter Guide will rate the same way. They'll both, you know, they'll all be rated conservative. I'm like, well, how am I going to pick? And that's where I go and look at the profile page for that candidate and look at all those data points and it could be that, you know, my most important issue is, is life. So I'll look at who's got the pro life endorsements or who's, you know, whatever that is. And that's what helps you to determine which one you're going to vote for. and again, I. Voter guy just gathers it all in one place and makes it easier for you to vote wisely.

>> Rick Beggs: we do all the work for them.

Voter guide uses social media to evaluate candidates down ballot

Well, how big, how big does social media play into this? I mean, do you use that?

>> Debbie Wuthnow: We do. And I think the further down the ballot, the more important it becomes because, you know, further down the ballot and when I talk about down ballot, you know, the top of the ticket's the president. You go then statewide and then we've got state senate, state legislative. And if we ever go below the state legislative, frequently all they have available is social media. So we gather for every candidate, every, every link we can find. X, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, whatever we can find their website. And you know, we look at all of that. In fact, our panelists help us with that.

>> Rick Beggs: But it's important, and I think it's important when they're on Pinterest to see what kind of recipes they download.

>> Debbie Wuthnow: That's really important.

>> Rick Beggs: I may want to. I may want a guy who makes a coconut cake or could win a

>> Debbie Wuthnow: chili cook off, you know.

>> Rick Beggs: That's right. Well, so we have social media, endorsements, money, the scorecards, sort of, how we play this out. does worldview matter?

>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, worldview is kind of woven through all of it. Right. Of we're trying to determine do their values align with biblical values of the role of government, the role of families, the role of parents, in all of that. So it's, it's woven throughout in determining the issues we look at and how we look at each issue of how does that align with God's word? Yeah, so it's, it's through all.

>> Rick Beggs: Yeah. And it, it's interesting if somebody, were to say what their worldview is and, and speak of a biblical worldview, but everything else that they do is against that biblical worldview. We now know we have a deceiver. We now know, exactly. They've been deceived in some way.

>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, and then, you know, to the rest of that scripture talks about knowing what you've learned. So we need to know and be discipled in what God's word says. So that when, the. Not when something doesn't we. And we measure everything against that and when it doesn't line up, that's when we know we're, we're being deceived. So. But it means that, you know, I. Voter guide staff are volunteers and voters everywhere really. I would encourage lots of biblical discipleship to, minimize, your deception and so that we can all be good, be discerning.

>> Rick Beggs: So I know we do a questionnaire, kind of walk through that quickly, if you will, because it's not, it's not the most important. Yeah, it's important, but it's not the most important. And you can kind of walk us through why that is.

>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, the why is an easy to lead for that because it's what a candidate tells us they think. So it's that rhetoric. It's what they're telling us. I'd rather them show us. But, not every candidate's had the opportunity to hold public office or done those other data points. So a questionnaire and most voters will look, that's like the thing they really look for. We hear from candidates all the time of gosh, candidates didn't answer your questionnaire. How can you evaluate them? And I'm like, well, because, you know, their actions speak louder than their, than their answers.

>> Rick Beggs: Scorecards, money, endorsements.

>> Debbie Wuthnow: Right. And even social media of what they choose to share and repost and things like that. But questionnaires are, can be really telling and we can get at issues in the questionnaire, and we do. We spent a lot of time updating the questionnaire to reflect the issues that are important this election cycle. We update it every two years for every election cycle and spend dozens of hours refining and trying to make it as concise and yet hit as many topics as we can. We have a variety of, some questions where we make a statement and we have the candidate either agree or disagree strongly or less strongly.

>> Rick Beggs: Give me one of those. Give me one of those.

>> Debbie Wuthnow: Oh, I, I should, Well, my favorite is an open text question which I have, which is briefly, describe your spiritual beliefs and values. So, so we have some of the statements and we have some of the, the open text. The open text is where candidates can really differentiate themselves and go into more detail. So those are really helpful for really clear issues like, you know, what should America's policy or, you know, something about America. Why should America support Israel? That's not a statement. is religious liberty at risk in the United States or should the southern border be. Be closed? Was a question back in 20, 20, 24. So that makes it really clear of, you know, which one's conservative versus not. And then the open text questions are, is really the differentiation. And every candidate on our questionnaire answers it, in their own words. They do it electronically so that our, our people are not typing from a piece of paper they sent us. It's done online, has to be in the candidates so that we know it's from them. We keep all of it in a log. Again, we're trying to be truthful. and the candidate can add any, it's a text box. Even if it's a statement that they're agreeing to, they can clarify and add some text in there. And that can be very illuminating as well.

I Voter Guide asks candidates 35 questions about various issues

So questionnaires are. There's about 35 questions. And the questionnaire is different for every level of office because the topics and the authority that they have is different at the federal level versus the state level versus a judicial candidate versus a school board candidate. You know, there's just different issues that are at play. Some are the same. A lot of worldview questions are the same. But, you know, some of the policies and, capability or powers that they have would be different.

>> Rick Beggs: Yeah. And I think people who probably have a good biblical worldview would tend to want to answer the questionnaire just to separate themselves. But tell me what kind of percentages we're looking at of people who actually return, questionnaires.

>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, it really ranges, on the state. Some states we have organizations who partner with us, North Carolina being one of them, where we'll get 50 or 70% of the primary candidates to answer the questionnaire. And the reason is that partner in North Carolina will tell a candidate, if you want my endorsement, you'll answer the I Voter Guide survey. So there's power in voters and organizations telling candidates, we want to hear what you have to say. So listeners, as a voter, you should tell your candidates that if you ever meet them or talk to them, tell them, I want to hear how you're going to answer the I Voter Guide questionnaire. That increases the percentage. Some states it can be as low as 10 to 15%. Our goal is about 50% of candidates in the Republican primary. And we're pretty close to that. and we do everything we can. We are calling and texting and, you know, trying to encourage the candidate to make sure they see, I Voter Guide. And, answer that questionnaire because we know the voters want to see that.

>> Rick Beggs: Yeah. And it's not a bad thing. Necessarily that they don't return it because there's a lot of reasons they wouldn't return a questionnaire. Would that be true?

>> Debbie Wuthnow: That would be true. And we can go into that in more detail another time. sometimes they don't want to go on the record in a primary election. it just all depends on the environment in that, that district and that state. sometimes they have consultants telling them to do one, one thing or the other. But hearing from voters that they want to hear, that you want to hear from the candidates is powerful and I would encourage you to do that.

>> Rick Beggs: Well, and of course our, our website and your access as listeners is to go to ivoterguide.com and there you put in your address and your, and your ballot and your ballot comes up.

This coming Tuesday is primary election runoff in Texas

Well, Debbie, you know what that sound is that we're hearing? It's time for an election update. Why don't you give us what's coming this week?

>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, so, this week, this coming Tuesday would be May 26th is going to be election day, but only in Texas for the primary election runoff. We talked about people in the fewer people vote in a primary that drops off and even fewer vote in the runoff. So a very important time if you live in Texas, to get to the polls next Tuesday the 26th, between 7am and 7pm but go to ivoterguide.com there are some really important races, quite a few congressional races in that runoff. But there's also many states where early voting is happening right now. So if you're in California, you can start dropping off your ballots, already at the polling places for Your primary on 2 June, Iowa, Montana and NewSong Jersey, you are also have early voting underway, so that you can go and check out I voter guide and go vote in those states. Your election will be on June 2nd. NewSong Mexico, the same, your early, in person absentee voting is underway. South Dakota is the same. Maine, your election's going to be on the 9th, but you can vote early now. So can South Dakota. And in Nevada, your early voting begins today for your election on June 9th. So go to ivoterguide.com get your personalized ballot and head to the polls.

>> Rick Beggs: And if you want to listen to any of our past broadcasts, go to afr.net or download the app from AFR. So grateful you were with us today, Debbie. Thank you as always. Our producer is Brent Austin. And, we always want to say this. Jesus is our true north on the compass.