This week on the Compass, we discuss how iVoterGuide works
>> Rick Beggs: Welcome to the Compass, navigating the public square together with faith, truth and conviction. We are so glad that you joined us once again on the Compass. You may remember last week we discussed how I VoterGuide started. And, this week we're going to discuss how the process works in and, talk about how you end up getting your ballot. as you know, Debbie Whatnow is the president of ivoterguide and she joins me every week. Hey, Debbie.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Hey, Rick. How you doing?
>> Rick Beggs: I'm doing good. Tell us what direction we're heading today.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, you know, as you said last week, we talked about how I Voterguide really got here and was created, but I, think you had some questions about what really goes into ivoterguide, so let's kind of dive a little deeper into that.
How many people do you have at iVoterGuide
>> Rick Beggs: That. Sure. my first question would be. Actually, it would be a statement because I would, I would think, my goodness, what. How many people does it take to run ibotorguide? You probably have. Debbie, you probably have three or four people doing research. You probably have an admin. So I'm thinking. So I'm going to guess higher. You probably have 12 people that help you at iVoterGuide.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: How.
>> Rick Beggs: How off base am I?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, okay, kind of really off base. So, you know, when I came in to I voter guy back in 2011, that number was pretty accurate. There was, you know, Richard was the president, Jim was the programmer. So he did all the coding and then he brought me in to help him with the tech stuff. and I think there were maybe, maybe one person who worked, you know, 20 to 30 hours a week kind of overseeing the research, and maybe four to six others who helped, you know, just right over the, the crunch of an election time. So it really was under a dozen people at the beginning. but we're, we're a little bigger than that now.
>> Rick Beggs: Well, okay, so tell us what, what's the number? And this doesn't, don't include volunteers right away. Who, how many people work for? I voted.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: So right now our stat, it's, it's over 70. Over 70. Maybe 72.
>> Rick Beggs: Oh my gosh.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: We just, I mean, we're in the process right now. It was. Obviously, it's election season, so we're bringing in just, researchers, associates and research just in the past week or so. So I'm not sure the exact number, but it's definitely over 70 and most of them are, are part time. Very can. You know, it's still kind of seasonal what we do, but we're over, over A dozen full time employees and then the rest are, are part time.
ivoterguide uses volunteer panelists to evaluate potential presidential candidates
>> Rick Beggs: You have a volunteer base?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: We do. So you know, Richard gathered people around his conference table, his friends, for panelists to actually evaluate and give the ratings or the grades to the candidates. So when ivoterguide went online, beyond Richard and his 4 inch binder and the conference table, we started just reaching out to like minded individuals. Hopefully in the states where we're evaluating candidates and we call them panelists. So it's a volunteer position. but we do want to make sure they're like minded and like valued. So there's an application process that we ask any panelists to fill out a, we call it a leadership survey. It kind of just asks your policy positions some worldview questions because we're ideally wanting conservative Christians to help us in the process. And then we ask for references and we call them. We want responsible people who can be objective in looking at the data and evaluating candidates. So our goal is to get panelists in each state. And the number of panelists varies based on the number of candidates that we evaluate. So each, each panel will consist of three panelists and they will look at about 30 to 35 candidates. So you know, multiply that out based on however many candidates we're evaluating in a, a primary election or a general election. And then in every state. So we're up at this. In 2024, I believe our count was almost 900 volunteer panelists.
>> Rick Beggs: Oh my.
How many candidates are you covering this election cycle? About 15,000
And how many candidates are you covering?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, this election cycle, in this election cycle. So our coverage is, we cover, from the point that we went nationwide, we cover all the federal races. So we're covering all the U.S. senate races that are up, you know, it's every, every two years a third of the Senate. And then we cover everybody that's in the Congress, all the congressional candidates, and we do the Republican primary, or if it's a jungle primary, we cover all the candidates in a jungle primary. And then in the general election and then in this cycle in 40 states, we're going to cover all the statewide races. So governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, you know, comptroller, whatever they call it in the state, any race that is statewide, we cover those. We also cover state, if it's on the ballot, Supreme Court justices, we cover state boards of education in those 40 states. And then there are 32 states where we cover the state legislature. So almost every state, all but one have two chambers. They have a state senate and a state House Nebraska only has one, but we cover all. In those 32 states, we cover all the state legislators and then we cover, some select school board races. As you may have heard last week, we're covering school boards in West Virginia in their election. So, estimated total this year is going to be about 15,000 candidates that I voter guide will research and evaluate.
>> Rick Beggs: Yeah, I'm, I'm exhausted from you reading the list. So I, it's amazing that you are covering.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: We do it so you don't have to.
>> Rick Beggs: Rick, you know, you're now my best friend. So during election time, what does Debbie think I ought to do? So when you, when you do all this work, and it's going on simultaneously. So, how do you keep it all straight? Who keeps it all straight?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, you said you and it is not all me. I mean the team has definitely grown beyond. And honestly, I never was a researcher. I came in on the technical side. So, you know, what began as James and four to six helpers is now, we have a director of candidate research and under her she has regional, directors. Each kind of. We've had to add hierarchy. Honestly got enough people and too many direct reports and all of that. So we have five, regional directors. And each regional director will have four, to six state leads and probably one or two research associates. And the state lead is just, they are responsible for the voter guide in, in, in a state. And they will have multiple states they are responsible for, but they kind of are the project manager, I guess, of the voter guide in that state. So it's kind of distributed in the regional directors. And there's more now we.
>> Rick Beggs: Yeah. well, yeah. And again, you would exhaust me just listening to it.
Every state does it differently. So, um, polls have different hours, polling places are different
So because we live in a republic, every state is responsible really for their voting. Is that true?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yes, that the founders set it up where elections are, are, are administered in the states. That's one of the whole big thing. If you Remember, was it 2022 when the Democrats controlled Congress, they had HR1, which was the federal government taking over elections and kind of fought against that because it really. Every state's different. And that's the blessing of a republic. But you know, and the positive. Every state does it. But for our challenge is they all do it differently.
>> Rick Beggs: Messy.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: It is very messy and complicated.
>> Rick Beggs: And as you heard last week as we did an election update, we'll do that again today for, for voting for this coming week. But every state is just a little nuanced. It, it has some bizarre Setups. And. And of course, you. It's your job to figure it out or your team's job to figure that out.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yes, yes. And. And, you know, you called it bizarre. each state thinks they're doing it the right way. They just all do it very differently. So, polls have different hours, polling places are different. Some are mail in votes, some are vote in person, some are early voting, some are only absentee ballots with. I mean, everything's different. You know, do you show a voter ID or in California, are you not allowed to show a voter id? So. So, yeah, that's part of the challenge.
>> Rick Beggs: Well, and of course, that's where we wish states would make good decisions about voter id, because, you know, I think it's essential. I know you think it's essential.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Oh, we could have a whole show on, on election integrity. And I'm sure we will at some point.
>> Rick Beggs: We probably will. Yeah. So I do want to remind people where you can find I voter guide. I voterguide.com and it's the, it's, the letter I voterguide.com just in case they want to go ahead and look up what we, what we actually look like even while we're talking today. So, Debbie, take us. Take me to, the actual application of it when you open it up on your screen, on your computer or your phone.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Oh, well, so you go to iVoterGuide.com and it's really set up for each voter to get their personalized ballot, the personalized voter guide. So when you go to iVoterGuide.com you'll see a little white box that says enter your address. And the reason that we do that is, so that we can personalize your voter guide. You don't need to know what senate district or house district you are in, because we use that address to personalize and just show you the races and the candidates that are on your personalized ballot. So you enter your voting address and then you click See my voter guide. and it will then if, if you have an upcoming election, it will. Will populate and start out with federal races up at the top, and then it will show your statewide races and then your state legislative races. If we're covering any local races or ballot measures, which we also cover, in select cases, it will. It'll just keep scrolling down the ballot. So we talk about top of the ballot. When we talk about down ballot. That would be those. Keep scrolling. It will show you, for each race, the picture and name of each candidate that is in that contested race. If it's, if it's an uncontested race, maybe it's somebody who nobody's running against them. You might see just a candidate name and maybe their Facebook link, but that's all we provide really. If it's an uncontested race, but if it's contested, we do a deep dive. And you will see a, a little gauge over to the right of the candidate's photo. And that is how that pan, recommended and verified. It's exactly like a gas gauge. Yes. So on the far left it would be. It goes from, far left through verified liberal, down through leans liberal, moderate, leans conservative, conservative. Verified conservative and far right are the ratings that we'll see. But if you want to see all the data we have on each candidate, because there is a ton of data we haven't even talked about, all that goes into those ratings and that data, you just click on see candidate profile or click anywhere on that little tile for that candidate and it'll load what we call our candidate profile page. It's basically all the information that we can find that's publicly available about that candidate. And, including, you know, the links to their websites and their social media. And that's the information that our team, our panelists and our staff used to and really dove deeply into to come up with that rating of just kind of a, an overall snapshot of that candidate's political philosophy, as a guide to helping you know which candidate might more align with your values.
>> Rick Beggs: And the mantra of iVoterGuide is what? Because it sort of describes what you're doing. Vote wisely.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Vote wisely. Like mantra. What do you mean?
>> Rick Beggs: Yeah, vote wisely, Vote wisely. That's what we're after. And you do that because you've given all the information, you've done all the work for me. I get to go into this website, I get to see all this information. And quite honestly, as a side note, I almost laugh when I hear the idea of a gas gauge because it seems when you go right, you're fully, fully full, and when you go left, you're fully empty. I'm not trying to make any kind
>> Debbie Wuthnow: of I analogy there, but I say that, you know, when the gas gauge is on empty, that's the verified liberal, and when the tank is full, a verified conservative. So you imply that's right.
>> Rick Beggs: Well, okay, so if I were to go to, the website and I didn't believe necessarily what we believe from a biblical worldview or conservative, you'd also get information about your candidates, wouldn't you?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Oh, it doesn't matter your political philosophy. I mean, you might be a liberal, you might be a moderate. You're just looking for candidates who more closely align with you. iVoterGuide is just as useful to you, know, conservative voters as liberal voters as, you know, I don't know where I land, somewhere in the middle. But you just want to gather the information. You know, last week we talked about, if we're lucky, we have a friend who tells us who to vote for. And our prayer, really our goal is that I Voter Guide becomes that, that friend, that trusted resource that has done the research for you. Because I don't have the time or want to spend the time to dig into each of those candidates, But iVoterGuide does that really, as God's calling on us. We average about four hours of research on every candidate, all 15,000 of them. Ah, really? just to help people vote wisely.
>> Rick Beggs: sounds like, iVoterGuide is really about truth. Are we putting truth up there?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: We're, we're putting out truth, seeking truth. If you go to, our website, we list the values of iVoterGuide.
American Family Association created iVoterGuide to help voters decide on candidates
and our number one value is objective truth. and, and we base that upon God's word, which is, you know, he is the truth. And so we're just seeking to be, truthful, to be objective in our evaluations, which I can tell you can get challenging in the primaries. we try to look at all the biblical issues that, you know, carry for. My favorite button says it's not, it's not political. It's not political, it's biblical. So we, we try to look at every issue, both fiscally and socially, and just kind of get, give the overall big picture, of where each candidate lands on this, on the spectrum, but yet not telling you who to vote for. It's just giving you the tool to decide for yourself. But truth is.
>> Rick Beggs: And the best part, outside the truth being spoken, is it's free. Going to iVoterGuide. This is. I love saying that. I love when we're at events, I love telling people, I go, my goodness, all this work has been done for you. Now, of course we're supported by donors. we're not embarrassed to say that. But I, I'm amazed that people look at this and go look at all this work's been done. I think that's why we're having this particular show today, is to tell them how much work is done. We're basing it on truth, objective truth, as you spoke of, and it's free for me to use. Well, and you've put it on for everybody to reach.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Yeah, well, and as you said, you know, we are donor supported. We are a ministry of American Family Association. They understand the value of it. That's why, you know, AFA donors, their support goes into ivoterguide. We have people who support iVoterGuide directly, because they really are in that election space and want to make sure that information is out there. And it's amazing. We've kind of become, I don't know, complacent about all the information on the Internet, but nobody has gathered it together in such a way like ivoterguide has with the purpose of equipping voters. Interesting, story that kind of relates to this is when we were, whole nother story that I Voter Guide's available in Spanish. And we had a Spanish media firm that reached out to us and wanted to focus on, you know, have us be part of their broadcast on election day in 2024. And they said, are you like, part of a university research project? There is so much information there. I'm like, no, it's. It's a Christian ministry. You would think it might be a grad project or, you know, some kind of a research project. And it could be, it certainly is at that level. But it's really, it was a, you know, as you heard last week, created through God's weaving this tapestry, as I say, as a ministry to equip the church to, to. To be light and to identify truth and to, to vote for candidates wisely.
>> Rick Beggs: That day is coming when you and I are having a broadcast about the relationship between iVoterGuide and the use of. Of it by churches.
You can listen to AFR iVoterGuide via the app
Some great news and some tough news, really, for us to talk about. You referred back to the show that we did last week. And I want to tell people that they have the opportunity if they want to go back and listen to how iVoterGuide started, they can listen to it, via the app. How do they do that, Rick? Oh, well, nice of you to ask. Thank you. you can get the app, AFR radio app, wherever you get apps. And then, you can also go back on afr, or afa, I think. Afr.net afr.net is where you go find where the listings of the radio show is and you can find the compass there. If you go on the app. Of course, they list all the shows there.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: This is also new to me. Thank you for explaining it.
>> Rick Beggs: Yeah, well, it's new to both of us.
Lean Christian gives candidates conservative ratings based on a variety of data
so as we kind of dig even a little deeper, do you ever find that you have, candidates who don't like what you said about them or what they. What we've offered, they've said about themselves, which would be true?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: yes. we have had candidates that. That say that. So, you know, part of the process that we go through, and again, that could be a whole other show, is, you know, we're gathering a whole bunch of data and information about candidates, scorecards, campaign finance, candidate questionnaires, and, get the candidates to answer them. The panelists then, you know, propose evaluations for the. For each candidate our team goes through and kind of looks for consensus ratings and makes sure that the data that's available, the research that we have, supports that evaluation, that that evaluation is consistent. We have a criteria for each rating, and we can have a whole nother session to talk about what each rating really means. and then we give the candidate an opportunity to kind of do a quality control. So they get a preview of all the data and their rating prior to it going public. And we heard from one candidate who said, he didn't like his rating, and I'm not even sure it was a man. So the candidate did not like their rating and kind of replied with, why'd you rate me that way? Didn't I tell you everything you wanted to hear? Because he'd answered the questionnaire.
>> Rick Beggs: They didn't say that straight. He said he didn't actually say that out loud.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: well, it may have been in an email. I don't remember exactly, but my goodness. Yeah.
>> Rick Beggs: So he tell you what you wanted to hear?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: So candidates know what conservative voters want to hear. They knew we were the, you know, a ministry of afa. So they say what they think AFA Christian listeners want to hear. you know, on the opposite side, this guy had served in the legislature before, so he had voted on bills or legislation he'd also accepted money from. you know, and he didn't have the most conservative votes. Well, you know, their actions speak much louder than their words, which is exactly what we told him. We're like, yeah, you may have said what we wanted to hear, but what you did, indicated to us that you weren't as conservative as you're telling us you are. So, you know, he probably got a Lean's conservative rating and wasn't happy about it. But, you know, our goal is if we give him that rating, there's something on his vote or contribution or some in his record that looks more like a, you know, potentially liberal policy. It could be, you know, something fiscal, it could be something social, could be on life or second amendment or, you know, whatever. Maybe just likes to, a lot of money. so those are the things we're
>> Rick Beggs: looking well and we, we live in such a time that it's awfully hot. It's hard to hide what you have done in the past now. So you could say one thing as you have mentioned, and we can now find the truth to see if it's verified or if they weren't truly as they said they were.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, and we've even discovered that candidates, you know, might have their own social media. You ah, know, just as individuals. And when they get ready to run for office, they will, what my team will say is they'll go in and they'll scrub their social media and they'll start deleting posts that maybe indicate things they don't want voters to know about them. And so we have in instances in the past been able to capture screenshot of a post that later gets deleted. And we're able to add that to a candidate's profile to kind of indicate, by their actions what they've what they've done in the past. Maybe it was a BLM rally, maybe it was, you know, something, you know, whatever, whatever it was because, you know, candidates have consultants who guide them in and how to present a Persona that voters will vote for. So our goal is to really see, see through that, see beyond that, to be truthful and transparent.
>> Rick Beggs: I don't know how far you want to deep dive here now, but I, am interested that you do a lot of research on people's social media.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, actually the panelists are where we lean into for the social media deep dive. But what our team gathers is all of the links to anywhere that the candidate might have a public Persona. So you know their website, if they've got a LinkedIn, if they got, you know, a campaign Facebook, they got a personal Facebook, they got X, they've got, I don't know what it is, Pinterest. We have tons and tons of links and you will see those on that candidate profile when you get your personalized ballot. our, our team gathers the links and then we really ask the, the panelists to do the deep dive and to sit there and scroll through that candidate's social media and read what they've said and see, you know, have they been to a march for life? Have they supported a Pregnancy center. Have they, did they, you know, share about CRT or, you know, different things that we kind of train them in what to look for and lean into them to actually do the legwork. Because for 15,000 candidates, that's how we leverage the volunteers is doing all of that research.
>> Rick Beggs: And this is not really a got you moment. That's not the purpose of it. The purpose is to tell the truth or reveal the truth. but also the candidates have the right to change over a lifetime as well.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: And they, and many some do, right? They leave the Democratic Party, move to the Republican Party. That's just another thing we pray for wisdom in.
Today is actually election day in Louisiana
>> Rick Beggs: Well, I know that we could talk about this probably for three shows. But you know what that sound means, Debbie? That means it is now time for us to give an election update. So why don't you tell us what is coming up, this coming week in certain states regarding the candidates I voter guide is following or the states that we're following races in.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, it is, it is definitely election season. So today is actually election day in Louisiana. So if you were listening, in Louisiana your polls opened this morning at 7am and they go close by 8pm so, so make sure you go to ivoterguide.com get your personalized ballot and go vote. In Louisiana, this coming Tuesday is going to be, which is going to be May 19th will be the Alabama primary election. your polls open at 7am and close at 7pm if you haven't voted early, make sure you go vote there. In Georgia, your polls are going to open at 7am close at 7pm for your primary. And it's also election day in Idaho, but their polls are open from 8am M to 8pm Kentucky also has their primary and they must get up early. Their Polls open at 6am but they do close at 6pm so, so show up early in Kentucky, Oregon, go check out ivoterguide.com the polling hours vary and we do have a link on the Oregon, on each, on every, all of the pages to find your local polling place. And we'll give you the polling hours. And then the last election that's happening on Tuesday is in Pennsylvania. Their Polls open at 7am and close at 8pm but there are other states that have early voting that is going on this week. So you know, some people like to vote on election day. Some people, you know, maybe you're not around or you're traveling or you can't travel or you're sick and you need to either vote vote early or vote absentee. So, in Texas there is early voting ongoing right now? Actually no, the voting early voting begins on the 18th, so later this week for the Texas runoff from the primary, fewer people vote in that election. So if you're in that area, get your personalized [email protected] and if you have a race, please go vote in that election on May 26th or vote early after the 18th. And then other states that have early voting going on, Iowa has early voting for their election. That's going to be June 2nd. The same thing in Montana, in NewSong Mexico, the same thing. Early person absentee voting is underway for their election on June 2nd. South Dakota, if you requested an absentee ballot, you have time to do that now before your election on May 2nd. And then Maine, early voting begins today for your election on Saturday, June 9th.
>> Rick Beggs: Once again, you've exhausted me. That's amazing. All that information in one place. And if you have any questions, go to iVoterGuide.com to find out, from your certain ballot, when you're voting and when your voting is available to you personally. we've run out of time. Debbie and I thank you for joining me once again. We are so glad that you come to be a part of us at the Compass. Our goal is to point you towards Jesus, who is our, direct north. Thank you for joining us. It.
