With only two weeks until election day, I know we are all sick of politics. Myself included.
Living in a swing state is something else. I get at least five calls or texts or postcards per day, asking me if I plan to vote or trying to persuade me who to vote for. I enjoy healthy, respectful conversations about politics, but even I am getting tired of all of it.
I do not want to add to that noise, but politics is an essential part of American life that needs to be addressed. So, I am going to attempt to offer a different kind of political post.
Instead of telling you who to vote for or what to think, I will offer some resources and questions that I think will help you as you make this decision for yourself.
All of the resources I will offer are nonpartisan, and they are resources I have used myself. The truth is that there is good and bad on both sides of the spectrum, so I am going to attempt to be as unbiased as possible.
Please Vote!
First and foremost, please vote. Please do not give up. Don’t tell yourself it doesn’t matter. The only way that we can make our voices heard is to vote. The coronavirus pandemic is an easy excuse that many people will use not to vote this year, but we cannot let anything stop us from exercising our rights.
According to the Washington Post, approximately 100 million eligible voters did not vote during the 2016 election. It is important to acknowledge that some of those people did not vote because of voter suppression issues, such as closed polling places, long lines, and purged voter-registration.
Those voter suppression tactics need to be addressed, and we need policies that will make it easier for everyone to vote. But, the reality is that there are many people who can vote who simply choose not to.
I want every American to have access to a fair election process, including those that disagree with me. I also want to know that I can trust my candidate because he won fairly. That does not happen if large numbers of people do not vote. So, no matter who you plan on voting for, please vote!
Don’t Ignore Local Elections
Of course, the president is the most noticeable candidate every four years.
But, your daily life is more impacted by the local politicians than you may not consider. I did not realize the importance of local and state elections for a long time.
When I voted in my first few elections, I did what a lot of people do. I chose who I wanted for president, and then I just voted for the candidate that represented the party that I was voting for in all of the other elections. In some cases, I simply voted for the name that I recognized because I had seen a sign with their name on it somewhere.
That is no way to choose your sheriff, mayor, state attorneys, and representatives. As I learned more about politics, I realized the importance of all of those local elections, but I was frustrated because I did not know how to figure out what the candidates stood for.
Every candidate sends out hundreds of postcards and flyers to convince you to vote for them, but they are really good at only including the information that makes them look good. So, I went on the hunt for a place that I could find out about my local politicians.
I will share a couple of resources that helped me, but first, I have to reiterate that it is your responsibility to do the research. No one else will do the work for you, and if they offer to, you probably cannot trust them.
It takes time to research your local candidates and ballot measures. You do not want to wait until election day to start deciding who you will vote for. That is why election officials send out sample ballots months before the election. They want to give you time to research everything on the ballot.
You need to make a plan before you go to cast your ballot. Take the time to go through and decide who you plan on voting for. Print out your sample ballot and make notes on it so that you can remember who you want to vote for when you get to the ballot box.
No matter what, you need to research your ballot and make a plan to vote for your local and state representatives. Here are a couple of resources that can help with that.
Ballotpedia
The first resource I found was Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia calls itself the digital encyclopedia of American elections. The very first tab on their website is “What’s On Your Ballot.” Enter your address, and they will produce a sample ballot for you.
The thing that I appreciate about Ballotpedia is that they make it easy to learn about every single detail on your ballot.
You can click on each candidate to learn everything about them, including their biography, an outline of their political career, notable endorsements, and noteworthy issues they have voted on throughout their careers. It even has information about their salary and education.
I also appreciate Ballotpedia because you can learn all about the ballot measures for your state. Ballot measures and voter referendums are complicated and written with legal language that rarely makes sense.
There have been several times that I have had to read a ballot measure half a dozen times before I even know what it is talking about. Some ballot measures are written in such a way that you do not know what a vote for or against the measure means.
Ballotpedia takes care of all of that and makes it so much easier. You can click on the ballot measures to find out precisely what they mean. It will give you the history of the measure and explain in plain language precisely what a yay or nay vote means.
Ballotpedia is an excellent resource because it is nonpartisan, and it is strictly based on facts. Instead of telling you about the platform a candidate is running on, they tell you how that candidate has actually voted in the past.
However, they cannot give you all of the information that you need to know. What about new candidates that have not been elected yet? They do not have a voting history in the public record. Other candidates may have changed their position on a particular topic.
League of Women Voters Voting Guides
To find out that kind of information, I recommend visiting the league of women voters site for your local area. I cannot provide a link because each local chapter has a different website. Instead, google “league of women voters guide” and the name of the county you live in.
The League of Women Voters guides is easy to navigate. They are separated into representatives and ballot issues. You can click on federal, state, county, and municipal elections.
The thing that I like most about the LWV guide is that you can click on each candidate to see how they answered specific questions about the position they are running for. The League of Women Voters has specific questions that they ask each candidate, so you can compare the answers that both candidates gave on the same question.
I specifically like that they have questions tailored to the position the candidates are running for. For example, the candidates for Sherriff are asked their views on body cameras. The candidates for property appraisers are asked questions about property taxes. You can see side-by-side specific information that relates to the office that the candidate is running for.
Policy over Propaganda
If I were in charge, I would make some changes to our campaigning rules because there is so much misinformation about each candidate. We are bombarded with information that has been taken out of context. All of it is just propaganda, and it is infuriating to me.
Another aspect of propaganda is the idea that certain types of voters always support a particular party. The classic example is that if you are Christian, you must be republican. When you dig into where that idea comes from, it is based on one or two issues or a particular group of Christians.
Check out this post for more information on my thoughts on the intersection between Christianity and politics.
We hear the word evangelical get thrown around a lot when we talk about the person that “Christians” are voting for, but the term evangelical is poorly defined. I do not know a single Christian who calls themselves an evangelical, and yet that is what the media uses as the example of Christian voters.
That is the example that I hear a lot, but I am sure that there are other examples of generalizations that people make about democrats as well. It’s all just more propaganda.
But, how do you sort through all of that propaganda to find out which candidates you genuinely want to support? I strongly suggest that you take the I side with quiz.
I side with is a website that lets you take a quiz about specific political topics and issues relevant to this election. You can choose one of the multiple-choice options or use the other choice to add your own answer.
You also rate how important that particular issue is to you.
So, if you are someone who claims to vote based on what you think is best for the economy, you can say that economic issues are more important to you than social issues, or vice versa. If an issue like abortion is the issue that you generally use to guide your vote, mark that one as the most important.
The quiz has several categories, such as foreign policy, domestic policy, and the economy. There are three to five questions for each category, but you can also choose to expand the category with more questions.
When you have finished the quiz, it will list all of the candidates and the percentage that you agree with them. It will explain which issues you agree with them on and which issues you may agree with another candidate more.
If you take the time to answer the questions thoroughly, the isidewith.com quiz can take an hour or so to complete. But it is worth that time. I strongly recommend that everyone take the quiz to know for sure that the person you are voting for actually lines up with the values you have. The quiz takes away the propaganda and helps you vote based on policies.
Think Critically
One thing that creates many problems for our democracy is the idea that if you vote for someone, you have to agree with them on every issue. On the other hand, we act like if you choose not to support a particular candidate, you must hate everything they stand for. Neither of these ideas is accurate.
If you cannot tell me something that you dislike about the candidate that you are voting for, I assume that you have not thought critically about them. No one is perfect, and politicians do not even come close. So, we all need to work on admitting the things that we disagree with about the candidates that we support.
You need to examine the candidates that you plan on voting for thoroughly. You should be able to explain all of the things that you dislike about the candidate and why you are choosing to vote for them anyway.
How do you justify voting for a candidate that you disagree with on particular issues? Is it because other issues are more important to you, or are you willing to compromise on some issues but not others? There are no right or wrong reasons, but you need to think it through for yourself.
By the same token, you need to be able to admit the things that you like about the other candidate. If you hate everything that a particular candidate stands for, your vote is really a vote against them instead of a vote for someone else.
Too often, we hear people say that they are voting for the lesser of two evils. I understand that idea, but I think we can do better. If you genuinely think critically about both candidates, you should be able to admit both the things you agree and disagree with for both candidates.
Critical thinking leads to more effective political conversations. Instead of attacking each other for our opposing beliefs, we can have conversations that help us begin to see other people’s point of view.
I would love to hear more political conversations that go something like this: “I am voting for _______ because I agree with them on _______ and ______, but I will admit that I agree with the other candidate’s position on _________.” I am working to be more mindful of having those conversations myself. But we cannot have those effective political conversations until we do the work of thinking critically.
Empathy Over Opinion
The word opinion gets thrown around in political conversations often. In some ways, all politics are based on our opinion of what we think is best. But, again, I think we can do better. Instead of focusing so much on our own opinions, we ought to strive for empathy.
Empathy is not an idea that seems vital to American politics. But, you can be empathetic with your vote. When we vote, we choose to put someone in office because we think that they will do the best job of making our society function for us.
So, instead of worrying about whether or not your candidate has your best interests in mind, ask yourself, who else benefits from this vote?
Are you voting for the person who will focus on meeting the needs of people who look and act and sound like you? Or are you voting for someone who will benefit other people? Are you voting to keep the status quo, or are you voting to change the world for the better?
The truth is that there are people on both sides of the political spectrum who believe that a vote for their candidate is going to benefit more people, and it probably changes from one issue to the next.
I am not trying to imply that one candidate is the more empathetic choice. I know which candidate is more empathetic on the issues that I care about. I am merely suggesting that you ask yourself the question before you vote.
Who besides you and your family are you helping when you vote? Empathy is a far more meaningful form of thought than opinion.
Wrap it up
PLEASE VOTE!
Make a plan to vote in your local elections, as well as the presidential election.
Use the I Side With quiz to ensure that the person you are voting for aligns with the values you believe in by focusing on policies instead of propaganda.
Think critically about your candidate. Be willing to admit the things that you like and dislike about both candidates. Know how you can justify your vote even though you do not agree with your candidate on every issue.
Consider the people that benefit from your vote. Vote with empathy instead of opinion.