Data Sources for Evidence and How to Find Them


Table of Contents


Reason For Issue Position Research
The Issue Position process starts with the Political Courage Test - a questionnaire that Vote Smart sends to candidates asking them to give their issue positions on 16 major political questions. When a candidate fills out the test, their answers populate three different Vote Smart tools:
1. The candidate's "Positions" page on the website: https://votesmart.org/candidate/political-courage-test/138524
2. VoteEasy - Our candidate matching tool that is active during election season

However, only ~25% of Congressional candidates take the PCT (based off of recent years). Voters are still interested in where their candidates stand on the issues, so we go ahead and research how candidates would answer these questions. When candidates fail to take the PCT, these researched determinations (referred to as VoteEasy Determinations or Issue Position Determinations) act as a substitute for the three tools mentioned above.

The goal of VoteEasy Research is to construct strong and defensible determinations of politicians' positions.

In an ideal world, each politician would directly, clearly, and consistently demonstrate his or her adherence to a specific issue position; in reality, we may need to make judgments based on a collection of evidence.

Note: Any answers to the current Political Courage Test take precedence over all other forms of evidence. Thus, if we have received a completed Political Courage Test from the candidate, further research is unnecessary unless they left some Vote Easy questions blank in their responses

Types of Evidence
When collecting evidence for a Vote Easy determination, the number of pieces needed is largely dependent upon the quality of each piece of evidence. To make the research process as efficient as possible, please familiarize yourself with this tier list so that you can be sure to get enough evidence for each determination while also not wasting your time by over doing it.

In all cases, you should use the most recent sources available; all data taken should not be older than 6 years to the corresponding election year.

Tier 1: Statements from the Politician


Statements which are straight from the candidate or campaign are the best evidence so long as they directly relate to the question at hand. This includes speeches, issue positions, public statements, and old PCT answers. Again, in order for any of these sources to qualify as Tier 1, they must directly address the question being asked. Because Tier 1 evidence is clear and conclusive, we can make a determination off of just one or two pieces of evidence. However, finding 2-3 pieces of tier 1 evidence is ideal.

Public Statements collected from candidates
How to Search for Statements Using votesmart.org
- go to votesmart.org and type in the candidate's name you want to search
- Select your candidate's name and then click on the Folder icon that says "Speeches"
- Use the "Issue" filter, "Keyword Search", "Date Range", and "Speech Type" filter to specify your search. You usually don't need to use all of these at once, but they all can be helpful.
- Scroll through the statements listed and pick any that will be useful for evidence

Public Statements include anything put out or made public by the candidate or their campaign. Generally this means it is either written/signed/said by the candidate, or taken from the candidate's website. Public Statements include many different speech forms (Press Release, Speech, Debate...ect). As long as it is a direct quote from the candidate or their team, we can use it for evidence. Statements from candidates are regularly published on the Vote Smart website by the Statements Sub-Department of the Research Department.

Direct quotes will make up a large portion of evidence we use because of the quantity of speeches which are available to us. They can also be very direct and clearly answer a question, making them ideal evidence.

Statements can be found by navigating to the candidate's page on votesmart.org and selecting their "Speeches" folder. From there, you can select an "issue" from the scroll down menu, or try a keyword search for your topic.

Example: transcript of a speech in which Chris Christie says: “I'm pro-life and I believe strongly in the sanctity of life”. This a quote straight from his mouth which directly addresses the question at hand and with just one or two of these sorts of quotes, we can make a clear judgment that Chris Christie is pro-life. - https://votesmart.org/public-statement/866396


Issue Position Statements
- Specific type of statement. They are very direct and issue focused, making them very useful Issue Position Statements which are either submitted by the candidate or retrieved directly from their official website are very strong indicators of a candidate's stance on the question at hand. From a candidate's "Speeches" page, you can filter for Issue Position statements by setting the "Speech Type" scroll down to "Issue Position".

An example of a good issue position statement is this one for Dianne Feinstein taken directly from her campaign website at the time.
"Senator Feinstein supported the historic Affordable Care Act, which is benefiting millions of Californians."

Statements that apply to Multiple Candidates
Although these are not direct words from the candidates, they have willingly attached their name to whatever the message is. So a pledge to not raise taxes is a pretty good indicator that they do not support raising taxes on any tax bracket will benefit the country. Additionally, if they sign a letter, it is a solid indicator of their support or opposition of an the issue in question.
Pledges:
Candidates will often sign a pledge in exchange for an endorsement. These pledges can be very useful if they directly address the same issue we are researching.
Letters with multiple signers (including "Dear Colleague" Letters):
These are letters often signed by multiple candidates and are addressed to a government leader. These are especially useful when they directly address the issue.

Speeches Found Outside of The Vote Smart Website
When good statement evidence is found, but outside of the Vote Smart website, please show it to your supervisor so that they can send it to the Statements Sub-Department. Statements staff can then process the evidence so it is on our site. We want to use all of the evidence we can find, but we also want it to come from our own data!

Candidate Surveys
How to Search for Past PCT Answers Using votesmart.org
- go to votesmart.org and type in the candidate's name you want to search
- Select your candidate's name and then click on the Folder icon that says "Positions"
- If the candidate has taken the PCT, his/her answers will display here
- A fully filled in green circle next to an answer means the answer can directly from the candidate (meaning it wasn't a research determination)
Past Political Courage Tests (formerly known as NPATs):
Vote Smart encounters many candidates who have previously filled out the Political Courage Test, but have failed to complete it in recent years. These past Political Courage Tests, previously called National Political Awareness Tests, can be used in VoteEasy research. However, because the test undergoes frequent changes based on issue salience and relevance, not all past questions will be applicable for this year's Vote Easy Research. For questions that do match, this is the most conclusive form of evidence that you can find - the candidate is directly answering the question being asked. Any answers to a PCT from 6 years before the current election or more recently are good sources of information.
External Voting Guides and Surveys:
Many state and local organizations will send a survey to candidates with questions related to the organization's specific interests. Although these surveys are often partisan, they can be very useful. Search terms like: voter's guide, questionnaire, survey, state, issue, and year to locate these. Voting Guides and Surveys are acceptable as long as the answers are the candidate's words, and not research by the organization itself.

Tier 2


Actions of the Politician
How to Search for Votes Using votesmart.org
- go to votesmart.org and type in the candidate's name you want to search
- Select your candidate's name and then click on the Folder icon that says "Votes"
- Use the "Issue" filter to specify your search. The list of votes that the candidate has taken will be ordered chronologically.
- Scroll through the votes listed and pick any that will be useful for evidence

Legislative Voting Records
Legislative records can provide useful insight into the candidate issue positions, as sometimes "actions speak louder than words." Using legislation as evidence can be challenging though, because lawmakers may support an issue in principle but disagree with the specific policy. Based on these nuances, a vote does not necessarily indicate support for or opposition to an issue position.

For example, a candidate may have voted against a bill to institute stricter gun laws, but not because they opposed the stricter gun laws, but instead because of how it was done or the severity of those restrictions. A real world example of all of this would be Ted Cruz and Elizabeth Warren's votes on S Amdt 1197 “Requires the Completion of the Fence Along the United States-Mexico Border”. Since Cruz voted in favor of the bill, we can use that as a solid piece of evidence that he is in favor of requiring undocumented immigrants to return to their country of origin prior to attaining citizenship. On the other hand, even though Warren voted against the bill, we cannot say that she is for sure in favor of amnesty of some sort because there may have been other factors for her disapproval of the bill. As a result, we only use votes in favor of a certain piece of legislation. The following general rules should apply:
Yea votes are not a foolproof indicator of a candidate's position on the issue. Usually if a candidate is committed to a certain cause, they will have spoken about it, which can be used to validate vote evidence.

Access Key Votes and executive actions (including vetoes) by clicking 'Legislation' on the Project Vote Smart homepage, or by clicking 'Voting Record' on a candidate page. Non-"key" votes, and votes prior to Vote Smart's coverage can be found at that legislature's website.

Sponsorship
Legislative sponsorship/co-sponsorship can provide additional insight into candidate issue positions.

Access sponsorship and co-sponsorship by clicking 'Sponsored Bills' on a candidate's Voting Record page. Please note that Vote Smart does not currently collect sponsorships for bills that don't make it to a vote, so it is quite likely that some "key" sponsorships are missing from the Vote Smart database. ( Possibly using sponsorships post 2018 election )

Votes Found Outside of The Vote Smart Website
When good Vote evidence is found, but outside of the Vote Smart website, please show it to your supervisor so that they can send it to the Key Votes Sub-Department. Key Votes can then process the evidence so it is on our site. We want to use all of the evidence we can find, but we also want it to come from our own data!

3rd Party Evaluations of the Politician
How to Search for Ratings/Endorsements Using votesmart.org
- go to votesmart.org and type in the candidate's name you want to search
- Select your candidate's name and then click on the Folder icon that says "Ratings"
- Use the "Issue" filter to specify your search.
- Scroll through the ratings listed and pick any that will be useful for evidence
- Recent endorsements will be listed on the left side of the page

Special Interest Group Ratings and Endorsements
Special Interest Group Ratings (SIGs) reflect how officials acted in line with an organization's preferred position. These ratings are often based on voting records, interviews, survey results and/or sources of campaign funding. Interest group ratings are useful to determine a candidate's issue position only if the issue question corresponds directly to the objective of the special interest group. Interest group endorsements are also useful for determining a candidate's issue position. Both ratings and endorsements are collected and entered by the Special Interest Groups program of the Officials Research Department.

While a candidate's rating from a Special Interest Group can be useful, it is also not foolproof because the SIG may have other motives in their rating of a candidate. Ratings are typically biased or partisan. In particular, a SIG may rate a candidate based partly on the views of their opponent.
For instance, Candidate A opposes greenhouse gas regulations because they could hinder economic growth, while his main opponent, Candidate B, denies climate change all together and thinks humans can do whatever they want to the earth. In this scenario, an environmental SIG may rate Candidate A favorably (or even endorse) just because Candidate B is such a bad option for them, even though Candidate A actually is against regulating greenhouse gas emissions. As a result of these kind of practices, we will need multiple strong ratings (<25% or >75%) to make a determination based solely on SIG ratings.

An example of a situation where we could make a determination based on ratings alone would be Marco Rubio's position on gun control regulations. Based on all of his ratings from SIGs, it is safe to assume that he opposes any regulations.

To find a candidate's interest group ratings on the Vote Smart website, select their "Ratings" folder and select the issue topic from the drop-down menu.

Previous VoteEasy Research (not to be used exclusively in 2016)

Locating Evidence


Guiding Principles

It is preferred if we can cite our own content (on votesmart.org) as evidence, especially if it's content we normally cover on our site. Citing votesmart.org has the advantage of highlighting the usefulness of our data and keeping users on our site if they are interested in seeing more detail. We also are confident in its reliability, whereas external sources may not be as relatable.

When we cannot determine a candidate's issue position using our extensive database, we expand the search to include outside sources. The main concern is that if someone can find the answer to something we've marked as "undetermined" with a quick google search, that would be hard for us to justify not having it.


Acceptable External Sources
Use discretion when searching for sources from websites other than votesmart.org. It is critical that we limit our research to only the highest quality, reliable sources. When searching outside of votesmart.org, make sure you are only looking for the same types evidence described above (what the candidate said, how they voted, how they were rated). When you find good evidence outside of VS, the first thing you should do is see if we can process the data so it is on our site. This will require getting in touch with the different research Sub-Departments (Statements, Key Votes and Ratings). If you have any questions about who to send evidence to or if we can take it, ask your supervisor!

The following sources are pre-approved for citing evidence:
If you are unsure about the quality of a source, or would like to include a source not explicitly mentioned here, ask your supervisor!

Search Techniques and Process

Internet Research training

If you are researching a candidate individually: search by the name they are commonly known by and variations, along with relevant keywords. It's generally advisable to start with specific, targeted searches and then expanding those searches if it's not producing the needed results. When you find evidence that applies to multiple people (such as pledges, voter guides, etc.), fill in the positions for each candidate included.

Listed below is a suggested research process for individual research, which can serve as a guide. However, you may begin to develop your own research process that is best suited to you. Once sufficient evidence has been retrieved, you may move on to the next question or candidate, and are not required to complete the full process listed below.
  1. Votesmart.org site search. You may want to start with the Issue Positions first, as they may directly answer your question off the bat.
  2. Browsing or performing a Google site search of the politician's website(s)
  3. social media search engines/browsing the politician's social media accounts
  4. broader Google searches
  5. Google News: Google News is most helpful if you narrow your search with specific terms and by date. However, select 'Archives' if your search is too narrow.
  6. Search for content that is unlikely to come up in keyword google searches, for example: videos and certain pdfs. Often, this will be TV interviews of a politician, radio interviews of a politician, voter guides of an election or race, or pledges on an issue

(For 2018 and future development only) Evidence that Applies to Multiple Candidates ("Standardized VoteEasy Evidence")


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