Table of Contents
Who is Vote Smart?
Vote Smart is a non-partisan, nonprofit political research organization. We provide relevant, factual, unbiased information on elected officials and candidates free of charge to citizens.Vote Smart is a "Voter's Self-Defense System" of factual, trustworthy, relevant information on candidates and elected officials, issues and legislation. We allow citizens to defend themselves against the often-manipulative campaign tactics of many candidates by offering them straightforward information.
Vote Smart strives to provide free, unbiased, in-depth, and accurate information about current officials, candidates, issues, legislation, and voting.
Founded: 1988; Inaugurated in 1992
What does Vote Smart offer?
A national research library of factual information on 40,000 candidates and elected officials (presidential, congressional, gubernatorial, state legislative, and county and local officials)Six categories of data
- Voting records
- Campaign finance contributions
- Issue positions
- Biographies and contact information
- Public statements
- Special interest group ratings
*Also cover ballot measures in every state, and voter registration information by state, in addition to other political resources.
What are Vote Smart's sources?
- Biographical Information is collected and posted from either the candidate's submitted information given to us or taken from their official campaign or office website.
- Voting records are collected and posted directly from the state legislatures or congress.
- Interest group ratings are taken from the said interest groups themselves. If the rating is identified in any other form besides a percentage we will translate the rating into numerical form.
- Campaign finances are collected from two different sources:
- For federal candidates, The Center of Responsive Politics or opensecrets.org
- For state candidates, The National Institute on Money in State Politics, or followthemoney.org
- Public Statements & Speeches information collected directly from committee hearings, media transcripts, social media, floor speeches, and office/campaign websites.
- Issue Positions are collected using our Political Courage Test. *Inferred responses to PCT questions when a candidate chooses to not participate are taken from candidates voting record, public statements and speeches, interest group ratings, answers to previous Test questions.
Where is this information?
Voter's Research Hotline (1-888-VOTE SMART)
Website (www.votesmart.org)
Free publications (Voter's Self Defense Manual)
VoteEasy
MyVoteSmart
Website (www.votesmart.org)
Free publications (Voter's Self Defense Manual)
VoteEasy
MyVoteSmart
Why Trust Us?
1. Those with a political history wanting to join our Board must join with a political opposite (always name-drop the most famous in pairs: Carter & Ford, Goldwater & McGovern, Dukakis & Frist)2. Vote Smart is funded entirely by philanthropic foundations and individual contributions--we accept no corporate, special interest, labor, or government support
3. We operate much like the Peace Corps: most of our work is done by volunteers and interns, who are not paid, and the small staff who are paid receive minimal salaries
4. We do not lobby for or against any cause or issue, or support or oppose any candidate
5. Partners like the Department of Defense, Google, Bing, Yahoo, NBC, and others have trusted our data to power their information.
Flagship Programs:
About the Political Courage Test
- Launched in 1992- The PCT measures the willingness of candidates to tell voters how they may handle the job if hired (They work for the public; the PCT can be viewed as a job application "interview").
- It's essentially a one question test: "Are you willing to tell citizens where you stand on the issues you may face if elected?" If candidates say "yes", we ask them to demonstrate their willingness by answering a few questions that are both top on public's mind, and also likely to come up in next legislative session. (Thus are fair questions to ask and expect answers for).
- The result of the PCT is the collection of a candidate's issue positions so the public can do side-by-side comparisons on the issues important to them.
- PCT questions are reviewed and vetted by political scientists, political journalists and the Vote Smart Founding Board(leaders from across the political spectrum). This is to guarantee the tests neutrality and objectivity amongst a sea of other issue-related questionnaires that candidates receive each year.
About Vote Easy
VoteEasy is an interactive tool that allows anyone to instantly see which candidate(s) agree with them on the major issues facing the nation. VoteEasy has information on Presidential and Congressional Candidates. The PoliticalCourageTestGuide powers VoteEasy; when candidates fail the test, we research their likely stances. We'll always encourage users to dig deeper into politician's records at votesmart.org.About My Vote Smart
MyVoteSmart allows voters to register any politician of interest to them with Vote Smart. Then, when any new data on that person related to that issue becomes known we send a daily email with that information.Find more information on how to plan for a presentation.
