Clancy is a co-founder of Citizen Connect and a board member of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund, an initiative of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund, which also runs The Fulcrum.
As a longtime independent who has voted Democrat and Republican, what I appreciated most about Taylor Swift’s endorsement of President was that she didn’t tell people what to think or who to vote for — she just outlined a thoughtful process and shared her own thoughts.
What Swift didn’t say was how we can do the same. She’s certainly right that “now is a great time to research the issues at hand and where the candidates stand on them,” and I agree with her that “it’s up to you to research, and it’s up to you to choose.” But how do we actually put that advice into practice?
Let’s be realistic: we’re all busy with our daily lives and we’re not going to become policy savvy before we vote. To address this challenge, I’ve outlined an easy-to-follow voter research process, a nonpartisan way to avoid becoming a poorly informed or “vibrant” voter and become more informed heading into this important election.
Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter
There are five steps:
1. Decide what is truly important to you. This is not something someone else should do for you: not a candidate, not a political party, not a social media influencer, not a family member, not a close friend, no one. This is where you need to think deeply and determine which candidate, in Swift’s words, “will fight for the rights and causes that I believe are in need of warriors to defend them.”
She made her case clear in her endorsement post, but it’s up to you: the issues most important to American voters are the economy, health care, abortion, foreign policy, guns, inequality, crime, and climate change. A recent Pew Research Center poll found that most Kamala Harris and Donald Trump supporters have at least five priorities, so you don’t have to pick just one.
2. Find out where the candidates stand on the issues you care about most. The media should make this easier, but they spend too much time on the latest poll numbers and clickbait spats. So you have to do the research yourself, and I’ll help you by pointing you to some nonpartisan sources with information directly from the candidates themselves.
Ballotpedia is a very robust election resource that contains a lot of data on candidates’ policy positions. It’s a lot to read, but if you just focus on your key issues, it’s very helpful. Another great resource is ProCon, which provides an easy-to-follow table with links if you want to dig deeper. Finally, there’s the National Voter’s Guide from Guides.Vote. While the wording can feel a bit left-of-center at times, it’s well laid out and has links to all the candidates’ statements and positions.
3. Find out what nonpartisan sources think about the impact of the candidates’ policies. Here, you have no choice but to rely on search engines. Only you know the issues that matter most to you. A simple search like “which candidate is good for the economy” will yield a lot of information and perspectives. I recommend ignoring the promotions from either side and their well-known media cheerleaders, and sticking to sources that are not on the candidates’ payrolls or running for positions in the administration.
4. Decide how much you trust each candidate to deliver on their promises and lead the country wisely. You can visit fact-checking websites to help you decide on the trust issue, but ultimately it’s up to you to decide. Some basic questions you want to ask yourself are: Who do you think is most likely to give honest answers to America in a national crisis? Who is most likely to take into account honest feedback from their advisors when making high-stakes decisions? Trust is important, but so is the feasibility of what is proposed. So you can also look at what nonpartisan sources think about the likelihood of each candidate’s proposals coming to fruition.
5. Make the best choice for yourself and make sure you vote. The above methods won’t make you an expert, but they can significantly increase your knowledge of the issues in just 2-4 hours. By the way, this only works if you keep an open mind and avoid motivated reasoning and what’s called confirmation bias (i.e. only looking for information that supports what you already believe). If you’re open to learning new things, you’ll feel much better about voting this year. As Swift emphasized, all of this is meaningless if you don’t vote. She encourages people to visit Vote.gov for registration and assistance with the entire voting process, which is a solid option.
After all, you don’t have to be a die-hard Swift supporter or share the same political priorities as her to recognize the wisdom of educating yourself in the run up to the election.
I pray for the best in this crazy election season, and may God bless America, whatever the outcome.
