About Vote Your Values
Who we are
Boots on the Ground Midwest is a grassroots organization dedicated to preserving democracy and holding elected officials accountable. We empower people to become more involved in democracy by taking action in their own communities.
What is 'Vote Your Values?'
Vote Your Values is an initiative aimed at helping voters see how much their personal values align with their elected officials' votes - and how candidates say they'll vote. The project encourages voters to look beyond party lines and choose candidates based on shared values.
Why these values?
The values are based on the Kansas Speaks survey, an annual statewide public opinion poll conducted by the Docking Institute of Public Affairs at Fort Hays State University. The survey gauges citizen attitudes regarding quality of life, the economy, and elected officials, while measuring public sentiment on key state and national policy issues. Most of the value statements used here reflect those discussed in the survey. We added others based on what we hear residents say matter most to them.
What are the policy propositions?
In addition to choosing values that mattered to voters, voters are also asked to agree, skip or disagree with certain policy propositions that suggest how these values could be implemented. The policy propositions came from actual legislation enacted or proposed by the state or federal government in the last two years. These reflect how values are applied to specific policies. This was done to recognize that different people may have different views on the actions our government should take to implement a value, even if they generally agree with a value statement.
Why launch this initiative?
We've been programmed to pick a side and choose candidates based only on our “team.” We believe Kansans deserve more. Vote Your Values is an attempt to help voters pause, identify what most matters to them in a candidate and then find the candidate that shares their values and votes for or supports how to implement these values. Whether your priorities are public schools, healthcare, immigration, conservation or voting rights, you can easily learn which candidates align with you and which don't. We're asking you to simply Vote Your Values.
Methodology
How value profiles are scored
Every candidate's profile is built only from their public record. For candidates who have already held a public office, their profile is built from their votes and public statements (even if the votes were while holding a different office than the one they're currently seeking). For candidates who have never held a public office, their profile is built from statements made by them on their website, social media channels and in interviews. The value's matching score is verifiable through links included in each profile. The only human judgment involved was in evaluating how a bill or a public statement connects to a value and/or policy proposition, and that assessment is included under each bill. Transparency, here, is key.
Your score for a candidate = the share of their relevant evidence that lines up with the values you chose and policy propositions you either agreed or disagreed with. Score = matches ÷ (matches + mismatches), shown as a percentage.
More on public records used in scoring
- An incumbent candidate's score reflects recorded yes/no votes on certain related legislation a reviewer has connected to each value and policy proposition. In addition, we factor in public statements included in web sites, news releases, policy statements, town halls, and news articles.
- Challengers to incumbents were evaluated on public statements included in web sites, news releases, policy statements, town halls, news articles. If the challenger was previously an elected official in another capacity, those votes are also included.
NOTE: Each piece of evidence counts once. Nothing is weighted by date, chamber, or perceived importance of a bill.
What we leave out — on purpose
- Bills not connected to a value. A vote only counts once a reviewer has explicitly tied that bill to a value.
- Procedural votes (adjourn, table, refer). Only final votes on the actual question count. Any legislation that was brought forward and not voted on due to adjournment, table, or refer was not included. Bills that were ultimately vetoed and not overridden are counted.
- Abstentions, absences, present. Any vote that isn't a clear yes/no counts neither for nor against.
- Values you didn't choose. Only your selected values and policy propositions are scored. If you skip values or related policy propositions, they simply don't impact the results.
Where human judgment is used— and isn't
- Human judgment: A reviewer evaluates a bill (or statement) that speaks to a value and related policy proposition, assesses if the vote or statement counts as “for” or “against,” and writes a one-line explanation included in the profile. Every source has a public link.
- No human judgment: Once the source is identified by a human, everything after that is arithmetic — count the matches, divide by the total. No hidden weighting, no party labels, no editorializing the number.
How value scores are calculated.
All your chosen values are pooled. The final score is an aggregate of all individual value scores.
Example: You choose the values of Healthcare and related policy propositions (6 of 8 votes match) and Schools and related policy propositions (0 of 2 match). Pooled = 6 total matches ÷ 10 total votes = 60%. We are not equally averaging the values which would equal 37.5%. The per-value breakdown is always shown, so you can also see each value on its own.
A few notes
- “No data.” When a candidate has nothing on record for your values, they are shown as no score and ranked last, never as 0%.
- The score is not partisan. A political party affiliation is never an input or considered.
- When scores tie, incumbents are listed first.
- A brief summary of the referenced legislation is provided but users should read the entire bill for additional information, if desired. A link to longer summaries and the text of the legislation is provided. This information does not encompass the total voting record of a candidate on every piece of legislation.
- Information may continue to be added up to the date of the general election. We have not verified the accuracy of any candidate statement.
- A user’s results are intended to help them explore how they compare with the candidates on a range of public policy issues. The results are not meant as voting advice, and Boots on the Ground Midwest is not endorsing any specific candidate.
- Your results may contain links to other websites, services or resources on the Internet, including but not limited to, Facebook, Google, and other websites, services or resources. When you access these third-party services on the Internet, you do so at your own risk. These other services are not under our control, and you acknowledge that we are not responsible or liable for the content, functions, accuracy, legality, appropriateness, or any other aspect of such websites or services.