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.
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. 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 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. 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 bills an impartial reviewer has connected to each value. In addition, we factor in public statements included in web sites, news releases, policy statements, town halls, 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, with a written explanation.
- 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.
- 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 are scored. If you skip values, 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, 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 (6 of 8 votes match) and Schools (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.