Lauren
While voting is one of the most important tools citizens can use to create change, it can be hard for people to know exactly which candidate they should support. With every political party offering multiple candidates that have a multitude of different beliefs, policies, and ideas for reform, it might seem daunting to try and find out which candidate’s platform aligns most closely with your own.
Here are a few tips that can help you learn about different candidates’ stances without spending hours doing research:
Take a quiz
If you have even fifteen minutes of spare time, you can use ISideWith to find out which candidate you should vote for based on the issues that are most important to you. From your local elections to the presidential race, ISideWith offers quizzes that will help you see how your political beliefs align with different political parties and candidates.
Are you passionate about electoral issues? Domestic policy? Education? National security? These are just a small handful of the issues that ISideWith uses to ask you questions and provide you with a list of candidates ranked by how closely their platform matches with your own beliefs.
While this is not the only form of research you should do prior to selecting a candidate to support, taking a quiz is a good starting place and will give you an idea about which candidates you should focus on when you continue your research.
Take your time
All too often, people feel pressured to vote for a particular candidate even when they only have limited information about that candidate and their platform, or they will skip local and state elections altogether, even though these elections are just as important as the presidential election because they do not feel informed about the candidates on the ballot.
One of the best ways to avoid feeling this pressure and to feel confident in your vote is to take your time while researching:
- Start early: Don’t wait until the night before an election before you start doing some research. If you know you have a local election coming up in a few months, start learning about the candidates on your ballot as soon as possible. Even spending less than 10 minutes a day will help you feel more prepared come voting time.
- Think about the issues you value: It can be easy to rush into supporting a candidate without knowing whether or not they support the issues that you value. Take some time to think about what issues you find to be the most crucial, and use that to make a decision.
- Use a variety of sources: You don’t have to choose the “lesser of two evils” or choose the candidate whose name you heard the most when it’s time for an election. Take your time and do your due diligence. Listen to the candidate’s speeches, visit their websites, and take note of what they are doing to help your community.
When you start early and devote a little bit of time each day to looking at a variety of sources, you will have a good idea of who you would like to vote for when the next election comes around.
Take care of yourself
Surrounding yourself with politics can be exhausting. Make sure you take care of your mental health while you are researching so that you do not become too overwhelmed or stressed out.
If you find the research process stressful, try limiting the amount of time that you spend engaging with politics each day or each week.
You should also consider narrowing down a list of candidates based on the issues you care most deeply about so that you only have to do a deep dive on three or four candidates rather than a dozen or more.
When you take care of yourself, you will be in a better space to make the best decision for you when it’s time to vote.
With these tips in mind, you will be ready to cast your ballot the next time you step into your polling place.
