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We have documented presidential, senatorial, and gubernatorial candidates on a broad range of issues that matter the most to
you.
We ask you how you feel on those issues, compare them to the
candidates, then rank them for you according to the best match.
Candidate Scores
Step 1 calculates the base score for each
candidate:
| Your Answer Was |
Points Given |
| Exact match to candidate's answer |
150 points |
| One level away from candidate's
answer |
75 points |
| "No opinion" |
0 points |
Note: "One level away" means, for
example, he "supports" abortion rights and you "strongly
support" abortion rights or visa versa.
Step 2 compares your scores in two categories:
| Economic issues |
Policy options regarding spending, whether on domestic or foreign issues, entitlement or defense issues, or general economic philosophy.
The core issue VoteMatch is getting at is whether you think the government should regulate economic matters, or the private sector should be left free to do as the market dictates. |
| Social/personal issues |
Policy options regarding personal freedom, moral or social issues, or general non-economic philosophy.
The core issue VoteMatch is getting at is whether you think the government should control morality, or that individual people should be left free to do decide for themselves. |
| Overall Score |
You are compared to each candidate on the two scales above, with separate subscores.
Your overall score is simply the average of those two subscores. That average ranks how well you match each candidate. |
| Two-dimensional analysis |
The mainstream media focuses on a one-dimensional "right-left" political analysis.
Our two-dimensional scale identifies your political philosophy much more thoroughly and meaningfuly than the over-simplistic one-dimensional analysis.
The basics of how our analysis is richer and better: |
| Conservatives |
Conservatives oppose goverment intervention in economic matters (limiting entitlements, e.g.),
but support government intervention in moral matters (gay rights, e.g.). |
| Liberals |
Liberals support goverment intervention in economic matters (stimulus spending, e.g.),
but oppose government intervention in moral matters (abortion rights, e.g.). |
| Libertarians |
Libertarians oppose goverment intervention in both economic matters and moral matters.
Libertarians don't fit in the one-dimensional analysis because, for example, they oppose defense spending as much as they oppose entitlement spending,
and also oppose government control over gay rights and abortion. |
| Populists |
Populists support goverment intervention in both economic matters and moral matters.
Populists also don't fit in the one-dimensional analysis because, for example, they support "Buy American" programs instead of free trade,
and also support foreign interventions such as the Iraq War. |
| Push Polls |
A "push poll" means a questionnaire "pushes" you towards one particular answer, typically by making "yes" the "right" answer (people like saying yes!)
Our questionnaire avoids this inherent bias by making each of the above four viewpoints fit with 10 positive answers and 10 negative answers.
We word our questions in such a way that any of the four viewpoints, therefore, are equally represented by "yes" and "no" responses. |
That's It!
The scores are that simple. Of course, we hope
you will dig into the issues and candidates further by exploring the
details of their positions, their character, leadership abilities and
all the other important aspects in deciding who to vote for.
PoliticsMatch is just the start and is only issues-based.
And that "digging in" also removes our bias.
You can "drill down" to see how we got to the answers we got -- many questionnaire omit this critical step of "transparency"!
First you'll see a list of "headlines" (we make up the headlines) which summarize the candidate's viewpoint and assign a VoteMatch answer score where appropriate.
You can drill down further from there to see the original excerpt -- and then drill down yet further to its context -- to see the source of our headline.
We do not simply assert that a candidate is "pro-life" or "pro-choice": we show you the evidence, in a fully transparent manner, so you can see how we came to our conclusions.
Explore The Results
How It Works | Quiz
Comments
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