Citizens across the country are preparing to go to the polls in the coming days. But finding information on candidates and ballot issues can be difficult.
Julie Archer, president of the League of Women Voters of West Virginia, spoke to reporter Chris Schulz about resources her organization has created to help voters make more informed choices.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Schulz: What is the League of Women Voters?
Archer: The League of Women Voters, we’re a non partisan political organization that encourages informed and active participation in government. And we work to increase understanding of major public policy issues through education and advocacy, but our core mission is educating voters and helping them make their voices heard in our elections.
Schulz: How long have you been with the League of Women Voters?
Archer: I have been with the state league for about six years. I guess I should say, I don’t know if this matters, but we’re affiliated with the League of Women Voters of the United States. And the league has affiliates, I think in most of the states across the country. But our, our league is all volunteer. There are state and local leagues that have paid staff, but here in West Virginia, we’re an all volunteer organization.
Schulz: You mentioned that your objective is voter engagement. Can you tell me a little bit more about how the organization achieves that?
Archer: Putting out voter guides is one of the primary ways we seek to engage voters. But we also have three local leagues in West Virginia, and they host candidate forums and debates in their areas. And we also do voter registration.
Schulz: Why is there such emphasis on voter education and voter information? Why isn’t it just enough for voters to be engaged?
Archer: We feel like one of the most important things that voters need to do ahead of going to the polls and casting their ballots is researching the candidates and where do they stand on the issues that matter to the voter? And what are their plans to address challenges and problems that are facing our state and our nation. It’s important for voters to feel confident going to the polls. And I think one of the reasons that a lot of people don’t participate is because they don’t feel informed. They don’t feel like they know enough about the candidates. We’re trying to help them make them feel more confident and make informed decisions when they go to cast their ballot.
Schulz: Tell me a little bit about the voter’s guide. I understand this is a national project, but tell me a little bit about the voter’s guide and how you contribute to keeping local voters informed.
Archer: Vote 411, it’s not new. It’s something that’s been around for a while. But for our state League, this is the first year that we’ve participated in trying to help contribute information about state and local candidates. I should think when it comes to voters doing their research to learn about the candidates, sometimes that’s easier said than done. Especially for the down ballot races, maybe in more rural areas where they don’t have a local newspaper. The purpose behind Vote 411 is to kind of try to be a one stop shop for voting information. Not just like ‘Where do I go vote?’ but learning about the candidates. And so we were really intentional. We had a committee of our members that live in different parts of the state, and we really put a lot of time and thought into coming up with questions for candidates that were both office specific, but also trying to give the candidates an opportunity to speak, really speak to issues that are of importance to our communities.
Schulz: And how are you able to do that? Did you send out questionnaires? How were you able to provide people with that information?
Archer: Fortunately the Vote 411 platform made it really, really easy for us to reach out to a lot of candidates. We had to get all of the candidate contact information but the platform, on the back end of it, makes it really easy to reach out to those folks. It was primarily email contacts, the primary way we reached out to the candidates.
Schulz: Does that also include issues? I know that we have an amendment up on the ballot this year in West Virginia. Is that something that you all or the system helps people reach a decision on before they go to the ballot?
Archer: We do have some information on Amendment One on the site. I guess I would say we are a non-partisan organization, and that we don’t endorse or support candidates, but we do take positions on issues, and the League did make the decision to come out in opposition to Amendment One.
Schulz: I think you spoke to this already to a certain extent. But for a state like West Virginia, why do you think it’s so important to have this national resource and the Vote 411 system available to West Virginia voters?
Archer: I feel like speaking from my own personal experience as somebody who lives in a more rural area, it’s just very hard to get information, especially about those down ballot, more local races. One of the big races on the ballot, I think in all 55 counties this year is county commission but it’s just really hard to find information about those candidates. And the other thing that we found through doing this, putting together this voter guide and reaching out to those candidates – and we’ve been really pleased with the response that we’ve gotten – we feel like they appreciate the opportunity to let voters know about themselves, because those races also just, they just don’t get that much attention. Everybody’s focused on the presidential race, or, like the other races at the top of the ticket, but it’s like, the further down you go those races just don’t get as much attention.
Schulz: So how would you recommend, or how does the League of Women Voters recommend that people utilize this resource before they go to the ballot?
Archer: It does help voters to get personalized voter information. Basically, you go to the site, and you put in your address, and then it helps you populate a ballot based on that. And it goes through, office by office, and you can compare candidates’ positions, and it lets you send stuff to yourself, so you can have that as a reference. But there’s a lot of good information there, and we feel like the most valuable thing is being able to go there and see the responses from the candidates in their own words.
Schulz: Is there anything else that I haven’t given you a chance to discuss with me, or something that we have discussed that you would like to highlight?
Archer: One thing I was gonna mention, because part of making a plan to vote is, you know, researching the candidates. And I thought we might also just talk a little bit about voting options. Fortunately in West Virginia people don’t have to wait until November 5 to vote. We do have early voting, which is underway. There’s early voting in all 55 counties and for some voters absentee voting is an option. You have to meet the eligibility requirements, but for folks who are home bound, or they’re not going to be home because of work or school, we really encourage them to look into absentee voting. Although the time is short on that, but folks can still apply for an absentee ballot up until Oct. 30.
Really the first, the very first step when you talk about making a plan to vote is getting registered or checking or updating your registration. But unfortunately in West Virginia, if they didn’t get registered before that Oct. 15 deadline, they’re not going to be able to vote in this year’s election. But half of the states across the country allow voters to register and vote on the same day, either during early voting or on election day. And that’s something that we would really like to see in West Virginia, in terms of making voting more accessible to folks who maybe they’ve registered at one point, and then they didn’t vote and they may not know that if you don’t know, under West Virginia law, you can be removed from the voter rolls just due to inactivity. We have a lot of options in West Virginia, but there’s also a lot more we could do to encourage and increase participation.
