Get out the vote: The Methods Behind the Scenes

Lori Shelby, Ph.D., Founder & CEO

Introducing our New Blog Series on Getting Out the Vote!

For the next few weeks, our #MethodsMonday blog posts will be about voting in the United States and the methods behind the scenes.

What we won’t be discussing: Opinions on who to vote for or against, and considerations of personality, character, personal history, and/or having a presidential manner. Although these topics are of interest in the 2020 election, the purpose of this blog is to focus on methods topics of interest.
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What we will be discussing: For our first week, we are covering some voting information basics in the United States. Week 2 we will be discussing the security methods our government uses to protect the vote, and for week 3 we will be reviewing the methods pollsters use to predict voting results.

Make a Plan to Vote

​In 2020, it is important to make a plan to vote.  Https://www.vote.org is your one stop location for information on voting, regardless of where you live or your political beliefs. You can confirm you are registered, get election reminders, find your polling place, etc. The website is easy to use and intuitive. 

Where do the Candidates Stand on the Important Issues?

Although we certainly get information from watching debates, reading the news, and from social media, I find it helpful to have comparisons of the candidates on key issues from sources outside of their campaign websites.

Here are a couple that I found particularly useful: 

1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2020/trump-policies-vs-biden-policies/ - a high level comparison of Trump and Biden on key issues.
2. https://2020election.procon.org/ - a nonpartisan and detailed comparison of opinions on issues on the presidential candidates (includes Trump, Biden, and others).