Guys, midterm elections are coming up on Nov. 4, which is tomorrow. It may not seem that important because we’re not electing a new president, but I assure you that it is. Midterms are a huge part of electing representatives that will make major decisions on policies YOU care about that will shape the way this country runs over the next few years. This election isn’t quite as publicized as the big presidential one, which is two years from now, so you may not know what’s going on or who to vote for. I’ve compiled some resources that I definitely think will help you determine how to vote, who to vote for, and remember why voting is important.
First, let’s go to isidewith.com, an amazing resource that lets you take a quiz (because we love taking internet quizzes) on all of the different issues going on in the country and how important each is to you. Your results, which calculate how much you agree with each candidate (and why) is amazingly cool. You’ll have to go to the site to take the poll, but I’ll add in some screenshots to show you just how easy and fun it is.
You’ll select your state, then go through a series of questions on social, environmental, economic, domestic policy, healthcare, foreign policy, education, and immigration issues, as well as the issues that are specific to your state, while ranking how important each issue is to you.
After you finish the short and sweet quiz (it only takes a minute, I promise) you’ll get a results page that looks like this, and it shows which candidate you align most closely to in the U.S. Senate, the House of Representatives, the gubernatorial race, and your state senate by percentage. You can then click on each candidate who shows up in your results to find out how he or she scores on the exact same quiz that you took, as in the image below.
Another GREAT resource to look at with this upcoming election is the midterm election guide put out by the folks over at theSkimm. I called up one of the ladies at theSkimm today to chat about this resource just to get some extra information about it for you girls. After speaking to some friends and people in their circles, they realized they were seeing a huge lack of awareness as to why midterms matter, as well as the idea that midterm elections don’t matter or affect them or the government in a major way. After hearing this, they decided to put out this guide as a board approach to the midterms, looking specifically at the issues that will face us this fall, and spreading voter awareness by using the social media campaign #skimmthevote and using their college ambassadors to get the word out to our demographic that voting does matter.
theSkimm has put together an extremely helpful guide, specifically looking at states with predicted close elections. The guide takes each state and breaks down for you why you should care about the election in that state, which candidates you need to know, and what the key issues are. If you live in any of these states, this is a super helpful guide to why your vote in particular really does matter. theSkimm also sends out great daily emails with updates on midterm elections and what you need to know to sound educated on what’s going on in the world.
No matter who you vote for, what’s really important is that you get out there and make your voice heard. Change begins with you, and that change begins when you get out to the polls. Educate yourself on the issues and what’s important to you, share this necessity with your friends, and make sure your vote counts, because this country is YOUR country, and your voice needs to be heard..