Vote Smart bus rolls into Lincoln
A red ’n’ blue behemoth of a bus parked at the Havelock Farmer’s Market, its passengers stopping to chat with Lincolnites about politics.
But it wasn’t politics as usual.
The people on the bus didn’t want to convince Lincolnites to vote for this or that candidate, or convert Republicans to Democrats or vice versa. Their only goal, they said, was to coat potential voters in a few layers of unbiased political savvy.
The Project Vote Smart bus rolled through town Wednesday, in the middle of a 50,000-mile tour through hundreds of U.S. cities.
“We’ve been building our system of information about candidates for 16 years now,” said Tallie Spiller, press secretary for the tour. “And now that it’s finally complete, we decided the best way to get the information out there was to go from town to town to explain it.”
The bus, which launched in October, came packed with a mini movie theater and free wi-fi computer terminals. Volunteers showed Lincolnites how to tap into resources that gave them a “clear, unbiased” view of candidates, both state and national. The mission is to instill what Vote Smart calls a Voter Self-Defense System.
Founded in 1990 as a one-stop shop for voters, Vote Smart is a nonprofit, nonpartisan group that tracks every incumbent and candidate running for president, U.S. House and Senate, governor and state legislature in every state.
Primary data includes voting records, issue positions, special interest group’s ratings, backgrounds, contact information, campaign contributions, and speeches and public statements. It’s not new information, per se, but a gathering of a wide array of information under the same roof.
Lincolnite Joy Buettgenbach certainly appreciated the consolidation of info.
“I thought it was awesome,” she said of her Vote Smart rundown. “It really touched my heart to see something that I’ve been looking for, to get some information on who to vote for.”
Buettgenbach said she believes mainstream media (and media consumers) have gotten too caught up in the personal drama instead of the issues. She has trouble deciding what to read and what to believe when it comes to casting an informed ballot this November.
“Most of my information came from calling different political offices and asking for information to be sent out to me,” she said. “But I am done calling offices, gathering information that way. I’ve got something I can go to now.”
Lindsay Ottersberg of Lincoln swung by the Vote Smart bus to pick up some info. And the influence it had on her is pretty telling.
The 18-year-old Southeast Community College student said she originally hadn’t planned on voting at all in November, her first election as an eligible voter.
“I just wasn’t sure,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to be more political, but I’ve never gotten into it. I sometimes feel like I don’t get any true information; it always seems one-sided.
“But now I think I’m going to vote. So I’ll have to go to this site more often.”
Reach Micah Mertes at 473-7395 or mmertes@journalstar.com.
But it wasn’t politics as usual.
The people on the bus didn’t want to convince Lincolnites to vote for this or that candidate, or convert Republicans to Democrats or vice versa. Their only goal, they said, was to coat potential voters in a few layers of unbiased political savvy.
The Project Vote Smart bus rolled through town Wednesday, in the middle of a 50,000-mile tour through hundreds of U.S. cities.
“We’ve been building our system of information about candidates for 16 years now,” said Tallie Spiller, press secretary for the tour. “And now that it’s finally complete, we decided the best way to get the information out there was to go from town to town to explain it.”
The bus, which launched in October, came packed with a mini movie theater and free wi-fi computer terminals. Volunteers showed Lincolnites how to tap into resources that gave them a “clear, unbiased” view of candidates, both state and national. The mission is to instill what Vote Smart calls a Voter Self-Defense System.
Founded in 1990 as a one-stop shop for voters, Vote Smart is a nonprofit, nonpartisan group that tracks every incumbent and candidate running for president, U.S. House and Senate, governor and state legislature in every state.
Primary data includes voting records, issue positions, special interest group’s ratings, backgrounds, contact information, campaign contributions, and speeches and public statements. It’s not new information, per se, but a gathering of a wide array of information under the same roof.
Lincolnite Joy Buettgenbach certainly appreciated the consolidation of info.
“I thought it was awesome,” she said of her Vote Smart rundown. “It really touched my heart to see something that I’ve been looking for, to get some information on who to vote for.”
Buettgenbach said she believes mainstream media (and media consumers) have gotten too caught up in the personal drama instead of the issues. She has trouble deciding what to read and what to believe when it comes to casting an informed ballot this November.
“Most of my information came from calling different political offices and asking for information to be sent out to me,” she said. “But I am done calling offices, gathering information that way. I’ve got something I can go to now.”
Lindsay Ottersberg of Lincoln swung by the Vote Smart bus to pick up some info. And the influence it had on her is pretty telling.
The 18-year-old Southeast Community College student said she originally hadn’t planned on voting at all in November, her first election as an eligible voter.
“I just wasn’t sure,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to be more political, but I’ve never gotten into it. I sometimes feel like I don’t get any true information; it always seems one-sided.
“But now I think I’m going to vote. So I’ll have to go to this site more often.”
Reach Micah Mertes at 473-7395 or mmertes@journalstar.com.
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