[speaker001:] um so what is your what why do you people don't vote in the elections
[speaker002:] well first of all I think they understated the turnout It's I don't I don't think that in a national election it's ever been under fifty three percent well it's it's it's almost half but it's been you know it's somewhere in the fifties for sure so it it it understates it a little bit
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] why do people not vote um well it's the analysts usually say they don't think it will effect anything they're certainly wrong about that
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] um I think that that it's easy if you if if you think things are going bad enough to just turn off to the news and just not pay any attention It's the less you pay attention the less you know about what's going to effect you
[speaker001:] yeah yeah I I think I think apathy is is real big thing I mean just in the fact that you don't think you're going to have anything done I to me it's really hard to find um
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] any information on the candidates I mean I I voted yesterday and and uh
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] half half the people you know you really have to hunt to get information on them and you know as far as the local things go and if you know if you don't know them then
[speaker002:] yeah oh yeah that's right yeah and I I I agree uh I have made calls to various organizations the night before elections well one thing I do I usually do is go to the library and study for an election before it
[speaker001:] really
[speaker002:] yeah and and try to get voter guides from newspapers and things and that helps a little bit
[speaker001:] yeah that's a good idea
[speaker002:] they don't ask their they don't ask enough questions they ask on one or two issues and and many people can respond with platitudes
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] what you really need to do excuse me is find interest groups that that you know who's interest whose issues you are interested in and then find how the if they have done a candidate survey and lots of times they have and then you have something to base it on there was a back when I was living in Pittsburgh there was a group called the association for public justice I don't know if you've ever heard of them perhaps
[speaker001:] huh-uh huh-uh
[speaker002:] perhaps not I it's it's it they they really didn't you know it it sounds like they're some kind of liberal group well they were a little bit liberal on some things but they were a little bit conservative on some things too
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and they put out this this uh survey of candidates where they asked them like uh eight questions uh all the candidates for all the offices now it wasn't that great in that they didn't tailor the the question for you know for the particular office so they asked people on the local level things that only come up at the national level and vice versa
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] but uh other than that it was a very good way to to see who you sympathized with and you could vote on the basis of that
[speaker001:] yeah I that's um I don't know what it was that we had that I had yesterday got it from someone in our church that uh it it asked uh
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] it went all the way down well it went to some of our constables but mainly it was in the Dallas area not in the Plano area
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] but um it asked it had all sorts of questions about uh economics uh education and and uh
[speaker002:] uh
[speaker001:] family and
[speaker002:] things things things like abortion presumably
[speaker001:] yeah yeah but it had other things like um do you would you support um
[speaker002:] huh
[speaker001:] I know one that kind of stuck out in my mind was was would you support uh a a two thousand dollar uh tax credit for women that stay you know at home and and so it had kind of a variety of of um
[speaker002:] yeah right right
[speaker001:] of questions and it it probably had twenty or thirty questions on it it was really you know that was really good and helpful and it you know it had them you know support if they could support oppose oppose or or you know be undecided about it
[speaker002:] uh-huh I do do do you know what group did it
[speaker001:] yeah it was it was it was uh I thought it was really good but you know it course it doesn't go through all the candidates and some of them you know you think well this guy's this guy won't have any won't have any um
[speaker002:] uh-huh yup uh-huh
[speaker001:] say so about any of this anyway but it's kind of good to know their opinions anyway they you know run for a different kind of office once you're in politics you probably stay in politics I would think
[speaker002:] uh-huh that's right because yeah yeah I mean once they yeah that's right that's that's one point that was made that that you know uh I read one article saying even if you don't that abortion makes any difference at uh you know at a at a really local level like City Council or something like that these people will in the end they might get elected to something bigger and the way that they get known is by getting elected these little to these to little offices
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] so you got to look at their views and and that was a point that I hadn't considered the reason I ask about the organization is I just got uh started working last year in an organization called Christian Coalition which does just what you were suggesting and I was wondering if it was
[speaker001:] uh-huh and that may have been who had done it I'm I don't remember um
[speaker002:] if it was theirs yeah
[speaker001:] I had like three or four different things I was looking at uh and that was that that was probably the most helpful I wish it had been more detailed I know that um
[speaker002:] uh-huh see the candidates don't like to respond to all these questions
[speaker001:] I you