How did you get all this information?
What is the organization behind this information?
This packet looks like a lot of work, who exactly put it all together?
Why aren't the local races for my area represented?
How can I get my local races on this packet?
Why are there not complete sentences?
Are questions answered in the order given?
Why do you charge for a paper copy?
Is there a way I can help with costs?
What about the Learning Community?
What about Educational Service Units?
We were able to gather most of the information about how to contact the candidates from the individual county web sites, and through contacting the Election Commissioner's offices. Not all phone numbers were available, but at least addresses were, from which to find the numbers. (If phone numbers are not findable, we do mail questionnaires.) After locating the needed phone numbers, the candidates were called and either asked the questions or given the opportunity to answer by email. Besides the pop-up windows way to see the actual questions asked (found by clicking on the 'Question Key'), you can also access a printable list of all the questions on the "political races" page. Many of the questions are answered in those phone interviews. Other candidates prefer to give their answers by e-mail. Still others fax their responses and some even use regular mail to return questionnaires.
In the fall of 1992, a small group of people met regularly for Bible study. We were studying the book of I Peter and came to an understanding of our need as Christians to be responsible citizens. We committed ourselves to make sure everyone in our church was registered to vote. We then decided we needed to know more about the candidates for whom to vote. One of the members of the Bible study was especially interested and informed on political issues and he helped develop some questions to ask the candidates. We believe that "personal principles push political policies" so some questions are asked of each candidate unrelated to the specific office. A couple of others from the Bible study located numbers for the candidates, called the candidates, asked the questions, typed up the responses and made copies to share.
Each election following, some of those same people from that Bible study have been involved. Others have joined in on the project as candidate callers, typists and computer people putting together this web site. Several organizations and individuals have contributed questions to be used either this election or before. Voters Information Packet appreciates the help, but these organizations are not sponsoring organizations.
o Project Extra Mile
o A UNO professor
o Nebraska Family Council
o Go Big Ed
o Citizens Concerned for Objective Science Education
o Gambling with the Good Life
o Omaha for Decency
o Vital Signs Ministries
o A county commissioner
o Business and Professional People for Life
o Group to Alleviate Smoking Pollution
o Gardener Home School Support Group
o Nebraska Coalition for Ethical Research
o Regional Director for Nebraskans for Local Schools
o Family First
o A Librarian
o Tom Holkeboer, - my husband and great tolerator of my busyness during this time.
Listing names can be dangerous because someone could easily be left out and others prefer that their names not be listed. The project of contacting the candidates and gathering information and creating the hard copy was accomplished by a team of workers from a variety of political parties, religious views, education, and walks of life. That list would need to include people like my children who help with cleaning, laundry and making meals, or the people from my church, some from other churches, and many other friends who helped with calls, deliveries, and distribution, or the helpful people at the election offices and the county web sites. As we have expanded to more counties, other groups of people have worked together to gather the information for their counties and sent it to us to include on this website.
But THIS web site was also developed originally, in 1998, by a team including Chad Williams, Tim Witteveen and Johnny Hughes. The organization consists of all volunteers, including help from a database coach, and most data entry by Kathy Holkeboer. The artwork on the paper copy cover is compliments of Jennifer Gleason, Owner/Designer of Gleames Creative Design, web address: www.gleames.com, email: designsupport@gleames.com
We don't know enough people willing to call all the candidates in every county. It is a very time-consuming project and should be done on a county by county basis. Living in Sarpy County and calling candidates in Douglas County has raised suspicions sometimes even though it will be Douglas County residents who benefit from accessing the information.
If someone would like to organize contacting the candidates in their own local county for the next election, and would that information shared on this website, s/he should contact the local county election office to acquire the names and contact information of the candidates, acquire the questions to be used from Kathy at kathy@voterinformation.org , or develop your own, then call the candidates, record answers and type the responses so candidates' answers can be compared. That sounds simpler than it is, but if you are that someone and want more information, e-mail Kathy at kathy@voterinformation.org for more details.
Some answers are written in phrase form to save space on the web site and ink on the paper copy.
No. The order in which the questions are asked, as much as possible, help the candidate answer "easy" questions first. The order in which they are reported is alphabetical by the "abbreviation" of the question, called the Question Key.
Publishing is a big word! We started this project in the fall of '92 and gave copies to our friends at church and shared it with friends from a few other churches. Since then we have grown from doing a few races in Sarpy County to nearly all of Sarpy and Douglas and major parts of Cass, Lancaster, and Washington Counties. A couple of elections ago, we added Seward County. Other counties may be added as workers to do the job become available. We also make efforts to explain Proposed Amendments and Bond Issues plus provide information on judges. We used to call it Voters Guide, but wanting to make it clear that we make no endorsements and only provide information, we now call it Voters Information Packet. We make it available to ANYONE who wants it, attempting to print only as many copies as are requested.
The charge is an attempt to cover the costs of printer ink, postage, paper, mileage, copies, etc. The hours of organizing, phoning, and typing are all volunteer. Call Kathy at 402-292-7032 if you would like a paper copy from which to make copies to share with others. When the site is complete, each session, paper copies can also be personalized according to your voting districts. Links to those .pdf files are found at the end of the county menus listing the political races.
Yes. Drop a note to kathy@voterinformation.org to acquire the address for where donations can be received. We're not even a corporation, let alone an official non-profit group. Basically our family foots the bill, unless others help.