When VIP began in 1992, select candidates from parts of Sarpy and Douglas Counties were contacted by phone and the caller wrote down their answers. One of the early callers reported that a candidate talked faster than she could write, so she summarized what he said. She asked if what she had written accurately represented his answers. He even said her summary was better than how he had said it.

 

A couple of years later, another caller emailed the candidate to make sure the answers had been understood correctly. That candidate wrote back asking to “fix” what she had said. “That is how I said it, but it sounds too negative.”

 

In those days we published paper copies. People would drive to Bellevue to pick up “originals” for the price of photocopies, to make copies from to share with their circle of influence - often their church families. Also in those early days we would have answers from easily 85% of the candidates.

 

Even as early as 1998 we did our first fledgling website. The information was presented by county and the voter would have to sift through all those races to find the names on their ballot. Back then they measured “hits” on the website and we were seeing 500,000. In 2011, the kind volunteers who had managed to keep repairing the aging website informed us the technology was so antiquated they couldn’t continue.

 

In 2012, the new website made it possible for the candidates to answer directly online instead of doing the phone interviews. Now we were confident we were getting candidate responses in their own words. A couple of years later we were able to have voters find just the races, issues, and judges specific to their ballot. That level of technology required more money than our normal non-pay to volunteers. So, for donations to be tax-deductible, we applied for non-profit status. Our commitment to being non-partisan from the beginning meant we received the official 501(c)(3) designation.

 

After a candidate from Elkhorn wondered why he was calling a Bellevue number, we started recruiting local volunteers who would have that candidate’s name on their own ballot. We ask the volunteers to keep track of contact attempts to help the voter gauge how responsive the candidate might be to constituents. As election cycles were rolling by, and volunteers appeared, we were able to add more counties.

 

For the 2020 election we put on a new face for the website, making it even easier for voters to find the candidate responses, ballot issues, and information on the judges. Shortly after that we started the “job description” feature which helps the voter know just what the position is that the candidate is running for.

 

BUT NOW    Maybe there is a way you could help....Read with that in mind....

 

LOTS of other organizations do questionnaires online. In recent elections we are sometimes seeing less than 50% answering. In the 2024 General Election cycle, there were 51,000 new users (not hits) who were seeing candidates not responding. Campaign managers assure us that our questionnaire is the most “fair” they see. Candidates can’t figure out where we’re coming from on the political spectrum so they have to tell the truth, and not “slant” their answers to the view they think the questionnaire comes from.

 

We suspect candidates do not know about us, or value us, because we put so much effort into trying to connect with candidates that not enough promotion is happening. 

 

We think we need to do at least the following:  

Keep Working, Find more workers, Find more promoroters, Find more leaders, Find more donors, Find more prayer warriors.

 

Following see the details about what the responsibilities could be, in line with the organizational chart above.  Please note the word "could".  We are open to improvement!

 

No matter the position of a volunteer, (including leadership) we look for:

Currently the Executive Director does the coordinating with the Webmaster - the only person paid for anything.   It would be a benefit if a database manager under the "administrative director" could decrease the load...Website Management would include:

- Poll the Vote Manager/Voters Dashboard

- Communicating and directing development

- Discussing content presentation

- Improving candidate connector reporting system