Candidates

What does this spreadsheet do for Candidates?

The numbers in this spreadsheet are a breakdown of each political issue, showing where JaneSmith aligns (or not) with a given voter. Higher numbers mean more alignment. Lower numbers mean less alignment. It also tells JaneSmith where they align with the precinct over all (the “Overall Match with ELKHART15” number).

With this information, JaneSmith can tell what issues Jane would want to talk about (or avoid), with voters in ELKHART15. It also shows where her political opponent is weak on certain issues, and Jane is strong with voters on those issues.

As an aside, eScorian also has a social network platform for voters, which candidates gain access to – once they sign up. This social network is politically focused and groups of voters are even arranged by precinct. The platform is moderated by eScorian (who acts as an unbiased 3rd party), and can be used as a way for candidates to easily communicate to voters in specific precincts.

Why is this information better than <choose your preferred data source>?

Whether you prefer NGP VAN, i360, Vote Builder, Nation Builder – or whatever is the flavor of the decade:

eScorian’s data is timeless. The data is the beliefs of the voters themselves – and if those beliefs change, the voters themselves update the beliefs while using our platform.

eScorian helps voters. The information eScorian gives to candidates is also built off the same data that is helping the voters themselves. This is a 2-way reciprocal relationship, between both sides of the election process. No other polling or database provider does what eScorian does. eScorian helps voters, just as much as eScorian helps candidates.

Why does eScorian give this information to Candidates?

eScorian seeks to solve an issue experienced by all people involved during an election. Voters cannot seem to find information on candidates running for office. And candidates are not sure how they line up with the electorate, on political issues.

To help serve the voters, eScorian collects whatever information might be available – for where candidates stand on political issues.

To help serve the candidates, eScorian provides the above screenshot – a detailed breakdown of individual precincts. Note, the above screenshot example is not a holistic representation of the information available to candidates.

eScorian is creating a Stone Soup for the village of Voters and Candidates.

For more on why eScorian gives this information to both voters and candidates, see our Videos, which talk about the disparity between voters and candidates in the election cycle.

In summation: eScorian gives this information to candidates because helping both these communities (both voters and candidates), at the same time, is how eScorian wishes to provide a better election cycle for everyone.

What are the things eScorian will and will not do for candidates?

Ideas and questions have been floated to us, frequently, about the parameters in which eScorian is willing to operate.

Beyond just the value proposition to voters (see Home page), which outlines the core principles of eScorian, here are additional candidate-specific details:

Definitions of Terms:

Agencies: “Agencies” are voters, candidates, research outlets, news stations, pollsters, or any other entity that might fit between or within the spirit of these previous defined types of “agencies”. The scope of this term can fall into other non-political categories, such as: realtors (who would want to know a precinct’s political alignment for their prospective buyer), sociologists (for various reasons), religious institutions, and even radio stations (who might have specific political agendas they want to see resonate with key geographic areas).

Questions: “Questions” refer to the various ways in which eScorian asks voters for information. The nature of the questions and their impacts are expected to be timely and helpful to both the voters and the candidates. For example, eScorian attempts to track the Overton Window on political issues, thereby giving additional context to voters and candidates alike as to what has entered the public mind. For more on this, after signing up, see groups, for more information on how questions are formulated and assigned values.

Information: “Information”, in this context, refers to data that eScorian has – based on answers that voters have provided on the following: a.) political issues, b.) beliefs, c.) opinions, or d.) feelings towards candidates, e.) alignment towards political parties/affiliations, f.) strength of feelings (Likert Scales) on any of the previous categories listed under “information”. This information is also referred in this context to also mean “Precinct breakdowns”, which are in the above screenshot. “Precinct breakdowns” are built off of information from voters, and is of primary (pun intended) interest to candidates and political parties, but is not exclusively interesting to just those agencies.

Under those terms:

• Beyond what a voter elects to disclose, eScorian refuses to provide information that would identify an individual voter.

• eScorian commits to providing equal service in accessing aggregate voter information – to any agency that asks for it. All data is equally accessible to all interested agencies.

• Explicitly restating the above point, regarding information obtained from voters: eScorian will not give information to only certain agencies. Examples would include: only giving information to members of a certain political affiliation, or only giving information to candidates. All information is equally available to all agencies. There is no favoritism, and there are no caveats.

• eScorian will not provide targeted-questions to voters that would only be available to select agencies. An example of this would be asking voters about their opinions on a specific candidate, and only giving the results to the agency that asked for it. This information, if obtained, would be available to all agencies equally.

• Precinct breakdown can be provided to any agency, whether that be a voter, news outlet, some other agency, or even another candidate. Concerning other candidates: Suppose the following hypothetical – Due to the apolitical and open nature of eScorian, if even a voter (who might want to run for office) wants to look at precinct breakdowns: this creates a scenario where any politically savvy candidate could use a friend’s eScorian account to answer questions in the same way their opponent does. This, in effect, creates the same situation as if eScorian provided the information directly to the opposing candidate. We would rather cut through the needless middle step, and provide the information ourselves.

• eScorian will not advise on any candidate’s political strategy concerning precincts that do (or do not) align most with a specific candidate or political opponent. The data is there, and eScorian performs the compatibility breakdown of where voters line up with candidates, but that is the end of where eScorian provides it’s services. Think of eScorian as an organization gathering polling data, but more focused on political issues – while at the same time also providing a service back to the voters.

• In specific limited and controlled scenarios, the raw data of a precinct (wiped clean of any individually-identifiable voter metrics) would be available. The raw data contains the individual answers that voters are selecting (not just their aggregation by precinct). This could include down to the street level detail (or even to the grouping of houses, under the inversion of The Executioner’s Conscience), along with the Likert Scales, breakdowns of per-person Overton Windows, and other metrics. Contact us to review sample raw data and potentially request it.

• eScorian will be a door to potentially even more candidates running for office. Given the previous example about a voter who *might* want to run for office, this is especially true in cases where a prospective voter might be able to tell ahead of an election how much (and where) they resonate with voters on political issues. Even people who have only a passive interest in running, or who would just want to see how they line up with their fellow voters – they have a low threshold to finding out. They only have to sign up and then contact eScorian for precinct information. This can also be of particular interest to voters (or even realtors) who just merely want to know how they line up with a particular neighborhood.

Access your precinct breakdowns

To acquire the precinct breakdowns as seen in the above screenshot: sign up, and once done with that, contact us to let us know what office you’re running for. In the ‘contact us’ form, you can use the following format (if you want):

<name>

<office running for>