Q: Why don't all politicians have Interest Group Ratings?
Q: How are the Interest Group Ratings calculated?
Q: How were the interest groups chosen for each rating Issue?
Q: Can I change my rating of a politician?
Q: Can other people see my comments and articles?
Q: How often can I take the Matches?
Q: Can I take Matches for Elections I can't vote in?
Q: What's the difference between taking 6 Match questions and 12?
Q: Can a politician see my personal information if I match with them?
Q: Why are some Match pages open to everybody and some only to Vote iQ members?
Q: What are Candidate Matches?
Q: What are Liberal/Conservative Matches?
Q: Can I save specific politicians and articles with a shortcut?
A: Interest groups generally only rate federal officials, particularly members of Congress. Therefore, ratings do not appear for most other politicians.
A: The Interest Group Ratings are based on ratings provided by numerous groups. The meter that appears on the Vote iQ Politician Profile reflects the aggregate score of these groups. Clicking on the meter brings up a page showing the scores of the individual groups that were averaged to arrive at the aggregate score. We use the latest rating for each unique group. We also convert A-F ratings to numbers in a very straightforward way such that A+ is 100 and F is 0.
A: Interest group ratings are regularly published by the non-profit Project Vote Smart. From their list, we selected those groups whose information is both current and relevant to the categories we provide.
A: Yes, you can change your rating for a politician or candidate at any time. We will only save your last rating.
A: The people you have connected to will automatically see your articles. Your comments will be visible based on the settings you choose in your Privacy Settings section in My Account.
A: You can go through the Match analysis at any time, and as many times as you wish.
A: Yes, we don't restrict you from any of the Match quizzes.
A: If you only take six of the Match questions in a Candidate Match quiz, the choice our technology makes will be a good match, but a better match can be made if you complete all twelve of the questions.
A: You may be locked out due to more than three failed login attempts. Click on Forgot my Password and we will e-mail a temporary password that will enable you to unlock your account and reset your password.
A: We give you the option to change your match if you prefer another candidate than the one the system identified as your match.
A: No, we do not identify you to politicians or others when we suggest politicians that match to you based on your region and views. Unless you choose to allow others to see information about you through your privacy settings, Vote iQ only shares anonymized or aggregate information and as described in our privacy policy. Vote iQ takes very seriously the privacy of its members.
A: As a means of introducing people to Vote iQ, we make the Liberal/Conservative Match available to everybody, whether they are a member or not. All other Match quizzes are restricted to registered Vote iQ members who can save their match results.
A: In the Candidate Match we ask a series of questions about your opinions regarding specific issues. Based on your answers and our ongoing analyses of the candidates in an election race, we select the one candidate who has the most similar positions to yours. This candidate is selected as your match. We also show you the next two candidates you come closest to matching. This technology has been developed to assist you in understanding which candidates reflect your views. Of course, voters often make their choice on the basis of a full range of factors taking into account a candidate's political party, character or record. If you do not like the match the system generated, we encourage you to tell why in the space provided. This will help us improve the algorithm used to produce matches.
A: Using Vote iQ's patented match technology,
you can discover the candidates who align with your views.
You can answer 6 questions or 12. Answering 12 will give
you a better match. At the end of the process you will be
told which top 3 candidates you match from the selected
pool and by what percentage. At that point you will be able
to see which candidates match your views on specific issues.
Matches are based on a sophisticated algorithm that takes
into account the intensity of your views and the candidates'
positions on issues. You will not be matched on any issue
on which a candidate flip-flops.
If you don't like the match, you have the opportunity to
tell us why. Using Candidate Match is not only fun, it's
informative. We provide information about the candidates
and the issues involved in each question. In 2010 we are
providing matches for voters and candidates for the U.S.
Senate and gubernatorial races in these nine states: CA,
CO, FL, IL, NV, NY, OH, PA, WA. Races in other states will
be added later.
A: Using Vote iQ's Liberal-Conservative Match can help you decide where your views fall on the left-right axis--or whether you are a libertarian. At the end of the process you will be told which way you lean. The 12 questions included in this exercise were derived directly from a 2005 study published by the Pew Research Center: “Beyond Red vs. Blue: Republicans Divided About Role of Government - Democrats by Social and Personal Values.”
A: This is an ability that is coming soon. Always feel free to give us feedback on what you'd like to see us add to this site. We take your input very seriously.
A: If you iQ something, this means that you think it's smart. The more iQs an article, image, video, blog post, etc. gets, the more it rises up the list ahead of other content. Top rated content is posted on the Vote iQ Pulse page.
