Voting is one important way to support causes you care about and to protect the outdoor places you love. But there’s a lot of information to sift through when considering the candidates up for election. To simplify things, we’ve rounded up a few easy-to-use voting guides that break down candidate positions on key issues that impact life outside, including the environment and the outdoor recreation economy, among many others.
This resource is provided to help you participate in elections. REI maintains a nonpartisan stance and does not endorse candidates or political parties.
Browse these guides in the coming weeks so you can head to the polls (or fill out your mail-in ballot) equipped with information on the issues important to you. Life outside depends on all our votes.
This is just a selection of the voter guides available online. Some may not be updated until closer to the election.
Vote411
Launched by the League of Women Voters Education Fund, Vote411 is a nonpartisan tool for learning more about candidates running in federal, state and local races. You can even select two candidates to compare their experience and positions on key issues pertinent to the elected office.
Note: Some guides are not yet available and will be published closer to Election Day.
Campus Election Engagement Project
Created to make voting easier for student leaders and college faculty, this nonpartisan guide provides a simple breakdown of where candidates stand on issues such as education, climate change, individual rights, COVID-19 and the environment, among other things. Simply click on the state and select a candidate. Many of the guides are offered in both English and Spanish.
League of Conservation Voters
Taking care of the environment is an important part of protecting our ability to recreate outside. This scorecard compares current members of Congress based on their environmental voting records. League of Conservation Voters (LCV) considers several categories, including clean energy, air pollution, endangered species and drilling on public lands. Scores are calculated by dividing the number of environment-related votes cast by the total number of votes tallied, according to the website. You can click on individual candidates to view their voting history. Consider using this tool when evaluating incumbent candidates.
Ballotpedia
While not necessarily a voting guide, Ballotpedia is a helpful resource for learning more about candidates running for office. The site bills itself as an encyclopedic tool for researching politicians and policies, among other things. You can take a deep dive into a candidate’s career, or you can see which ballot measures are of particular interest in a given election year.
If supporting bike infrastructure or policy is important to you, check out People for Bikes, a nonprofit that works with federal, state and local officials to prioritize biking in communities. Their 2022 voting guide includes a rundown of bike-related measures on the ballot this year, from subsidies for electric bicycles to taxes that invest in biking trails. The information is organized by state, so you can easily find what’s most relevant to you.
Other organizations have developed voter guides, and some include endorsements. REI does not make endorsements (though we do support certain initiatives, many of which receive bipartisan support), but if you’re interested in what others are saying you can check out guides by Outdoor Industry Association and Protect Our Winters Action Fund.