Originally Authored at TheFederalist.com
A left-wing “voter guide” group is contacting professors, attempting to place biased content in universities. The group claims its content is “nonpartisan.”
“We have made it simple to incorporate our guides and resources into your existing curriculum,” wrote Claire Adams, campus and youth programs director for Guides.Vote, in an email to a professor, obtained by The Federalist. “We hope you’ll check out our guides and use our resources to help your students vote.”
Adams apparently emailed college professors on Sept. 12, pitching content from Guides.Vote for use in the classroom. Youth Service America is the “fiscal host for the Guides.Vote initiative,” YSA Vice President of Partnerships Michael Minks told The Federalist. According to InfluenceWatch, YSA is a left-wing group that mobilizes youth to “influence elections.”
“With Higher Education in mind, our FREE resources have been created to be easily embedded in Canvas, or any other LMS [Learning Management System],” Adams wrote. “We would love to support you, your students, and your campus voter engagement efforts.”
She advertised “printable guides” and an “interactive quiz where students can guess where the presidential candidates really stand.”
While the group claims its voter resources are “nonpartisan,” the guides indicate a clear bias in favor of left-wing candidates.
Promoting Democrat Candidates
Guides.Vote offers a guide contrasting former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris for November’s election.
One issue is “How to ensure effectiveness and fairness in law enforcement?”
The group said Trump thinks “police are ‘under siege.’ Cut back active federal oversight of excess force, though supported a database to track it. Admires Chinese approach of quick trials and a death penalty for drug dealers so there will be a ‘zero drug problem.’”
Meanwhile, it says Harris thinks “police are dedicated public servants. As a prosecutor increased felony convictions by one third. But ‘public safety requires community trust.’ Has supported better training, banning choke holds, and prosecuting police misconduct.”
Another issue is “How to handle immigration? Support a path to citizenship for ‘DACA’ participants brought to the US as children?”
The group said Trump thinks “illegal immigrants are ‘poisoning the blood of our country,’” adding that he “will use the National Guard and local police, with possible detention camps, to deport 15 to 20 million illegal immigrants. Opposed the bipartisan Senate immigration bill. Tried to end DACA; Supreme Court overruled. Would renew his Muslim ban and end automatic citizenship for everyone born in US.”
Contrast this with the group’s glowing review of Harris. It said she “supports ‘comprehensive immigration reform.’ Backed the bipartisan Senate border security bill. Rejects mass deportation of undocumented immigrants. ‘We are a nation of immigrants. … let us all address [the issue] with the urgency and seriousness it requires.’ Supports pathways to citizenship for DACA participants and undocumented spouses of citizens.”
These guides closely imitate left-wing media’s coverage of the issue. For example, The New Republic claimed Wednesday that Trump “essentially endorsed ethnic cleansing.” The same day, Newsweek reported a “boost for Kamala as illegal immigrant crossings drop 70 percent.” The first claim is laughable, and the second claim is taken far out of context.
The presidential voting guide also misrepresented Trump’s positions on key issues, such as abortion and Social Security — as Harris has done repeatedly. At the same time, the voter guide appears to gloss over Harris’ numerous policy flip-flops and, despite its importance, fails to include a question directly addressing the topic of energy, an issue for which Harris has faced heavy criticism.
Guides.Vote offers a similarly biased guide for the vice presidential candidates, Democrat Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Republican Sen. J.D. Vance. It offers a variety of guides for elections in more than 25 states, including the swing states Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
The “quiz” Adams advertised to professors shows a similar bias, with questions based on the group’s voting guide that is favorable to Harris. When users reach the end, the quiz shows them the candidate who most closely matches their answers to the biased questions.
Minks claimed the group uses a “rigorous process” to ensure its guides are “nonpartisan.”
“Their nonpartisan guides inform voters of candidates’ policy positions, based on the candidates’ own statements,” he said. “They subject the guides to a rigorous process involving multiple reviewers who have varying political perspectives.”
Minks pointed to a document from Guides.Vote that explains how it assembles voting resources.
“We understand that a guide occasionally may not seem perfectly fair. For example, an incumbent who has had to make difficult policy decisions while in office may appear more controversial than a political newcomer with no record to defend,” the document reads. “But we pride ourselves in conveying an accurate sense of candidate positions.”
Guides.Vote offers a guide on “Detecting Disinformation.” It cited “climate discussions,” the Russia-Ukraine war, the 2020 election, and Covid-19 as sources of “disinformation.”
“Some promoted untested or debunked medications and unsubstantiated prevention or detection techniques. Others created conspiracy theories about COVID’s origins,” reads the webpage. “During the height of the shutdown, nearly half of the Twitter accounts that discussed ‘reopening America’ may have been bots.”
The group urged readers to “prioritize reputable and trusted sources,” directing them to the Poynter Institute which publishes the discredited fact-checker Politifact.
Mobilizing Students
Guides.Vote first created its guides in 2012 for college students, Adams said in the email obtained by The Federalist. “They rapidly became the favorite resource of the schools, who said they not only helped students decide who to vote for but whether to vote at all,” she said.
Two-thirds of college-aged Americans — ages 18 to 24 — prefer Democrats over Republicans, according to Pew Research. Minks said a “lack of knowledge about the candidates and issues” is often a “barrier to voting,” and that Guides.Vote provides resources to a “number of audiences” including students. “We’re confident that the guides are an important, trusted resource in a politically divisive environment,” Minks said.
Adams advertised “FREE printed guides and banners.” The group prints sheets or banners of voting guides — which it insists are “nonpartisan,” but often show bias in favor of the left — and sends them to colleges in multiple states. The group recommends displaying its content in “high-traffic locations.”
“You can display the banners on a campus or a community location, like a YMCA or library,” reads the group’s webpage. “You can hang them on walls, put them on bulletin boards, or hang them from posts in front of an entrance.”
Guides.Vote recommends staff use “student volunteers” to spread its content on campus, noting their clothing should not show partisanship. “Have student volunteers hand out printed guides for canvasses, tabling, and events,” read instructions from the group. “Distribute printed copies of the guides in students’ physical mailboxes. Or post them in cafes, bars, hair salons, and other off-campus locations where students congregate.”
The group said staff can also spread its content online in school-wide emails, campus websites, social media, and by co-opting media outlets.
“Send through all-campus email — the most efficient way to reach everyone. Senior administrators and top student government leaders have access, and hundreds of schools have done this,” the group says. “If you cut and paste actual guides into emails and format for your email platform, far more people will read them.”
Guides.Vote recommended spreading its content on school websites, saying “posting actual guides is ideal.” It also said staff can spread the group’s messaging on social media, or ask the campus or local newspaper to reprint the guides.
The group includes a disclaimer with instructions to “always use them in fair and nonpartisan ways,” and “not to combine them with partisan materials or express preferences for a candidate or party while distributing them.” Never mind the guides’ content, which as shown earlier, gives favorable coverage of Harris and critical coverage of Trump.
A Powerful Network
Guides.Vote uses other groups to distribute and promote its guides, Adams said in the email, including the leftist groups Andrew Goodman Foundation, Campus Vote Project, Students Learn Students Vote Coalition, NAACP, Nonprofit VOTE, Rock The Vote, Voto Latino, and Teen Vogue.
The group partners with a still broader network of groups, according to its website. Prominent partners include Ben & Jerry’s, The Freemasons, MTV, and Patagonia. It also works with its sponsor, Youth Service America, and other left-leaning groups, including Aspen Institute, Black Voters Matter Fund, Bridge Alliance, Democracy Works, the Knight Election Hub, Mi Familia Vota, and Vote.org.
While The Federalist reached out to Guides.Vote and YSA for comment, only Minks with YSA responded in time for publication.
For more election news and updates, visit electionbriefing.com.
Logan Washburn is a staff writer covering election integrity. He graduated from Hillsdale College, served as Christopher Rufo’s editorial assistant, and has bylines in The Wall Street Journal, The Tennessean, and The Daily Caller. Logan is originally from Central Oregon but now lives in rural Michigan.