Research Associate-Philipsburg, MT

Vote Smart is run by the young and politically savvy with the goal to defend the voter’s right to the truth. We need idealistic researchers committed to investigating the background of politicians and offering the facts about who they are to their fellow Americans. Supported by 40 national political leaders of both parties, Vote Smart is described by the New York Times as “so good nearly every political expert recommends it.” We are currently searching for employees from the country’s best and brightest. Our jobs are based at our Great Divide Ranch Research Retreat, located in Montana.

Research and Political Courage Test Associates are the backbone of Project Vote Smart’s efforts. Employees are matched to assignments based on their demonstrated abilities and in accordance with the shifting needs of a growing, election-oriented research organization. Exceptional applicants may find themselves with opportunities to help manage and develop programs within months of their start date.

Requirements: Web researching skills, an interest in government and a willingness to defend citizens with abundant, accurate, relevant facts about those who govern or those who wish to replace them.

We are an extraordinary group of people, working in an extraordinarily beautiful place. If you are highly motivated, detail-oriented, committed to reversing the effects of manipulative and abusive politicians that so frustrate us all, we need you! This is an entry level position

Examples of programs that the researcher may be involved with are:

-Current Officials: The first step to connecting citizens to their government is making it easy for them to find out who their representatives actually are, what their roles are, and how to contact them. Researchers for this program are responsible for making sure that at our roster of tens of thousands of officials mirrors those currently in office at any given time. Other tasks may include inputting biographical information, contact information, committee assignments, and leadership positions into our database.

-Political Courage Test: Project Vote Smart challenges candidates to tell voters where they stand on the issues, but when candidates don’t have the courage, we answer the questions for them based on the information they’ve released. Researchers may be involved with: administering the Political Courage Tests to candidates through mailings, email, and phone contacts; inputting candidate responses in our database; and collecting evidence for and determining candidates’ issue positions.

-Legislative Research: Project Vote Smart makes it easy to see how Representatives act in office, summarizing in plain language the key votes made in all 50 states and Congress. Researchers for this program may be involved with tracking the progress of legislation in several states, reading and summarizing legislation, and entering the votes made by representatives into our database to be displayed on the website.

-Interest Group Ratings: Project Vote Smart collects performance evaluations of public officials from hundreds of interest groups on the state and national level. Researchers for this program retrieve and normalize these evaluations, as well as collect information about the interest groups to provide context.

-Public Statements: From climate change to how they feel about the business down the street, Project Vote Smart maintains a warehouse of every public utterance made by key politicians. Researchers are responsible for collecting, coding, formatting, and inputting these statements into our database.

-Public Engagement: Not everyone will gravitate to, and make sense of, Vote Smart’s vast database on their own, so our researchers are often involved in answering our Voter’s Research Hotline. This includes researching special requests made by those who call or write, highlighting data relevant to the events of the day on various platforms, and visualizing our data.

All applicants should possess good written and oral communication skills and be dedicated to the Project’s mission of defending a citizens right to the truth. Applicants must be willing to commit through the November 2014 election. The Project Vote Smart pledge, signed by all staff, commits individuals to absolute impartiality, respect and deference toward all citizens and professional integrity.

Submit cover letter, resume, and contact information for 3 references to [email protected]