Presidential Debate: Finding the truth among the chaos

If you weren’t living under a rock in the past week, you probably heard that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton had their first televised confrontation September 26.

The first of the three debates scheduled to happen before the presidential election in November had some of the most heated confrontations on issues such as defense, taxes and racial tension.

Although the candidates only reiterated positions and ideas that they were already defending on campaign with no major surprises, the debate itself went down in history as the most watched political event in history. The event was televised by 13 channels and reached more than 84 million viewers across the country, according to Nielsen ratings. This data, however, does not include any viewers who watched the debate through online streaming, which makes the number even bigger.

But what does that mean, exactly? Does the increase in viewership is a reflection of Americans becoming more engaged on political matters than ever before? Well, it is hard to say.

All I can say is that, if you are on the fence about who to vote for or even if you’ll vote during this election, there are ways to make an informed decision about the presidential candidates. Here’s a list of resources you can use:

New Orleans Public Radio fact-check

NPR did a real time fact-check along with the transcript of everything that went on during the debate Monday. It has annotations on each candidate’s responses to issues brought up during the debates, so you can see which argument was based on factual information. You can check it here: http://www.npr.org/2016/09/26/495115346/fact-check-first-presidential-debate

I Side With

This website offers you a quiz that calculates your compatibility with each candidate according to your answers on political issues such as gun control, equal pay, abortion, Obamacare, immigration and more. You can take the quiz at: http://www.isidewith.com/

Rock the Vote

Besides providing information about the importance of voting, registration, polling places and the election process, the website also contains polls and articles aimed to help the millennial demographic to keep informed. See the resources at: https://www.rockthevote.com/

Real Clear Politics

It showcases side-by-side polls and categorize them by topic, location, poll organization, results and points difference among candidates in each poll. You can see the presidential election polls since the parties nominated their candidates here: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/president/#

270 to Win

Is a website/app interactive Presidential Election map forecast. It uses available ratings to show which candidate has more voters’ intentions in each state. You can also see polls conducted in 13 states after the first presidential debate by accessing: http://www.270towin.com/news/2016/09/30/update-on-polls-conducted-after-first-presidential-debate_385.html#.V-7pYvkrLIU

Remember that Trump and Clinton aren’t the only candidates to consider. If you didn’t registered to vote yet, the deadline for registering online, by mail or in person in Louisiana is October 11.