The lesser of who cares

[Wingnut]

Mods: I hope this is non-specific and benign enough to stay. If not, I'm happy to have it deleted. Thanks.

I'm doing some late-night research tonight on some local races, so I can be ready for the ballot box on Tuesday. I'll probably end up voting mostly down party lines, but I wanted to be more informed first. There's one particular race that I'm reading up on right now that has me stumped, and I'm curious about what each of you do.

I'm not crazy about either candidate. One of them is just completely "blah" and his website doesn't have any links to any issues, positions, etc. The other one is the incumbent and will almost assuredly win, but I'm not sure that I agree with him on some of the things related to his particular position.

What do you (personally*) do in this situation? Do you vote along party lines? Do you abstain from that particular race? Why?

*I'm not looking for advice or "shoulds/shouldn'ts," but rather your personal experiences of what you do or plan to do.

[pam]

There will be quite a few local races that I will abstain from voting on. My main focus is on the presidential race.

[annewandering]

If I dont like any of the listed candidates I write someone in. I just dont like voting for people I dont like. By like I mean his stands. In our state there are many uncontested jobs. I generally write in someone on those too. This year one of my daughters is getting lots of votes. She is not a candidate. She is my daughter just in case you think I am promoting a candidate. Last election I voted for one of my brothers.

Edited November 4, 2012 by annewandering

[Wingnut]

There will be quite a few local races that I will abstain from voting on. My main focus is on the presidential race.

Will you be abstaining because your focus is the presidential race, or because you haven't researched the local races, or because you don't care about the local races, or because you don't like either candidate? :)

[pam]

As far as any propositions it's because I haven't researched them. As far as local races, the ones I will be abstaining from are because I really don't care for either candidate.

[Wingnut]

As far as local races, the ones I will be abstaining from are because I really don't care for either candidate.

Okay, so that's the same as where I am now.

In the past, I've only ever voted in presidential election years, and only researched presidential candidates. Not wanting to leave a mostly-empty ballot, I've voted along party lines and then skipped issues, but all without research. I don't want to do that this year, but I find myself unsure of what to do when faced with "the lesser of who cares."

<sigh> Can I just vote Bartlet for everything?

Edited November 4, 2012 by Wingnut

[Guest]

Remember, the President doesn't make laws or draft budgets or wage war. Congress does. So if you're trying to vote a President in to get a specific law passed/repealed, or specific budgets passed or the deficits wiped out or things like Medicare funded or things like help out Syria or sanction Iran, voting for the President is not going to get you what you want. You need to vote the Congress people that can make it happen.

As far as State level things, I researched all 11 ballot measures in Florida and posted my vote on Facebook for those who can cast a vote and need a "bounce off of" thin. And, of course, State level elections like mayor, city council, governor, etc. is even more important than Federal level as they have a more direct impact on you especially on education, property taxes, sales taxes, etc.

When voting specific candidates, I don't look at single-issue things. I look at what is most likely to happen in the next 2-4 years (usually determined as the most important issues of the election season) and vote on the candidate that closely represents my side of those issues. And, of course, the party affiliation usually gives you the general platform of each candidate.

Edited November 4, 2012 by anatess

[jayanna]

pray for discernment

[NightSG]

There will be quite a few local races that I will abstain from voting on. My main focus is on the presidential race.

I wrote this after I ran for city council last year. Our city consistently votes 70+% conservative in Federal and state elections, but our local governments tend to be 60-80% liberal, largely because of the low turnout.

The biggest issue facing candidates for local offices in our area is the lack of voter turnout; everyone has an opinion about local politics, but getting more than a small percentage to actually go vote is extremely difficult. Our city has a population of just over 17,000 people, 8,608 of which are registered to vote. Of those, 779 - barely nine percent of the registered voters - turned out to vote in 2010’s May election. In the three contested city council races that year, the winning margins were 418, 83 and 24 votes; the number of people in a typical college class would have changed the outcome of one race, and the lunchtime crowd at any fast food restaurant would easily have changed the outcome of two. These results aren't unusual, unfortunately; in the 2010 election, the city's turnout was 694, and it rarely exceeds ten percent of registered voters, or six percent of the total population.

Based on the total turnout in 2009, anyone receiving 390 votes would have been assured of victory in a two-way race, and 347 would have been enough to win in 2010. Effectively, this means that two percent of the city's population determines the outcome of the local elections. The most common reason people give for not voting in any particular election is that they feel their vote won't matter, and so it's not worth the effort to get to the polls, yet four times as many people vote in state and Federal elections as in local elections where their vote is likely to make a real difference.

Of course, to a candidate, this means that it's only necessary to persuade three to four hundred voters, rather than the eight to nine thousand that the population count would suggest, or even the four thousand that the voter registration numbers imply. To all of us, however, it means that any minority capable of swaying just over two percent of the people of our city can easily take over its government. The only way to prevent this is to get more informed voters to the polls.

Among the reasons for the lack of voter participation is the difficulty of obtaining reliable information on local politics and candidates; in recent years, newspapers may carry only one or two political articles of local interest in a month, even when there are ten or more items on that month's meeting agenda, and in a town without significant competition in radio and TV broadcast markets, neither of these becomes a good source for information. The majority of the people I spoke to during my campaign weren't even aware that there were elections in May, nor were many of them familiar with the city council or the school board. On the other hand, as internet access has become more and more widespread, individual bloggers are starting to fill this gap in some areas. The ease of use of such media, and the ability to reach a large audience without the cost of traditional media, and the simple fact that there's always room for another viewpoint, even on a well-covered subject, has made the internet an excellent resource for candidates and voters alike.

I hope that some of you will take the time to attend local government meetings, learn about the processes involved in city, county and school district business, and share the information you obtain with others, but mostly I hope that you will all seek out information about local candidates for these offices, and will use that information to participate in your local government in the most important way; by being an informed voter.

[skippy740]

[Traveler]

For those that are thinking about doing anything on their ballot other than voting for the legal candidates - make sure you know the legal ramifications and do not invalidate your entire ballot.

My suggestion - if you do not know who to vote for - don't waist your time or your ballot.

The Traveler