Navigating election time (U.S.)

[jackdavinci]

It's getting close to that time again. And whereas I have a fairly solid notion of presidential progress, it's not a presidential election year, and I don't have any idea of who is on the ballot, let alone how to choose among them.

Certainly, I'm not going to vote for people based on their tv ads and distributed literature (even though they do all seem very nice in person coming to my door but not overstaying their spiel).

I could just vote party line, but how lame and ineffectual is that? Especially, the more local the position is, the less party politics is relevant. Also, I tend to generally be on board a particular 'side of the aisle' at least with regards to social issue - even if I despise the very notion that all important issues can somehow be contained in a dichotomy despite really being unrelated areas - but there are some things for which the 'other side' might occasionally get right, and if 'my side' is not bothering to show any aptitude for the social issues, then maybe the other issues start to come out of the shadows.

What I typically end up doing is looking at the endorsements of the big area paper, and combining that with party line. But surely there must be a better way? In recent elections I had trouble even figuring out what my ballot would look like ahead of time, let alone some kind of way of reviewing the candidates.

Facebook has nearly perfected socializing. Amazon has nearly perfected book buying. Google has nearly perfected web search. Where can I go to perfect my pre-voting research?

[suranyi]

Originally Posted by jackdavinci

It's getting close to that time again. And whereas I have a fairly solid notion of presidential progress, it's not a presidential election year, and I don't have any idea of who is on the ballot, let alone how to choose among them.

Certainly, I'm not going to vote for people based on their tv ads and distributed literature (even though they do all seem very nice in person coming to my door but not overstaying their spiel).

I could just vote party line, but how lame and ineffectual is that? Especially, the more local the position is, the less party politics is relevant. Also, I tend to generally be on board a particular 'side of the aisle' at least with regards to social issue - even if I despise the very notion that all important issues can somehow be contained in a dichotomy despite really being unrelated areas - but there are some things for which the 'other side' might occasionally get right, and if 'my side' is not bothering to show any aptitude for the social issues, then maybe the other issues start to come out of the shadows.

What I typically end up doing is looking at the endorsements of the big area paper, and combining that with party line. But surely there must be a better way? In recent elections I had trouble even figuring out what my ballot would look like ahead of time, let alone some kind of way of reviewing the candidates.

Facebook has nearly perfected socializing. Amazon has nearly perfected book buying. Google has nearly perfected web search. Where can I go to perfect my pre-voting research?

I'd like answers myself. Especially for local issues. I've got elections for city council, county supervisor, and water district board, and I have no idea who to vote for. All are nonpartisan. The county supervisor race is especially vicious this time around, the candidates have been sending dozens of nasty ads through the mail.

[jackdavinci]

Election time is almost here. Any ideas? How do y'all research your own ballots?

[CWN]

If you have Cablevision you can access the local debates on News 12 interactive
Newsday has lots of Long Island coverage
Here is some local discussion on some state races in your area
This site will give you the local ballot and who is running - Vote NY (no donation needed)

[Jonathan Chance]

Hell, I'm ON a local ballot this year. And I'm likely to pop like a soap bubble in the next two days!

In terms of research you need to do something simple. Use a google news search of the candidates name or the position. That would work for me (I'm running for County Commission, for the record).

Try to find everything. Lit from each candidate, the websites, if any, and so forth. Yes, they're propaganda pieces but by viewing things from all sides it shouldn't be hard to synthesize some idea of the candidates.

[foolsguinea]

I live in a heavily GOP district. I vote more or less party line Democrat plus independents that challenge the GOP. I'm either playing a long game against one-party control or tilting at windmills.

It's primary contests I find hard.

[twickster]

There's a discussion in the election forum that may be helpful: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/...d.php?t=583241

[Spectre of Pithecanthropus]

And I'm going to move this over to the election forum as well, from IMHO.

[Captain Amazing]

What exactly is your district/voting area? We might be able to find a sample ballot for you, at least

[jackdavinci]

Originally Posted by Captain Amazing

What exactly is your district/voting area? We might be able to find a sample ballot for you, at least

11776

Although I'm of course happy to get resources specific to me, I was hoping that the internet would have come up with a panacea for ballots similar to the way facebook is more or less panacea for social needs.

I do of course want a ballot.

It would be nice if the ballot is clickable, with candidates having info pages laying out their platform / speech, but also with voting record if any...

[Jonathan Chance]

Yeah, I don't think that'll happen.

Your local board of elections is there to administer the election...not promote a candidate. To achieve the goal you laid out they'd have to spend time and money getting positions from the candidate and code it into something that could display and such. At most the BoE is going to publish a sample ballot prior to election day as that's all they have control over.

Really, it is NOT hard to find information about your candidates. They (like me) WANT to get information out there. If they don't then they're likely not all that serious about winning and you should take that into account.

Remember, only YOU are responsible for getting info on the candidates. That means reading about your candidates in newspapers and online, listening to various media, paying attention to debates and such. Four to five billion dollars are being spent by various campaigns (about 12K is mine, God help me) in getting the message out...you should have heard something by this time.

[Captain Amazing]

Originally Posted by jackdavinci

11776

Although I'm of course happy to get resources specific to me, I was hoping that the internet would have come up with a panacea for ballots similar to the way facebook is more or less panacea for social needs.

I do of course want a ballot.

I'm sorry, is 11776 your zip code? I can't find it on a zip code list. What's your state, county and congressional district? Send it to me in PM if you don't want to post it publicly.

[descamisado]

11776 is zip code for Port jefferson, New York (Suffolk County), which is in the 16th Assembly District in New York State and also includes parts of Great Neck, Manhasset, Albertson, Roslyn, Garden City Park, North New Hyde Park, Mineola, Old Westbury and Williston Park.

Michelle Schimel and Scott D. Diamond are vying for New York 16th Assembly District for Congress.

[Captain Amazing]

Unfortunately, I contacted the Suffolk County Board of Elections, and they told me that they don't have any sample ballots online. You'd have to go to the Board of Elections yourself and pick one up. They said they were mailing them out, but obviously it's too late for that now.

[gonzomax]

I vote absentee every year. I get the ballot early and can look up everybody on the ballot. Some local elections and non partisan votes require some research. I am generally involved in politics, but have to admit in the past, that I would go into the voting booth and not know a thing about judges or some other votes. Now I can be thorough.

[Captain Amazing]

I did find this from the League of Women Voters that lists all the candidates in the various races in Suffolk County:

http://www.smartvoter.org/2010/11/02/ny/sf/ballot.html

I'm sure the candidates have webpages. It only lists assembly districts 1-11 there, and Assembly District 16 seems to be in Nassau County.

[descamisado]

Sorry about that - what I get for skimming while working (and reviewing my training to work the polls tomorrow in my assembly/election district) - it's in the 1st Congressional District.