# Do you vote your entire ballot? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 2, 2004, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-vote-your-entire-ballot/272634 "2004-11-02T23:50:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-vote-your-entire-ballot/272634/21 "2004-11-03T05:42:37Z")
I think it’s irresponsible to vote for anyone or anything I’m not informed about. I read all of the available information on the ballot measures, and try to make informed decisions about all of the candidates, but I still left the judges and a couple of others blank. Since I don’t know anything about them, I don’t want to lessen the impact of votes from people who did their homework. Since my wife is on the local school board, I generally follow her recommendations on anything education-related. ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-vote-your-entire-ballot/272634/22 "2004-11-03T07:34:00Z")
**no** ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-vote-your-entire-ballot/272634/23 "2004-11-03T07:46:31Z")
I probably voted about 90% of my ballot today. When it got down to the last few judicial offices, I jumped ahead to the issue elections. I wanted to hurry up and let other people have time to vote. I also didn’t really have enough time to research every single judge. There were some who weren’t on my Democratic voting guide, so I just left them. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-vote-your-entire-ballot/272634/24 "2004-11-03T07:47:36Z")
Everything but School Board, because I really have no idea what the difference between the two people were. Kind of like choosing who runs the fire district in your community. How exactly are you supposed to research that, other then reject any arsonists? ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-vote-your-entire-ballot/272634/25 "2004-11-03T13:26:21Z")
I vote the entire ballot. I vote for unopposed people beacuse a) if someone bothers to run, they get my vote and b) to guard against write-in wackos. I usually vote for incumbant judges. I acatually know someone who was running for soil and water conservation district supervisor, so voted for him. City council was the tough one for me. I know one person, but he wasn’t running (they have diffent length terrms). I read the city council minutes and 95% of the votes are unanimous anyway. Brian ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-vote-your-entire-ballot/272634/26 "2004-11-03T21:05:13Z")
I voted the entire ballot save one race. There was a judgeship up for grabs where there were 4 candidates and no incumbent. Since I knew nothing about any of the candidates I skipped that race. I figured in that situation no candidate would get a majority and we’d be having a runoff soon. I could study up and vote sensibly then. I was right. Of course I vote for unopposed candidates! If I don’t do it, maybe nobody else will and then they’ll have to spend my tax money on a special election! OK, that’ll never happen, but my brain won’t let me skip over them anyway - just in case. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2004, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-vote-your-entire-ballot/272634/27 "2004-11-04T04:37:33Z")
For once in my life, I voted straigh party-line on all the races that had party names listed…like it made a bit of difference! I didn’t however vote for judge re-elections (we never seem to have judge elections, just votes to determine if they _remain_ in office,) or water district commissioner, because I hadnt head of any of the candidates and they were non-partisan. > [@Aesiron](#): > > I voted for everything, even the non-partisan city council member positions that didn’t have anything about them in the voter’s guide. > > I picked according to gender (women first, then men) and percieved ethnicity (ethnic looking names before white) in those cases. > > I’m a white male, for what it’s worth. I considered doing that, too, but here in Florida at least, you can’t tell if a Hispanic, for instance, is conservative or liberal ( and if they aren’t different politically, why pick one over the other?). And women can be just as conservative, in areas that matter to me, as men. So basically, if I did that, it would be just like electing your average white man to me. ---
**Author:** ![Cosmopolitan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/94ad74/32.png) [@Cosmopolitan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cosmopolitan)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2004, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-vote-your-entire-ballot/272634/28 "2004-11-04T05:22:46Z")
I read a lot of information, then voted for all but the judgeships - I don’t know enough about the candidates. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-vote-your-entire-ballot/272634.md?page=1)