# How Much Research Do You Do Before Voting? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 23, 2020, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-research-do-you-do-before-voting/923721 "2020-10-23T20:28:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2020, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-research-do-you-do-before-voting/923721/21 "2020-10-24T22:20:24Z")
It is much easier here in Canada. The only offices I vote on (all in separate elections) are Member of Parliament; member of the Quebec assembly; mayor and one councilman; school board member. The MP I have met and liked and, in any case, I am not going to vote for the science-hating conservatives, although I might conceivably vote for a New Democrat if they make a strong case. The others often run unopposed, but they are non-partisan and it is not clear that there are views that differ enough to matter. I have not had much interest in the school boards since my last kid finished almost 30 years ago and probably won’t vote even if it is contested. Once when I voted in IL the entire state assembly was voted on at-large with each party putting up 118 candidates for the 177 seat assembly. The Dems elected all 118, the Reps 59. Utter madness, but they could not agree on a redistricting. And no, I made no effort to study them; just pulled the lever for the 118 Dems. ---
**Author:** ![Esprise\_Me](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprise_me/32/2947_2.png) [@Esprise\_Me](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprise_Me)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2020, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-research-do-you-do-before-voting/923721/22 "2020-10-25T01:02:01Z")
Sometimes I have a hard time finding info on the candidates for smaller offices. Judges can be especially evasive. I often just resort to voting for whichever one isn’t a current/former DA. But I do read the voter info pamphlet, the LA Times endorsements, the candidates’ websites, and various liberal political organizations’ endorsements. For candidates with party affiliations, I don’t think I’ve ever voted anything but Democratic. I often discuss the ballot propositions (serious business here in California) with friends and family in addition to reading up on them. It all adds up to at least an hour, sometimes several hours of research per election. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2020, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-research-do-you-do-before-voting/923721/23 "2020-10-25T01:08:35Z")
I’m like **Hari**. We’re in the last stages of a provincial election and my research was just considering what I thought of the party leaders, what I thought of the government’s record compared to the proposals from the other parties, and what I thought of the candidates in our riding. Then I balanced it out and marked my ballot - a single name; and popped it in the post. Got an alert in my web-page two days later that it arrived and would be counted. ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2020, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-research-do-you-do-before-voting/923721/24 "2020-10-25T05:21:08Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > If I’m ignorant about something, I don’t care about it. If I don’t care about it, what business do I have voting on it? This is exactly how some Tea Partiers got elected to the school board in the district where I taught: lots of people thought “Meh, who cares about the school board?” The Tea Partiers made life a living hell for teachers, administrators, students, and parents, refused to approve science textbooks covering global climate change and elementary history books that “didn’t teach enough about white men.” It takes years to recover from that kind of bullshit. If you don’t care about something, educate yourself so you know why it’s important. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2020, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-research-do-you-do-before-voting/923721/25 "2020-10-25T13:24:01Z")
This year I did more research for the primary than I did for the general election. There were a number of offices on the Democratic primary ballot with three or four candidates so I read through a lot of the campaign literature we got in the mail and read some online voters guides to learn about the candidates’ qualifications and positions. For the general election I voted straight D ticket, so the only research I needed to do was for judges to see which governor appointed them. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2020, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-research-do-you-do-before-voting/923721/26 "2020-10-25T13:58:29Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > There seem to be two strains of Libertarianism that I can tell. There are people who would be Republicans (for fiscal reasons) if the Republicans weren’t bonkers, and they seem reasonable to me. At least we can agree on social issues. Then there are the absolutely insane Ayn Rand-worshipping “taxes are theft” social darwinist nutjobs, and it seems to me that the ones running for office usually fall into the latter category. So yes, I am probably wasting my time. You are about 80% right and, yeah, most of the candidates seem to be Randroids. There is another strain, though, the [libertarian socialists](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_socialism) – my heros are Lysander Spooner and Emma Goldman, not Ayn Rand. It’s why I get tired of certain posters on this board who tell me what I believe\* and then sneer for being Republican-lite. If anything, I’m anarchist-lite (don’t like bombs). \*I ponder how they like as an atheist, being told by Christians what they believe (or vice-versa) who then proceed to knock down the strawman. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2020, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-research-do-you-do-before-voting/923721/27 "2020-10-25T14:47:24Z")
Interesting. I had no idea that was a thing. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2020, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-research-do-you-do-before-voting/923721/28 "2020-10-25T18:22:03Z")
As I said in [this thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-a-voters-guide-pamphlet/923511), I start with the Voters’ Guide. From there, I tend to look at the newspaper endorsements for more information. The parties tend to be pretty weak here (as compared to some parts of the country) and a lot of the local offices are non-partisan, so just voting “straight ticket” would leave a lot of my ballot unmarked. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2020, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-research-do-you-do-before-voting/923721/29 "2020-10-25T18:47:22Z")
I stopped considering Republicans a couple elections ago so I just vote straight D. For Michigan’s Supreme Court justices, these are officially non-partisan but they are nominated by the parties so I just look up which ones are endorsed by the Democratic Party. When Republicans denounce these last four years and all it stands for, I might consider them for some local offices. Even then it doesn’t matter since my township and county swing to the left. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2020, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-research-do-you-do-before-voting/923721/30 "2020-10-25T19:16:23Z")
I research before I vote and it can be quite tedious. In the primaries we had something like 11 candidates for mayor. I picked four issues I thought were most important and compared views in order to make my choice. I choose not to vote for a rep to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs because as a relative newcomer with no Hawaiian blood, I’m not sure it’s something I really should have a say in. Maybe after I’ve lived here longer I’ll change my mind. There are so many propositions on the ballot that I probably will end up not voting on some of them. I want to drop my ballot off tomorrow and I don’t think I have time to finish studying them all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-research-do-you-do-before-voting/923721.md?page=1)