Something I’ve been wondering for a while: Where can one learn about the candidates in local, nonpartisan races, like city council or school board?
Of particular interest to me this year is our local school board race. For various reasons, I’m not happy with the incumbent trustee. I’ve started to receive flyers about a challenger that seems promising. He talks about the issues of concern in a way I like.
However, I’d want to know more about him than what he prints on his flyers before I vote for him. I admit my Google-fu isn’t the best, but I’ve been trying to find info about him online and so far I’ve found absolutely nothing. Very frustrating.
I would look to see if the county had an election site. Usually, all of the local elections, including local ballot propositions, in a county are grouped together. Among other things, it prevents people getting confused if two adjacent cities both have a Measure A on the ballot; the county would assign Measure A to one of them and Measure B to the other.
In California, candidates for local offices can put statements into the sample ballots.
Our local Chamber of Commerce did a virtual meet & greet event just before the primaries. It was uploaded as an unlisted YouTube video after the event. Maybe yours does something similar?
All of our candidates register an email address with the local elections supervisor, too. Depending on how local you’re talking, you might want to follow AlsoNamedBort’s advice and contact the candidate directly.
Your local paper might know something if you call. It is also possible that the candidate made it into the minutes of school board/city council meetings, which are usually a matter of public record.