I feel a bit slimy after voting today,

[Ms. Toad]

Our entire ballot was non-partisan. I spent last night trying to figure out party affiliations & looking for platform statements from the candidates. There weren't any around. Not too surprising, since only one of the races was contested. All each candidate needed was 1 vote to win.

But - since I didn't want to accidentally vote for any Republicans - especially in the 4 school board races, and two other education related races, I had to take the Republican voter's guide to the polls with me. (The local Democrats didn't provide one.) On the R voter's guide? Skip.

ICK!!!

[Wounded Bear]

1. I feel you, ma'am. They do that here, too, in a lot of races...

makes it a bit more difficult.

[LisaL]

2. My county's democratic party sent me a

card with their approved candidate names. So it was easy for me to vote.

[Ms. Toad]

9. They usually do here,

and may have in other parts of the county.

But there was (at most) one Democrat running a contested race in our neck of the woods. The party may have saved their pennies this election, since it was mostly pointless.

[Meowmee]

3. All of the judges in our county have

Always run in all parties. I don’t vote for any of them. Dems need to do a much better job of educating their voters on who and what to vote for. I’m not holding my breath.

[Ms. Toad]

8. None of these were judicial races

School board (x2)
Two education-related boards at higher levels
Clerk of courts
Mayor
City Council.

I think that's it.

[Meowmee]

28. They should tell everyone about all of the elections.

[FakeNoose]

4. That's a good strategy

It's hard to believe that the party designation was eliminated from your ballots though.

[ratchiweenie]

5. They the same here and I have to call my local Dem office to find out who these people are.

Which they'd send out a card with their endorsements.

[LisaL]

7. I got several cards from our county's democratic party.

Makes voting easy.

[ratchiweenie]

29. wow. wish I did.

[Ms. Toad]

10. I was surprised about mayor and city council

But everything else I expected to be non-partisan.

[hlthe2b]

6. I spent two hours researching school board candidates. Fortunately a local paper in a neighboring

area still assigns political journalists to interview candidates for local elections. Of course, I had to go through the local library to get access but it was worth it. Having never heard of any of the candidates, those interviews were the only thing that pointed a neon sign at the RW anti-vaxxers, anti-maskers, anti-education cretins. I will be devastated if the latter make it on.

[Ms. Toad]

11. I'm fighting with my local paper.

We have a paid subscription (delivered the old-fashioned way). That entitles us to electronic access, as well. But - about once a year they change how it is hosted in a way my password bank won't recognize.

Every candidate guide was behind a paywall I'm supposed to be able to break through.

[myohmy2]

12. when I can't...

...figure out who's who or whom I should be voting for, I have a simple procedure:

...if it's a choice between a male or female sounding name, I vote the female sounding name...

...if it's a choice between an ethic sounding name or a non-ethnic sounding name, I vote the ethnic sounding name...

...if it's a choice between a black sounding name or a white sounding name, I vote the black sounding name...

...and if I don't feel like taking any chance, I give up and leave it blank...

...I always hope my choice will lead to voting for a Progressive, but I admit it may not always work (it's better than totally guessing)...

...and this is how I 'emergency vote' in this country...

...go figure, and I'm an old white dude...

...what a country...

[Ms. Toad]

18. When we had just moved to the county I now live in I accidentally voted for a Republican judge

Female sounding name - happened to be a Republican male.

When I later worked as a judicial attorney in the court of appeals with him I voted for him deliberately. I came to respect him, even if we disagreed on some things, I could trust him to follow the law, even if he disagreed with it. The woman the Democrats ran against him was not temperamentally or otherwise suited to be an appellate judge. For a long time there was a detente on judicial races - the bench was well-balanced (3-2, or 2-3), decisions were non-political at least on questions of settled law, and every judge vied to get the best judicial attorneys - regardless of political affiliation. For any incumbent race, there was rarely any opposition.

Part way through my tenure there, things changed - two dumb-as-a-rock political hacks were hired as judicial attorneys for a Republican judge who was appointed by the governor to fill an unexpired term, they installed private phone lines so their judicial attorneys could make phone calls during work hours without using state resources, and both parties started running someone - - - anyone just so that no one ran unopposed. Sad. But the three senior judges (two Republicans and 1 Democrat continued to be responsible citizens.)

[NurseJackie]

13. Brilliant strategy!

[Ms. Toad]

19. I hate it when I have to resort to it, though.

I try to be responsible and check every candidate out. This is the first time I've been unable to find anything about the majority of people running.

[calimary]

14. Well that sucks.

[liberalla]

16. That was very smart! Not slimy at all as long as you

shower soon...

[hoosierspud]

17. There is a website in this area

Called webelievewevote.com. If a candidate gets a high score from them, I don't vote for them. Most of the progressive candidates blow them off and don't respond to their conservative fundamentalist survey.

[NullTuples]

20. Especially w/ school board races & the GOP vowing to take them over

I end up spending far too much time researching who endorses & finances each candidate.

[TalenaGor]

21. Progressive Voters Guide here

https://progressivevotersguide.com/


doesn't have all the states but it has some

[Ms. Toad]

24. These are all local elections in a small town.

The biggest geographical area covered by any race was the county. Our state isn't in there, and even if it was I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have found it worth it to cover uncontested piddly races.

(All of the info there in the states I clicked on is for the Nov 3, 2020 election, anyway.)

[greblach]

22. Fortunate me...

The local and state Repub's put out a recommended list for non partisan positions, made it easy for me...although the state voter guide also helped...I was going to send the Sedition party a note, but I don't really want to help them out...(although they did help me)

[iluvtennis]

23. Don't feel slimy - your method on how to vote w/o a dem guide was very smart!! n/t

[Ms. Toad]

25. I was just worried that someone might see me pull it out of hiding

Last edited Tue Nov 2, 2021, 10:10 PM - Edit history (1)

and think I was a Republican.

[Snarkoleptic]

26. I like to download a sample ballot from the county website.

I then check the local Democratic party website for candidate info.
After that, it's the hard work of trying to figure out who the 'independent' candidates really are.

As a Precinct Committee Chairman, I've been know to use Adobe to highlight the Democratic/left leaning candidates on the sample ballot and distribute copies door to door.

[Ms. Toad]

27. My process, as well.

This is the first time it hasn't worked.

The County Democratic site had candidates in 5 communities in the county. My community was not among them.

Usually I print a sample ballot out and fill it in to take it to the polls with me.

Unfortunately my boss notified they needed new leadership on Thursday, and I've been scrambling to review retirement options and negotiate a gentler exit. - so voting in a bunch of races that weren't contested wasn't really high on my list of "must do" things.