Time to vote tomorrow
Lissa and I talked about voting early a few weeks back, but ultimately we decided that we wanted to do it on Election day when we had the kids, so that we could make the attempt to impart the importance of voting and elections with them. It sounds kind of silly as I say it now, but I do feel strongly about giving them a chance to see what voting is all about.
I listened to a few members of my friendslist discuss the importance of understanding judicial elections and local candidates, so I did my best to research all the way to the bottom of the card. Unfortunately, for my county I found this very difficult to do. I could find no candidate information other than local address for either Soil and Water Conservation Superintendent. I'm not even clear which one is the incumbent, though each party has claimed one of the two candidates on their pull cards. There are five candidates for Board of Education on the ballot, but apparently in early October the first candidate listed asked to be removed from the ballots (he was not in time to be taken off the ballot). The GOP endorses two of the remaining four while the Dems endorse another one. Again, there is no information other than address about any of the candidates, save that at least in this case the local Educator's Assoc. endorsed the two republican candidates and the newspaper revealed the democrat candidate has multiple felonies for driving on a suspended license. So, I'm going to go with the educator's endorsement here, and my apologies to the gentleman (who also has the very unfortunate last name of Rape) that did not go with a political party for not discovering more about him.
Last but not least, there was no immediate information to be found about my district judge, so I'm voting for the incumbent. It appears that there are no appreciable complaints about the justice system in this county, and given that, I'm not inclined to rock the boat by bringing in someone new.
Overall, on the ballot I voted for 11 Republicans and 18 Democrats, making this the most moderate ballot I've ever cast. Incidentally, I also felt like I was the most informed on downticket races than I've ever been at election time as well. Hopefully the lines tomorrow won't be too long for us, but I do hope that everyone who wants to participate turns out and casts their vote.
I listened to a few members of my friendslist discuss the importance of understanding judicial elections and local candidates, so I did my best to research all the way to the bottom of the card. Unfortunately, for my county I found this very difficult to do. I could find no candidate information other than local address for either Soil and Water Conservation Superintendent. I'm not even clear which one is the incumbent, though each party has claimed one of the two candidates on their pull cards. There are five candidates for Board of Education on the ballot, but apparently in early October the first candidate listed asked to be removed from the ballots (he was not in time to be taken off the ballot). The GOP endorses two of the remaining four while the Dems endorse another one. Again, there is no information other than address about any of the candidates, save that at least in this case the local Educator's Assoc. endorsed the two republican candidates and the newspaper revealed the democrat candidate has multiple felonies for driving on a suspended license. So, I'm going to go with the educator's endorsement here, and my apologies to the gentleman (who also has the very unfortunate last name of Rape) that did not go with a political party for not discovering more about him.
Last but not least, there was no immediate information to be found about my district judge, so I'm voting for the incumbent. It appears that there are no appreciable complaints about the justice system in this county, and given that, I'm not inclined to rock the boat by bringing in someone new.
Overall, on the ballot I voted for 11 Republicans and 18 Democrats, making this the most moderate ballot I've ever cast. Incidentally, I also felt like I was the most informed on downticket races than I've ever been at election time as well. Hopefully the lines tomorrow won't be too long for us, but I do hope that everyone who wants to participate turns out and casts their vote.