Voter Guide 411
Ever wonder, “what if my vote is wrong”, or “my vote won’t matter”, or “I just don’t know who or what to vote for”? Well then, this is for you because I’ve overcome those same thoughts. Today I vote with confidence. And I’m here to tell you how I’ve successfully dealt with this civic duty.
Now, you don’t have to do everything I do. I take my voting very seriously and you might not. So the simplest trick to getting your vote out there is to simply align yourself with an organization that you feel represents you and vote the way they recommend. That may be your church or your bar tender or even your daughter.
I trust my daughter a lot, but not enough with every issue on the ballot. So I gather the recommendations and endorsements of over a dozen groups and compare them.
Why do I do this? I don’t have the time or expertise to understand all the issues that any one measure or candidate comes packaged with. So I let the experts do the analysis and then I do a meta analysis. If several groups I trust vote the same way, it’s a no-brainer. Only when they disagree do I need to dig a little deeper. And even then I’m only comparing the analysis provided in the endorsements. Plus by having several, I can be sure to get an endorsement for that judge who I never heard of. How can I vote on them if I don’t know anything about them? It’s easy if I find an endorsement from someone I trust.
To make the comparison easier, I put it all on a spreadsheet. Here’s a snapshot of what that looks like:
I like to do this in a google sheet and make it publicly available allowing others to add comments but not edit it. Then I share it on facebook to help others in my precinct vote, too. I also provide links to my sources and package it up so others can copy it and make their own edits. You’re welcome to, too. Note that this example was a local only election so the state and national levels are hidden. You can find past links on the ReadMe tab of the sheet.
I tend to vote Democrat. But even if you don’t, you can take this idea and share it with your community. The more people we have voting this way, the more voters will be influenced by experts they trust on all the issues, not just the ones in the headlines.
Update 10/11/2020: Here’s a link to the latest template: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZnI8UHQNLBvR8ex7JlHNZ12RGWQNKgxMDzeoRnb4uJ8/edit?usp=sharing