In this election, I had to cast 50+ votes. Between the time my ballot preview is available and election day, I’m pretty sure doing all of those things for every candidate/proposition would essentially be a part-time job.
I do go through ballotpedia or vote411.org. I also try to find a voting guide from an organization I’m mostly aligned with to double-check my answers. Then I look more closely at races where my answers differ. Even just those steps can feel exhausting, and I can’t imagine doing this without the resources I’ve already found.
My ballot is 26 people and 15 issues. I only have to look up 15 of the 26, that was mostly for justices and I don’t know them by name. Most the other offices up for election I am already familiar with the candidates so there was no reason for me to look them up. I did read thru the voter guide handbook on the issues. That is where you can see what groups support the issues. I sometimes make decisions based only on who supports/opposes the issue, like if Uber backs it, that’s an auto no. I then search for quick overviews on the issues to make sure I really understood what the ask was and to also look for shadow supporters. Total I would guess about 2-3 hours over the course of a few days.
I get that is more than some people what to do and that is why voting feel overwhelming to some, but for me the time is worth it for something that is very important to me and only happens every 2 years.
In this election, I had to cast 50+ votes. Between the time my ballot preview is available and election day, I’m pretty sure doing all of those things for every candidate/proposition would essentially be a part-time job.
I do go through ballotpedia or vote411.org. I also try to find a voting guide from an organization I’m mostly aligned with to double-check my answers. Then I look more closely at races where my answers differ. Even just those steps can feel exhausting, and I can’t imagine doing this without the resources I’ve already found.
My ballot is 26 people and 15 issues. I only have to look up 15 of the 26, that was mostly for justices and I don’t know them by name. Most the other offices up for election I am already familiar with the candidates so there was no reason for me to look them up. I did read thru the voter guide handbook on the issues. That is where you can see what groups support the issues. I sometimes make decisions based only on who supports/opposes the issue, like if Uber backs it, that’s an auto no. I then search for quick overviews on the issues to make sure I really understood what the ask was and to also look for shadow supporters. Total I would guess about 2-3 hours over the course of a few days.
I get that is more than some people what to do and that is why voting feel overwhelming to some, but for me the time is worth it for something that is very important to me and only happens every 2 years.