Voter ignorance

[blimix]

The main thing: Thank you all for voting!

Oh, I guess there is something more to be said. New York provides no useful information to voters. I've only ever voted in New York, so this seems normal to me, but I spoke with a friend from California who pointed out how fucked up it is that we don't even get voter guides here.

Typically, I have to find my town's Board of Elections web site for a candidate list. This looks comprehensive, but doesn't even mention ballot initiatives, so you'll be surprised by them if you haven't looked for them separately. (I just had to trust the unofficial sources that said there were no initiatives this year.) Now I know who is running for what, and with which parties. It tells me nothing whatsoever about what the candidates stand for, so that takes a lot of hit-and-miss web searching. (This year, my vote for one office wound up being swayed by a single person's anecdote, for lack of better data.) Good luck finding any info at all on local school board candidates.

Then I have to find out my districts for the state Senate and Assembly, so I'll know which candidates I actually get to vote for. My voter registration card mentions a ward and district that have nothing to do with these. A web search led me to www.nysenate.gov, where I put in my address, and it gave me my Senate and Assembly districts. The only problem: My ballot turned out to be for different districts (both Senate and Assembly) than the Senate web site gave me! Having done the research on the wrong candidates, I was forced to vote along party lines instead of by merit. (And yes, I'll be sure to mention this to the DOJ.)

The fact that New York voters have to go to special lengths like this — not even to make an informed decision, but just to know what decision they'll be asked to make — is absurd. The fact that even those special lengths can get sabotaged is disgraceful.

I should also add that, because party affiliations are the only obvious information on most local candidates here, they will determine nearly every race in New York. Therefore, your best chance to do any good, beyond merely voting for the lesser evil (which is itself important!), is to vote in the primaries. Some excellent people run, and sometimes come pretty close to ousting the entrenched douchebags. Not a lot of people vote in the local primaries, so a few more concerned voters can make a world of difference.

And whom do we talk to about making voter guides a real thing in New York?

Comments

[whildbill.livejournal.com]

I had something similar occur. I did research on who the candidates I was eligible to vote for were, using the county's board of elections website, and govtrack.us. And still when I got to the polls, there were a couple of races on there that... I'd never even heard of. State-level race, I believe one was. And I'd never heard of any of the candidates for it, either.

It was a serious whisket-tango-foxtrot moment for me. And, in a room full of other keyed-up people. Most of them in a hurry. (My polling place was as busy as I've ever seen it yesterday. People were waiting for pens...)

I, like you, had to fall back on doing some 'along-party-lines-voting'. Which I seriously dislike. I think we give way too much consideration to political parties in this country.


Yeah. Accurate voting guides would be a Very Good Thing.

[aquila-dominus.livejournal.com]

The Times Union has this page: http://c3.thevoterguide.org/v/albany12/build.do available.

It has information on each candidate, bios, positions on various subjects. It did get my district correct but I've noticed it doesn't have ballot measures (bond issues, propositions, etc) but for candidates it's pretty good. I found it in my old bookmarks file so I know it was active last year and this year. It's not as comprehensive as what you're looking for but it was enough to help me make my decisions.

[blimix.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I have used that page at least once before, but didn't remember that it had information on the candidates.

[beth_leonard]

Wow. It makes me appreciate CA doing something right for once. I've only ever voted here. Does smartvoter.org work for your precinct? That's where I go, and most candidates have statements or links up. It's run by the league of women voters, whose mission it is to educate voters about the issues in a non-partisan way.

--Beth

[blimix.livejournal.com]

It doesn't work here, but there was a link to Vote411.org, which does work for both the districts and the candidate information. Hopefully I'll remember to check there in 2014.

[kirin]

votesmart.org is another good independent source that tries to track down as much as they can about all candidates' positions, and they've grown enough to drill down to the local level lately. Though they're so thorough about listing all candidates that you'll often get a list including many people not actually on your ballot.

[kirin]

I think here in NC we got one voter-guide piece of mail, but it only included details on the non-partisan races. I usually end up turning to a local independent newspaper for recommendations - while I am wary of "outsourcing my opinions" too much, their leanings are pretty reliably similar to mine, and they generally provide their reasoning and alternative options. Also votesmart.org, in my reply to Beth above, can be useful sometimes.

But yeah, the major parties have done such a good job of dividing the country along wedge-issue lines that it's true that the real action is in the primaries for a great many races. I never use the "straight party ticket" option, which we get on our ballots as a short-cut for all partisan races except president, as a matter of principle, but in practice my vote usually ends up being the same as if I had.