Wondering how to vote? Here are tips for choosing the right candidates for you
My friend and former Tribune colleague MaryAnne Talbott posted recently that she is “constantly reminded by comments and posts that facts don’t matter, or that empirically provable statements are just ‘opinions.’ ”
It must be election season.
Unfortunately, it’s been an unpleasant election season for at least the past six years — or maybe it’s 60.
People constantly ask me who I’m voting for, which candidates I like and where I am supporting this proposition or that one.
Sorry, folks. I can’t tell you that.
As a reporter, I have to keep my opinions, political and otherwise, to myself. When I write news stories, I try to keep them FROM myself as well, burying them deep so they don’t creep into how I write or what I include or leave out of a story.
So far, so good.
But I’m also a columnist. Wearing that hat, I can, indeed, opine, and I frequently do … just never, ever about subjects I might need to cover as a reporter. That’s the gray zone of skipping down both journalistic trails: reporter and columnist.
So, here I am with my ballot in front of me. Yes, I’ll vote early. Not because I mistrust the U.S. Post Office’s mail delivery or the skills and dedication of the fine folks at the county Clerk-Recorder’s office. No, sir. I believe in all of them, 100%.
That’s why I’m voting early.
The more votes the Elections Office people can count now, before Election Day, the easier that frantic, hectic, stressful day will be on all of us.
Those who deliver the mail. Those who vote. Those who count. And those of us who stand by with reporters’ notepads, pens and high-tech recorders, waiting anxiously for results as they come in, so we can share them ASAP with our readers, viewers and listeners.
But back to the core question: Who do I support, who and what will I vote for?
My decision-making is usually pretty straightforward.
First, I had to acknowledge the painful truth that politics on all sides can be and often is awful. Nasty. Untruthful. Viscous. Even illegal.
While some legislators and candidates on both sides are indeed guilty of bad things, there doesn’t yet seem to be a viable, legal way to root them out, or get rid of the acceptance in Washington, D.C., of those malfeasances and outright crimes.
Maybe we’ll figure that out some day. But in the meantime, there’s a country and hordes of states, counties and local governments to run.
And somebody’s got to step up and do it.
So instead, I choose to vote for things I care about, relying on what’s provable.
I research candidates’ voting records, especially for first-time candidates, and check to see what they may have supported on their own time.
I check to see if the candidates’ actions and votes endorse, help and support things I care about — or if, instead, they’ve worked to undermine and destroy those causes and issues.
Did he buck the trend to vote in favor of something I fervently wanted to happen?
Did she follow the party line, even when I think she believes otherwise?
Did he outright say that he would cancel something I think is essential?
Did she fight and save some legislation that was urgently needed?
Then I vote accordingly.
Yes, it takes some time. But legislative records are easy to find these days. Thanks, Google, for linking me to the official governmental sites and those of watchdog groups on all sides of the political fences.
Nonpolitical sites such as www.votersedge.org can be helpful.
It’s a joint project of the League of Women Voters of California Education Fund and MapLight. The site is described as “a comprehensive, nonpartisan online guide to elections covering federal, state and local races in the state of california.”
That research is time well spent. Having put in the digital shoe-leather effort, I then feel much more confident when I use my black pen to fill in that little oval beside someone’s name or the “yes” or “no” beside a proposition name.
If I don’t know enough to be that confident, or I’m still unsure, I don’t vote on it. Period.
That way, I can wear my little “I Voted” sticker with pride, knowing I’ve done my civic duty as well as I possibly can.
