Local elections

[NorthShoreCoug]

Ever since I could first vote, I have been a registered Republican. However, over the years, I became fairly disaffected with the Republican party, and have moved towards a more libertarian view of government.

Part of that "more libertarian" view is that the people are best served by the philosophy that political issues should be addressed at the most local level possible, where it is more responsive to the people. Thus, a particular set of issues should be addressed by the city/county/local school board/etc., unless there is a compelling reason for the state to become involved. Similarly for state vs. federal "jurisdiction".

With this philosophy, I have found it interesting to note that when it comes to election time, I have usually paid little attention to the more local or "minor" races. With this in mind, I have paid more attention this year than ever before to these races, and feel fairly well prepared to cast an informed ballot across all races and issues.

I've also decided that if I encounter a race on the ballot that I have no clue who these people even are, I will simply not mark my ballot for that race. In the past, I would choose the Republican, or, in non-partisan races, I would amuse myself by using some silly rule, such as who has the longest last name, to choose a candidate to vote for. I now feel that I should let those who have taken the time to study out the issues determine those races.

How do the rest of you look at the local or minor races?

[Uncle Ted]

Ever since I could first vote, I have been a registered Republican. However, over the years, I became fairly disaffected with the Republican party, and have moved towards a more libertarian view of government.

Part of that "more libertarian" view is that the people are best served by the philosophy that political issues should be addressed at the most local level possible, where it is more responsive to the people. Thus, a particular set of issues should be addressed by the city/county/local school board/etc., unless there is a compelling reason for the state to become involved. Similarly for state vs. federal "jurisdiction".

With this philosophy, I have found it interesting to note that when it comes to election time, I have usually paid little attention to the more local or "minor" races. With this in mind, I have paid more attention this year than ever before to these races, and feel fairly well prepared to cast an informed ballot across all races and issues.

I've also decided that if I encounter a race on the ballot that I have no clue who these people even are, I will simply not mark my ballot for that race. In the past, I would choose the Republican, or, in non-partisan races, I would amuse myself by using some silly rule, such as who has the longest last name, to choose a candidate to vote for. I now feel that I should let those who have taken the time to study out the issues determine those races.

How do the rest of you look at the local or minor races?

This is very true of education. The department of education is a huge waste of money, IMHO. If people are upset with their local schools they should pay attention to who they are electing to their school boards and not who they are voting for president. A president can do little for your local school district other than throw a little money at it and hope the problems go away.

As for races I don't have a clue who the people are I usually will vote for the libertarian. If there is no libertarian then I don't vote. I never vote for a candidate that is running unopposed, even if I know something about them. I guess it is because I feel that I don't need to waste any effort on someone that is going to win pretty much by default.

[Babs]

I haven't even registered to vote here yet. I feel irresponsible. Worse, I don't even know who's running for governor.

The law school student body is much redder than I anticipated.

[Moliere]

How do the rest of you look at the local or minor races?

I have a similar political mindset, although I'm not a Libertarian. I usually vote conservative in national races and liberal in local races. I'm fine with money guzzling liberal programs existing at the local level as they are much easier to manager and control then the pork-barrel spending of Pelosi and her ilk.

For local candidates, I usually spend some time looking at what they have done if they are incumbants, or I'll spend time looking at their website to find out their political philosophies.

My biggest issue with Texas is that 90% of the ballot is covered with judges and I don't have time to research all of them. I literally voted for over 50 judges today and I honestly didn't know any of them. Maybe I should feel ashamed, but honestly it's too much to ask someone to get to know over 100 candidates for judge (since they at least have a Repub and Demo candidate for each judgship).

[Moliere]

I haven't even registered to vote here yet. I feel irresponsible. Worse, I don't even know who's running for governor.
The law school student body is much redder than I anticipated.

Being in Houston I of course know it is a fist fight between Bill White and Rick "Secede" Perry. I wish Hutchinson would have won the nomination. Since she didn't, this is a tough choice for me. I personally like White but I hate what he tried to do to the company I work for in one of his political stands to "help the little people." Ultimately I selected the dumb candidate over the smart candidate but it was mostly because of one run in I'd seen with White.

Personally, I was going to write in Nikuman, but trying to write in a person's name with those wheel thingys on the electonic ballot machine is painful so Nikuman will have to wait 4 more years to get more votes.

[venkman]

I leave a lot of blanks on the local side. I never vote for the Democrat, if I don't know the republican, I'll generally leave it blank.

I vote no every time when I'm asked to retain so and so judge. I think that's the opposite of most people. They have a lot of power...I want at least someone letting them know they're not God.

I vote no on every single tax and bond issue. I don't care how good it sounds or that it'll only cost me $10 bucks a year in extra property taxes. I just vote no.

I do need to become more informed regarding my local elected officials, particularly after my latest run-in with South Jordan code enforcement. For such a supposedly anti-Obama, conservative, freedom-loving state, we sure have a lot of rules and regs on what you can and can't do with your propoerty. I'm not in an HOA, but the city is bad enough with its soviet style code enforcement. (yes, I'm being hyperbolic, sort of)

[Babs]

Being in Houston I of course know it is a fist fight between Bill White and Rick "Sucede" Perry.

Yeah, I looked up the projections, and it looks like it's not really a race at all. Perry will win by double digits.

[Babs]

I vote no every time when I'm asked to retain so and so judge.

This is my approach, too.

[happyone]

On the national level I generally vote republician, unless I can't stand the repub who is running. On the local level I am more independant. I voted early this year and most of the ballot was taken up with retaining judges. In Davis County a lot of the county offices were unopposed.

[NorthShoreCoug]

I have a similar political mindset, although I'm not a Libertarian. I usually vote conservative in national races and liberal in local races. I'm fine with money guzzling liberal programs existing at the local level as they are much easier to manager and control then the pork-barrel spending of Pelosi and her ilk.

For local candidates, I usually spend some time looking at what they have done if they are incumbants, or I'll spend time looking at their website to find out their political philosophies.

My biggest issue with Texas is that 90% of the ballot is covered with judges and I don't have time to research all of them. I literally voted for over 50 judges today and I honestly didn't know any of them. Maybe I should feel ashamed, but honestly it's too much to ask someone to get to know over 100 candidates for judge (since they at least have a Repub and Demo candidate for each judgship).

I'm somewhat like you. For state and national elections, I almost always vote Republican or Libertarian. At the local level, I'm much more likely to vote DFL (that's Democrat for you non-Minnesotans).

There are about 20 judgeships on our ballot, but in all but 3 of them, the incumbent is unopposed. So I even spent about 20 minutes last night researching those where a candidate opposes them. The internet sure makes it easier than it would have been 20 years ago!

[falafel]

My biggest issue with Texas is that 90% of the ballot is covered with judges and I don't have time to research all of them. I literally voted for over 50 judges today and I honestly didn't know any of them. Maybe I should feel ashamed, but honestly it's too much to ask someone to get to know over 100 candidates for judge (since they at least have a Repub and Demo candidate for each judgship).

Voting for judges is, imo, ridiculous. We vote for our judges here in Nevada, except the races are non-partisan. So basically you're voting on the candidates' history and experience, which means you actually have to know something about them personally, or do a helluva lot of research before hand, which no one is going to do. It makes for some REALLY bad judges here, as covered by the LA Times a few years ago.

This has led to another attempt to dump the election system and go to an appointment/retention system like Utah and many other states have. I'm really hoping it passes, but I have a feeling stupid people who have no idea what they're talking about will yell "I'M NOT GIVING MY RIGHT TO ELECT JUDGES TO THE GOVERNOR!" *sigh*

[Moliere]

Voting for judges is, imo, ridiculous. We vote for our judges here in Nevada, except the races are non-partisan. So basically you're voting on the candidates' history and experience, which means you actually have to know something about them personally, or do a helluva lot of research before hand, which no one is going to do. It makes for some REALLY bad judges here, as covered by the LA Times a few years ago.

This has led to another attempt to dump the election system and go to an appointment/retention system like Utah and many other states have. I'm really hoping it passes, but I have a feeling stupid people who have no idea what they're talking about will yell "I'M NOT GIVING MY RIGHT TO ELECT JUDGES TO THE GOVERNOR!" *sigh*

I know someone running for Justice of the Peace in Las Vegas and he mentions in his profile that he wants to change the system as well. He's got a ton of experience in criminal law and I bet it sucks seeing people that aren't qualified get the job based on random selection by voters.

[dabrockster]

Sometimes I feel like I am forced to vote for GOP when I would rather vote for the Constitutional party or the Libertarian party. Mainly because I know that those people will not be even close to win and my vote for them would essentially be a vote for Dem.

Local Levy's have been huge and I vote against them as well. The school levy really pissed me off and I advocated against it publicly. Attended the town hall meetings.. I find it irresponsible for them to ask for more money when they are in the process of building a 15 million new addition to the school, and all the teachers are getting raises in addition to the Administration. The Super is getting a $13,000 raise this year.. The average teacher in my school district makes $64,000 a year and 82% of our budget is in salary and benefits..


So much for "Show Lion Pride, Vote for issue 5"..

[happyone]

This is my feeling about voting FWIW, most times you cast your vote for the lesssor of two evils, esp at the state and national levels.

One of the reasons i'm a card carring member of the GOP is that in Davis county unless your are a repub, you really don't have a say in who is going to be in office. It is all decided in GOP convention or primary.

I don't know the laws in New England, but if they are similar, I would probably be a dem for the same reasons.

[pellegrino]

Voting for judges is, imo, ridiculous. We vote for our judges here in Nevada, except the races are non-partisan. So basically you're voting on the candidates' history and experience, which means you actually have to know something about them personally, or do a helluva lot of research before hand, which no one is going to do. It makes for some REALLY bad judges here, as covered by the LA Times a few years ago.

This has led to another attempt to dump the election system and go to an appointment/retention system like Utah and many other states have. I'm really hoping it passes, but I have a feeling stupid people who have no idea what they're talking about will yell "I'M NOT GIVING MY RIGHT TO ELECT JUDGES TO THE GOVERNOR!" *sigh*

I agree with this. Electing judges is just a bad bad idea.