Admit it ... you have NO idea who those downballot names are

[Stinky The Clown]

Those 'pick twelve' school board slates. The three unknowns for county orphan's court judge. The pick five for Historical Commission board.

I'll admit it. I picked women and 'ethnic sounding' names. I hang my head upon admitting that, but I'll admit it.

[SteppingRazor]

1. Depends how "down ballot" you're talking...

I knew all of the state senate and state house candidates in South Florida going into the primary, and I was familiar with a lot of the circuit court judges. But once you get into school board, you start to lose me. I have to admit, given the tendency of the religious right to try to install people on schoolboards, I voted for the lady with the Jewish last name :blush:

[Stinky The Clown]

5. That's as good a reason as any.

I do the same sort of thing.

[Der Blaue Engel]

2. Lol...I have done the same

But I also try to get a couple of progressive papers and any progressive/Dem mailers with lists of endorsements to take with me. They don't always have endorsements for these, but sometimes they do, which helps.

I've left them blank in the past. I'm not sure which is worse.

[Book Lover]

3. The League of Women Voters is your friend

I can't speak for the organization as a whole, but their website has at least some information on every name I have seen on a ballot here in California.

[murphymom]

4. Vote by mail

One of the things I love about the vote by mail system we have here in Oregon is I have a couple of weeks to sit down at my own kitchen table and look up all the candidates for the obscure posts and really read through all the different measures. I know it's made me a more informed voter.

[eleny]

6. The last few elections....

I've gone to the net to see if I could find info on the judges. I've been able to find info on where they went to college and what clubs and organizations they've affiliated with. It gave me a good idea of how they lean. Sometimes I find newspaper articles about these unknowns.

This year I plan on calling their offices and saving myself the sleuthing. I'm going to have a list of questions and that will help me decide how to vote. These low-down-on-the-ballot folks can affect our lives greatly. No more mystery judges and candidates for me this November.

[don954]

7. I always download a sample ballot beforehand and print it out

then i look up each choice and see where they stand. I mark my sample ballot and make copies for my mom, sister, and several friends. They almost always take my recommendations... :)

[ACK]

8. Shit I admit I was like that until I had kids

One year I realized I had accidently down ballot blindly voted for the wrong guy for the school board.

He was an idiot and the most-anti-teacher-anti-education-anti-everything candidate ever.

So here I was feeling the fool and swore never fucking again.

[Feuerhexe]

9. I only vote on those pick three things if somebody came

to my door and introduced themselves, telling me why I should vote for them or if they took the time to write a decent blurb or website. Otherwise I leave it to the more informed so I won't do more harm then good by voting for the one with the most letters in their last name.

[newyawker99]

12. Hi Feuerhexe!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[acmejack]

10. The rightwing creeps in Texas taught us not to take those down ballot

Races casually. You want prayer in school? Creationism instead of Science? They have made a concerted effort to get wingnuts on the State board Of Education (SBOE) and we have been very sorry for it. They were traditionally races no one paid attention to & they exploited it. Be careful with these races, Stinky, they know how to take advantage!

[Stinky The Clown]

11. You are **absotively** right about that.

Those downballot races are their 'candidate school'.

We can take a hard lesson from it. While people like me (and many others) pick those names like we're shooting darts, they took those races VERY seriously and campaigned seriously (albeit with camouflage).

[SCDem]

13. I used to be like that

But now I pretty much know everyone who is running for office.

And seriously it doesn't even need to be that far down the ballot for people not to know who they are voting for.

We have 9 state-wide candidates this election - so that doesn't even include the state legislature races or the local local county and city races. But some of the state-wide races - I bet 85% of the electorate doesn't even know what an Adjutant General does or a Comptroller.

[formernaderite]

14. Don't matter....in my true blue county....

the number of unapposed seats is bewildering...I just leave those blank....no choice at all.

[Willinois]

15. I'm one of those downballot names.

I'm running for County Board in Springfield Illinois. A good local candidate will knock on doors to meet as many people as possible.

Its easier to have a bigger impact in local elections where fewer people vote. It might actually come down to a few votes in some of these races. Often local government has a bigger direct impact on people's lives. One reason I'm running for county board is that its the best level of government to address many environmental issues in the community. Also, its important to get good candidates in local government to provide a framework for those who run for bigger profile offices.

[madinmaryland]

16. My wife works in the school system here, and actually knows

some of the board members. She told me who to vote for. :blush:


The county orphans court judge was a new one to me. I remember seeing the list in the paper, but it didn' register with me. Whats the Historical commision board?