Ballots

Last week I was talking about how to pick the right candidates for the positions that matter, but there's a few other voting guidelines which I have come up with. Sometimes and office doesn't seem wholly important to me, or I don't have strong feelings on the issues. Some years I've forgotten my own rules and walked into the voting booth (well, not really a booth, we don't have booths, we have awkward tables with little privacy screens) only to be surprised by some of the issues and positions up for a vote.  When I follow my own rules, this doesn't happen.

I don't like political surprises.

Rule One:

Find out what the ballot will look like ahead of time.  It really isn't that complicated. Most areas' major newspapers will run the ballots the weekend before the election so that no one is left guessing. This information is also available online. I found mine on the County Clerk's website.
By knowing who and what will be on your ballot,  you have the chance to research the topics that didn't seem germane last week.

Rule Two:
Research the unopposed candidates. Why even bother, right? Well, I don't know about the specific election rules where *you* are, but here, my votes count even when I skip a section. I have the choice to vote for or skip voting for an unopposed candidate. Unopposed candidates have to get a percentage of the vote to be elected, so it's really a yes or no proposition that is presented somewhat deceptively. So yes, I research the unopposed, at least a little, to know if I want to fill in that oval or leave it blank.

Rule Three:
Don't be afraid to leave blanks. As I said earlier, my votes still count, even if there are blanks on my ballot, so I remind myself that it's okay to leave a blank if I still don't know, still don't care, or just don't like anyone running. There are also always options on my ballot where there will be more than one opening on a board of some sort, and I'll be asked to vote for up to three or up to four people. Those are the magic words: up to. I'm not required to counterweight my vote for the one candidate whom I would like to see fill a position by also building up votes for her opponents just because they're the lesser evils coexisting on a ballot. So yes, one is up to three. Two is up to three. Three is up to three. All of these options, including zero, is perfectly acceptable.

Ultimately, I have to remember,

the ballot is not my boss.

Rule Four:

Bring the kids. What? Yes, I said bring the kids. Don't electioneer and tell them for whom you are voting and why, but by all means, bring them. If you know who you're voting for ahead of time because you researched the issues and the candidates, and you're not going to be surprised because you made sure you knew what the ballot was going to look like, their fidgeting isn't going to stop you from filling it out correctly and they're going to learn that voting is part of what adults do. It is part of what it means to be a member of a community. 

Far too few young people vote. Your children can learn to value it as much as you do if you show them that you value it and help them understand the process. I don't know about you, but I'm raising citizens.

That's it, in a nutshell. Look it up, research anything I didn't expect to find on the ballot, remember that I don't have to vote for everything, and make sure my kids get involved with the political process too. Is there anything I missed?

How to Pick the Candidate that's Right for your Home

There are a lot of local issues on our ballot for next Tuesday, and it's my patriotic duty to get informed and then make my opinion part of the collective decision making process. Who will be the new village president? Who will sit on the county board? Do we want our municipal electric co-op to buy up yet another supply source? Is hydroelectric really doing it for us? Big questions. However, the one in which I'm most interested is, in fact, the local community college board.

No, I don't attend said community college. I graduated from other institutions many years ago. But I have kids, and the options which will be available for them in a few years matter. However, I don't think most of the current board and I see eye to eye on what's important.

We live in an economically depressed area, and enrollment at the local community college is down substantially. They approximated that the 2012-2013 student body is 1k lighter than the preceding academic year. One of the problems cited is that because the local economy is stagnant, parents can't afford to send their teenagers to school, teens can't get jobs to help subsidize their education, and financial aid is no longer as easy to come by as it once was. Even the inexpensive two-year institution of my youth has now become as cost prohibitive as the overpriced private university three miles west of it.

Recently, arguably to combat this deficiency, the current board voted to take the funds earmarked for building an Arts center on campus for the homeless arts department, and instead, spend it on other building improvements and the Science/Technology department's space needs. The thinking that led to this decision is that business, technology, science, and vocational programs are going to supply their students with the experience and skills necessary to get a job, and that needs to be their focus.

Okay, I can see that a lot of people enroll in a community college in order to be job ready in two years. Considering the economic climate here, that makes a certain amount of sense. However, I think it was a decision poorly made.

The Arts are an integral part of how we experience life, and the quality of that experience. One of the reasons that high school gym classes offer quarters of bowling and horseback riding is so that students can have exposure to activities which they can enjoy long into their adult years. In the same way, Arts education opens up the door for life-long hobbies that can improve the quality of life, even for the unemployed. Of course, Arts education is the first thing on the proverbial chopping block when public school districts have to make budgetary cuts, and as a result, many turn to alternative programs, such as the community college, even before college age, in order to maintain a well rounded education for their children. Others simply look forward to college as a time to broaden horizons and get involved in the Arts that move them, but now our community college has made it clear that the Arts are not a priority.

Lovely.

This leaves me scrambling to read the platforms of the ten, yes- ten candidates who are running for the three available positions on the Board of Trustees. Interestingly, many of these candidates have not made much of an attempt to let us know anything other than their name, so I have developed a list of considerations.

1. Does the candidate have a website or other internet presence. If yes, read it, if no, cross them off the list. Let's face it, if they don't have a web presence, they haven't done their homework and don't belong on the Board of any educational body.

2. Does the candidate supply any pertinent information on said website. If yes, read it. If no, cross them off the list.

3. Does the candidate say anything with which I agree. If yes, continue to consider their platform. If no, cross them off the list.

4. Does the candidate mention the Arts. If yes, continue to read.  If no, cross them off the list. If they don't mention it, they certainly aren't prioritizing it.

Sadly, I have, to date, only found one candidate who mentions the Arts, so I have not had the chance to employ steps 5 or 6.

5. Does the candidate outline a plan to sustain and improve the Arts program? If yes, move to the shortlist. If no, keep on the list in case no one else does.

6. Does the candidate use language conventions. Yes, at the end of the day, my decision would be swayed by grammar. That may seem silly because my grammar isn't perfect, but I feel that when one runs for political office, they need to take care to present his or herself as professionally as possible, and if a candidate can't be bothered to edit, can I expect them to treat with great care the institution with which he or she'd like to be charged with the keeping thereof? No. Consequently, grammar was going to be my tie breaker.

Now, you might not be worried about the Arts at your local community college, but the model still holds. Take the topic most important to you and put it in the place of the Arts. Maybe it's the local environment, energy resources, roads, or park district programs that matter most to you. Get informed, and get out the vote.