Hopefully this thread wont get killed, but I thought this was a pretty valid point to bring up.
When I went to vote early, there where obviously other people, some local, some senetors, that where on the ballot. I didn't do a strait ticket vote. But I really wish I had done some research on the people running for other offices such as DA's, tax collectors, senetors, etc.
anyone else got any thoughts on this?

I was looking at what was on the ballot here and noticed there were a lot of judges to vote for. Half of them were uncontested, but in the others I have no idea which way to vote. I've never heard of any of them. Do I skip them all together or just blindly pick one?

And I noticed we have an election for county coroner. Why should a coroner have to be elected?

Yes. Do some research before you vote.

I sat down with a friend on Sunday night and went over all of the voter initiatives, and I changed his vote on two or three of them just because I knew what they were about, more than teh caption. I wish I had written up a "voter guide" for my friends a few weeks ago, before they early voted. I think I could have had an impact.

i got a mail-in ballot, so i voted for all the easy ones first, then researched the races i didn't know. including the judges (i think i voted no on 2 or 3 out of about 15).

mail-in is the way to go. you can vote in your underwear!

If your local paper is worth its salt they'll have a breakdown of candidates and links to their websites. I spent an hour or so researching before going to vote and felt pretty good about my votes down the ticket.

I usually use our local free paper's voting guide.
http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Conten ... d%3A267403

The print edition even has a little guide you can rip out and take with you. I make it apoint to read as many of the endorsements as possible to be sure I agree with their justification, but over the past 7 years that I've lived in the area, I've come to trust this paper. If I was ever too lazy to even skim the endorsements, I'd feel pretty good in ripping out the paper and just taking it to the voting booth.

We have an early voting initiative and a slots initiative. Both pretty straightforward. I'm voting yes on the first and no on the second.

Yeah, I've been seeing a free voter's guide at the library lately. This thread just reminded me to pick it up tomorrow. Thanks!

Thats one thing that always irks me. When people refer to this year (and all presidential election years) as "Election Year"

NO. Every year is an election year. IN fact, i think for about 99% of us, the presidential election has much less of an impact on our day to day lives than Local and State elections for Proposals, Millages, School Board, etc.

My ex-boss ran for school board commissioner a couple of years ago. Man, I voted against that asshole w/ a vengance!

is it wrong to think, 'i figure ill vote for a republican tax collector because "hey" who is he going to bother?'

well im sure you are going to say exactly that. but its all for the sake of irony i supose.