What’s really needed is to shore up local news. Voters say they don’t have access to clear, unbiased information on candidates amid a well-documented decline of local newspapers and news media.
By CST Editorial Board | Chicago Sun*Times
Early voting has begun for the March 19 primary, and if you’re hesitant about heading to the polls because you don’t know much about the candidates, you’re not alone.
Most voters have found themselves in this situation at some point: Checking their ballot and seeing names of candidates whom they know little or nothing about. Determined to do their civic duty, maybe they pick the first name on the list for a particular office, something research has found can give candidates who are fortunate enough to win the first-on-the-ballot lottery a measurable advantage, based on sheer luck.
Or maybe a voter selects a candidate strictly along party lines, or opts for the person whose name sounds like he or she is from the same ethnic or racial background. Perhaps their vote is based on something a neighbor told them two weeks ago, or something they saw on social media, where misinformation sprouts like dandelions in the spring. Maybe a voter just shrugs and goes by a hunch.
“It’s hard. I’m familiar with some of the names, but you don’t have time to research every single one of them,” one early voter told the Sun-Times’ Mitchell Armentrout for his report last Sunday examining voter frustration and apathy over lack of access to candidate information. “Sometimes, I guess it’s just a choice.”
Luck, last names or “just a choice” are no way for voters to make crucial decisions at the ballot box. Clear, factual information on candidates and policy issues is essential to a thriving democracy. Access to information is especially needed for so-called down-ballot races that typically get little publicity.
There are candidate websites, campaign brochures, newsletters from public officials and political parties out there, but they’re hardly known for unbiased information. Community websites have information, too, but they might well depend on people with little time or training in fact-gathering.
More reliable options — think established groups like the League of Women Voters — do exist, along with newer initiatives such as BallotReady and Nonprofit VOTE that aim to provide nonpartisan information.
Read more here.