Understanding tomorrow's ballot (Marietta, Acworth: city hall, transportation, office)

[ATLTJL]

I am voting tomorrow.

There are a lot of local elections. I always believe that the people you elect to local office have a much broader and greater impact on your life than who you elect to national office.

So I want to be an informed voter. Trouble is, I can't seem to find good coverage on who the candidates are and where they stand.

How do I know who to vote for in the race for county judge, commission, etc.?

Do you know of any good sites that cover this and explain the candidates? Or do I just have to look them up one by one?

[waronxmas]

Here's AJC's electronic Voter Guide: My Ballot - 2012 Voter Guide

Just add your address and it'll give you all of the items you will see on your ballot tomorrow along with links to the candidate's website if one exists.

[gt6974a]

Well, in my area, Acworth (Cobb), there's a few things.

1) If you've voted before you will be sent tons of flyers from each candidate as they get your address from the voter's roles.
2) Local paper, i.e. Northside News, Marietta Daily Journal, etc. usually have breakdowns of each candidate, with many times that candidate submitting their own views.
3) AJC sometimes will have the County votes.
4) Go to city hall or wherever they're campaigning
5) their personal pages

[atltechdude]

Typically I go to the secretary of state's website and download the sample ballot.

State of Georgia - Voter Information

Then I go through that and look up the candidates' websites and youtube videos. Sometimes the candidates look or sound like total idiots so I may rule them out just based on that. Obviously important also is their issue positions and platforms that they discuss. If the race is between an incumbent and a challenger, I look up the record of the incumbent and how well they have done in their position so far.

Obviously this takes some time so you have to be willing to put that in to become informed. I spent about 2-3 hours last night going through all the races to come to my decisions.

[ATLTJL]

Can you vote for whoever you want, or will they ask you if you are a republican or democrat and give you a ballot only allowing you to vote for candidates in your party?

[atltechdude]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

Can you vote for whoever you want, or will they ask you if you are a republican or democrat and give you a ballot only allowing you to vote for candidates in your party?

They will ask for either or. On the SoS website you can see the ballot for either choice for your area. In addition to the candidate differences, there are some nonbinding policy questions each party is asking on their ballot.

[cqholt]

DeKalb County has posted a sample ballot on their website.

[tonygeorgia]

I'm not going to lie but the main reason I'm voting is for the transportation bill. I'm just picking random names for the candidates.

[atltechdude]

Originally Posted by tonygeorgia

I'm not going to lie but the main reason I'm voting is for the transportation bill. I'm just picking random names for the candidates.

If you do that, you really have no grounds to complain if your city/county government subsequently suffers from gross incompetence.

[ATLTJL]

I looked at my sample ballot, and it still showed candidates from both parties.

That's why I was wondering if the 2 ballots will differ on candidates.