election info? (Austin: 2014, law, office)

[dave bacon]

Hi All,

Any suggestions on where to find information/bio's for the upcoming election?

Thanks!

[gpurcell]

There was a Chronicle article a few weeks back looking at likely candidates....


Here's an updated version:
The Pols Just Keep on Coming: Your Guide to Candidates for the New 10-1 Universe - News - The Austin Chronicle

[CptnRn]

League Of Women Voters of the Austin Area usual has some good information.

[dave bacon]

Thanks guys...

[G Grasshopper]

It seems that in Texas, there is very little help for voters. I know I am going to get criticized for comparing Texas to California, but in CA, everyone got a sample ballot in the mail, the submitted biographies of all candidates, and information (from both sides) about all the ballot initiatives. Here, you have to dig out all that information, and I imagine lots of people just don't. When we first moved here, a couple of elections went by, and I didn't even realize they had happened. I guess you could chalk that up to my being used to being spoon fed, but really, its is a great way to get the citizens involved and voting - inform them. I find the League of Women Voters website, by the way, to be very difficult to use and not informative at all.

[Trainwreck20]

If you go to the LOWV website, select voters guide, and then 2014 Primary Election Voters Guide, you will get a pretty decent list of each candidate's stance on a set of issues (at least their stated stance) - Gov't Gridlock, immigration, environment, elections, foreign intervention, and 'other'.

[Trainwreck20]

its is a great way to get the citizens involved and voting - inform them.

While I would love people to be informed, I am very leery of the government providing that information itself.

[Dog_Gone]

If the the news stations were worth anything they would certainly spend fifteen to thirty seconds each day before the the election period and through it providing some quality information to voters. By the way, I dont ever miss an opportunity to vote.

[G Grasshopper]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

While I would love people to be informed, I am very leery of the government providing that information itself.

In CA, the bios of the candidates are submitted by the candidates, not government. If a candidate does not submit one, the space is blank. On the ballot issues, there is an analysis by a congressional office, then pro and con arguments by the people who supported the issue and people who organize to fight the issue. These may be elected officials, but also may be just people. The people who write these, of course, do have their biases. But it is not government bias. I can see you concern about the "government" providing information, but it is set up that way. I used to always read the pro and con arguments first, then if I had questions or was not sure about how I would vote, I would read the analysis (which was often many pages long, contained the text of the proposed law and was full of legaleze.) It would sometimes take me a week to go through it all and make decisions, but I was an informed voter. I haven't really figured out how to be an informed voter in Texas. They make it hard. Sometimes I think that the Texas way is to discourage voting so that only those who are activists vote. I will try to tackle the League of Women Voters site again. Maybe I didn't give it a good enough try.

[CptnRn]

For several months the Austin American Statesman has been running articles comparing the various candidates. They can probably be found online if you subscribe. They also published and distributed the LOWVoters guide last week.