I’ve never heard of these candidates, they have no party affiliation, and there’s almost no information about them online that I can find.
Are those positions just for people who work closely with those departments to vote on?
The local newspapers in my area send each candidate in every race a form of question that they then print. Typically it is very easy to tell which candidates understand what the that form is, there are those that don’t understand, and then there are ones that don’t return it. It’s makes choosing much easier for me. I’ll still pull of websites and check past news articles for each one I am considering.
Support your local newspapers!
Campaign materials and newspaper articles. In the US, it’s pretty rare even for small communities, not to find at least some of this information online.
What I can find all say seem to say more or less the same things about every candidate.
Do they have the exact same amount of experience as well?
Like, even if their platforms are the same, they probably have different backgrounds and accomplishments.
The League of Women Voters in your area will usually have in-depth info on candidates and issue on your ballot.
You should probably specify which country you’re from
The US, but why? How does the answer differ in different countries?
Prime US mentality
We’re number one at saying we’re number one
Because campaigning works differently across the globe. So does media coverage and politics and how the different parts of legislative share competence/responsibility.
I’d say you need to follow local news and what happened in the last years to make an informed decision. See which party/politicians built children’s playgrounds, did something useful for the community and which major tore down the shops in the city center to make space for more lucrative office buildings… It’s really difficult to tell if you don’t know what’s happening around you but just following world politics. (And local newspapers are long gone, so that’s another hurdle.) Where I live they have some scarce information online. And you can also go to them once they go campaigning and listen to them or read some advertising material.
Well counties have different levels of democracy
It varies everywhere, even from state to state in the US.
The US system is kind of broken - they ask you to vote for way too many things. Where I’m from I just vote for a party - I basically say “yeah, the green party are cool”, and then the party decides who to put in which position should they get enough votes. I can give a +1 to candidates I like personally, but I don’t have to.
In the US you might be asked to vote for school boards, a sheriff, and a bunch of weird positions. There’s no realistic chance you’ll make an informed decision for all of them.
Sadly, it’s very important you still vote, because the republicans are using this broken system to fill these positions with far-right lunatics. So basically seek out information as much as you can, but at the end of the day just vote for whichever Democrat is on the ballot whenever in doubt. They’re not guaranteed to be good - in fact they’re likely to be pretty bad - but they’re pretty much guaranteed to be the lesser of two evils.
Still might vary though - local politics are weird, and there are no rules set in stones. Some places you still have decent republicans on the local level (or so I’ve heard).
This last election, I googled the candidates and voted for the ones that hadn’t tried to ban books at the local library.
You can also research their endorsements. Does a candidate have endorsements from local unions, newspaper, other public servants? Do you trust the endorser?
As you continue to vote and follow these local elections, you will get better at learning about them. The best thing to do is to be involved yourself. If you become active with civic organizations, you’ll be more connected to what is happening with local leadership (churches, cleanup groups, food bank, trade groups, etc.). Basically see if you can volunteer wherever you usually donate locally.
I just call them up for a chat. At the local level they’re usually super excited that anybody cares.
Have you considered talking to them? Yeah it might take time but depending on how local, they’d probably love to meet for coffee or something.
It’s really hard to tell, without living in your area, and knowing where they will debate. I’d say thats the first stop, is any debate they have. If they have no party, and have no debates, and have no info online, then it almost seems like it’s intentionally confusing.
If I were running for government, I’d be on the mountain tops yelling my positions. I’d be at every debate.
I’d be on your streets, figuring out what to do. Talking with the people. Seeing what public opinion is. Finding out where the local problems are.
If none of that is happening, I would write to both your candidates by hand delivered usps mail, asking why their motivation is to encourage voter apathy.
If I don’t know, and can’t figure out who you are, or what you stand for, or what your beliefs are, why the hell am I voting for you??? It’s the same reason I shoot down the idea that Dwayne THE ROCK Johnson should be president. I have no idea what his beliefs or stance on anything is. Part of that is the fact that he’s not a politician, nor has he ever hinted at it to my knowledge. He has no reason to state his political standings, and that’s fine. He’s NOT on any ballot. If people write him in, it was never his responsibility to live up to their expectations. Yet, I still people online saying him, and snoop dogg.
THEY don’t have any responsibility to tell you their beliefs, as despite being celebrities they are still just average citizens…but actively running local politicians do. If they can’t tell you what their vision for their terms in office are, then what the hell are you even voting for? May as well just post pictures of your pets and get votes for cute dogs, but /c/aww exists for that.
I look up the candidates/parties on their respective web sites and check out their positions.
Amazing, I know.
Did you read the post? They said there is no affiliation and minimum info online
Have you tried contacting them with questions about issues that concern you?
I was easy at my old house. Just vote for the person that doesn’t have the majority of yard signs. Even for non-partisan elections, the republican fuck nuts will still put up signs so you just vote for who they aren’t voting for. Except for the lady that wanted to bring Agile shit to local government.
Different countries have different sources of information about candidates.
I don’t live in the US but absorb quite a lot of political media from there. Number 1 rule is not to back Republicans, especially if you can’t find much information on them. There are Republicans up and down the ballot who are trying to implement a Christian Nationalist agenda, many of them on the down-low, and if you have no evidence either way it’s better to assume they are.
Next step is to google/bing/ddg the ones you’re considering and see what you can dig up on them and their opinions. Do they have a history of unsavoury social media posts? Do they go to church? Who is their pastor? What do they stand for? Are they incumbent, or have they previously held office? What did they say / vote for before?
Thank you for taking an interest in local and down-ballot races. Your participation is vital to keep fascists and lunatics out of school boards and sherrif’s offices.
I mean it depends on where you’re from obviously. However, local elections might be more important to you than you would think. Local politics can have a direct impact in your neighborhood and may influence your personal life much more than state elections for example. Relevent topics can be traffic, parks, school etc. For example I elected people that want to promote ways for cyclists and that push local community projects.
I research the name of the candidates and do research on them. Sometimes I’m left only between an R and and D so I guess I just pick D since I have no other choice. When I get multiple D then I check the campaign page, ballotpedia, wiki to see what they stand for.
Judges also the same way, although they’re a little trickier since they try not to side with any one party but some stuff may give them away you kinda just have to check their entire background.
OP:
there’s almost no information about them online that I can find.
Response:
I research the name of the candidates and do research on them
I guess at that point, they must’ve done a shit job at campaigning. Vote for one with a D I guess
