Vote From Home

One of the worst parts of voting the old fashioned way—in a musty booth in some school cafeteria on election day—is the sinking feeling that you are about to fail a civics exam. You look at the ballot and realize, you have no idea who half of these people are. You want to lean over to the next booth and ask, “What did you put for Board of Education?”

This year, I voted by absentee ballot from home for the first time and what a difference. Now it’s an open-book test! Don’t recognize a name? You can look up any candidate online, read about their positions and background.  No need to settle for the hacks with name recognition. No reason to skip a race just because you never got around to learning about it. No reason to avoid a perfectly good candidate just because you didn’t know that they actually see things your way.

Yes, I know, people always had the means to study the issues and candidates before voting. But doing it while voting feels like progress. I like to think it’s helping people make better choices.

One resource to start with: The state Office of Elections website has candidate profiles here, for those candidates who chose to submit a profile.

Happy voting, everyone.