If you are looking for a list of candidates or bills or propositions that you should vote for you are in the wrong place. Today is Nov 4th and if you don’t know how you are voting on each of these things, as well as why you are casting those votes, you shouldn’t be voting at all. You should be looking them up and reading the arguments for and against. See who else is supporting them and why, see who is fighting against them and why. Look at all these things and make your own decision that you are comfortable with, and that you can support. What you should not do is take a “voter guide” that anyone else came up with you to the polls and just follow that without knowing why.

Have I mentioned how much I hate voter guides? I detest them.

There are few things as insulting and as anti-democratic as someone giving someone else a list votes they should be placing. It’s bad individuals when do it, it’s worse when political parties do it, and it’s disgusting when publications and organizations do it. Here’s why:

  1. A voter guide assumes that the publishers values are universal, and that there aren’t two sides to the issues.
  2. A voter guide assumes that the publishers have done more research than anyone else.
  3. A voter guide assumes others can’t be bothered to do the research on their own.
  4. A voter guide assumes people look to the publisher to do their work for them.
  5. And worst of all, A voter guide fosters an environment where people will look to someone else for answers rather than making decisions on their own.

I do not believe that every vote is important – in an age with rampant voter fraud, botched registrations, poor voter volume control, mechanical error, and on and on and on the only votes that are important are the ones that people care about. If you care about your vote then it’s important. If you don’t care and are only voting for this candidate, or against that proposition because someone else told you to then your vote is being stolen from you. Not voting is a better option then voting yes on something only because you saw it on a list. Our system barely works as it is, but one vote for every one person is a cornerstone of that. Following a voter guide is basically saying you don’t give a shit and are just handing your vote off to someone else to cast for you.

Don’t do that. Think for yourself and vote for what you believe in, or don’t vote at all.