The Best California Voter’s Guide Ever

Voter's Edge is the most awesome, fantastic, California voter's guide ever.

From Voter's edge website:

About Voter’s Edge California

Welcome to Voter’s Edge California

Voter’s Edge California (VEC) is a joint project of MapLight and the League of Women Voters of
California Education Fund (LWVCEF).* Voter’s Edge California is a comprehensive, nonpartisan
online guide to elections covering federal, state, and local races in the state of California.

With Voter’s Edge California, voters can:

• Access their full, personalized ballot by entering their address.

• Get in-depth information on candidates, measures, and who supports them.

• View candidate biographies, top priorities, answers to questions, photos, policy videos, endorsements, and detailed information about who funds their campaigns.

• Browse unbiased explanations of ballot measures; find out who supports, opposes, and funds them.

• Check where, when, and how to vote, including information on their local polling locations.

• Keep track of their choices to make voting easier.

• Share information about the election with friends and family.

*The LWVCEF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization and never advocates. The League of Women Voters of California does operate a separate nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization that advocates on issues and sometimes makes recommendations on ballot measures.

Voter's Edge has this awesome tool that you can use to figure out who to vote for on your entire
ballot. I'm going to walk you through how to use it.

First, start on this page and type in your address and zip code, and hit the
"Find my ballot button".  

Voila! Your whole ballot appears. You can start at the top with the first 2 candidates for Senate
(Blue arrow) , or you can jump ahead to Measures (red arrow).
I am going to continue with the candidates. Click on "compare candidates".

You've got links with lots of information: "About this Office", "News", "Videos", same candidates
even have questionnaires in a link.  If you decide who to vote for you can click on "my choice" and
your choice will be saved.  The candidates chosen in this demonstration are not necessarily
MY candidates, I picked a random candidate.

 I had to use the back arrow to go back to the ballot selections after I compared candidates.
There might be a better way, but that seemed to work for me.

Here are two judges who are running for San Diego County Superior Court.  The red arrow is
pointing to a very useful resource that I always use to pick judges for SD Superior Court.
I am thrilled that it is on the VotersEdge site and all I have to do is click on
"Judicial Candidate Evaluations" to find out how the San Diego Bar rated these two candidates.
This is not a political rating, it is about their qualifications to be a judge.

 

When you finish the candidates, you will get to the Propositions. This is where VotersEdge
really shines. Seriously, you can throw out all of the campaign mailers. The information on
VotersEdge is far more complete and informative. So click on a proposition and take a look.

 

Here is the information to Proposition 8, Kidney Dialysis Clinics. I'm clueless about this one. 

So  I am going to look at the "Easy Voter Guide " first. This measure would  regulating
how much clinics can charge for dialysis treatments. Next I am going to look at the Pro and Cons.
And then I will look through the Measure and Details. 

The pro and cons. 

And more arguments for or against.

If I really want to, I can read the proposed legislation, but I rarely want to do that.

Now comes the really good part. Who supports the measure and who opposes it and
who gave money.  When I first look at propositions, I actually start with who supports it
and who gave money.  That is like the Cliff Notes for me.  I usually can tell if I align
with or against various groups.  This measure is supported by unions and the
California Democratic Party. It is opposed by Healthcare companies
that won't be able to charge as much for kidney dialysis treatment. 

I can look at more information about where the money came from 

and I can read various opinion pieces (pro and con) on the proposition. 

This is a very complete look at Prop 8. I think I have more than enough good
 information to decide if I am for or against this measure. 

When you have finished selecting all of the candidates and ballot measures.
You can click on the "MY Choices" tab, and print or email a summary.
Or you can mark your mail in ballot from the list. 

This is such an awesome tool, because everything you need to mark your ballot is right
here on the Voter's Edge site.
The only thing you might want to do is check out the South Poway Votes
resources for Poway mayor and council candidates.
We have links to both SPV and GVCA questionnaires, forum videos,
John Riley project videos, and the candidates own webpages. 

You can also join the discussion on SPV if that interests you.
We would love to see you there.