Just got back from the polls and I feel pretty good about my choices. By my final punch I'd voted for 4 libertarians, 2 democrats, 2 republicans, and 2 green party members as well as for/against tons of judicial candidates and state/local measures. I'm fairly certain I'm the kind of voter that freaks the parties out because I never vote on party lines and always look at each candidate on their own merit. If I can't decide, I won't vote. I feel pretty strongly that you should fully support the people you are voting for and if that means I have to spend a few hours before the election doing my research it's well worth it. I got into a discussion the other day about this so I thought I'd detail the process a little more here.

For State/Local Measures I mostly rely on mailed out Official Voter Information Guide - These things are huge but worth the time to look through. Sometimes the quick reference in the front tells you everything you need to know, if not the detailed arguments usually answer my questions. The arguments against are usually the most valuable piece of info in my decision, and I've frequently voted for something because the arguments against were outright idiocy. Very occasionally the arguments for both side will be so persuasive that I can't decide and will abstain.

When it comes to people there is a lot more to consider. I use a whole collection of things to narrow it down:

Smartvoter.org - I love this site. This site include answers to questionnaires sent to the candidates and can be very helpful in quickly grasping what is important to a person. These short answers can make or break a candidate in my opinion, and the candidates that don't bother to respond instantly lose value in my book. This year there was a candidate who said in his three main points "I will apply Godly principles in the decision-making process." Guess who would need hell to freeze over before getting my vote?

Conversely smartvoter.org is mostly useless with judicial candidates because they all say exactly the same thing. That they are "committed to justice" and "fair and honest" and "follow the law" etc. I think a better judge (pardon the pun) of character would be to have them pick a case or two that they agreed with the ruling and a case or two that they didn't. That would be far more telling IMHO.

I also check out the candidates websites and see what is going on there. Are they taking stands on issues I'm interested in? That earns points. Does the site look like it was designed in 1992? That loses points. Do they have a blog? Earns points. Is it written by some staffer rather than by themselves? Loses points. Do they have endorsements listed? Are the endorsements by people/organizations that I trust or at the very least respect?

As vocal as I am against people using party/organization voting guides (those things you get telling you exactly who to vote for) I actually do skim them just to see what kind of endorsements they are getting elsewhere. I look at lists from a wide range of sources and support from some of them can definitely work against a candidate.

I also consider a good deal of minor issues that can help break a tie. Did the candidate send me or my wife any kind of direct mail? Thats a strike against them. Did they call my house? Even worse. If I e-mail them did I get a reply, was it actually from the candidate or from one of their staffers? Did they answer my question or totally skirt it with political double speak? A candidate who responds directly and honestly wins a lot in my book even if they don't agree with me on the issue at hand. I'd rather have someone who honestly disagreed with me than someone who just told me what they thought I wanted to hear in office any day.

That's not to say issues don't matter. They certainly do, but some more than others. I realized long ago that I'm never going to find a candidate for anything that agrees with me 100% on everything, so I look for a few major points and see where the rest falls in place. Of course there are deal breakers in that - I'll never vote for a candidate who is against abortion or in favor of stricter gun control no matter how many other issues I might agree with them on.

Anyway, I voted and I'm satisfied with my choices. That's pretty much all I can ask for.