[EL] How serious is this problem?

[Larry Sanger]

All,

I'm new to the list. Apologies if this is covered in the archives...

I'm a "concerned citizen" without training in law or political science (my
Ph.D. is in philosophy). I'm just interested in the following special
issue. I was talking to a list-member about the problem and he recommended
I check this list out.

I'm trying to understand a problem I encountered last Nov. 4: not being
able to find my *complete *ballot, in advance, including all down-ballot
races. I live in an exurb of Columbus, Ohio, in a mostly rural county.

The problem: There were races on my actual ballot that I never saw on the
sample ballots I found, I couldn't do my due diligence and make my mind up
about the candidates before I stepped in the voting booth. My immediate
reaction was: WTF? How is this even possible?

I'm trying to find out how widespread and serious this problem is.

(In case you're curious, here's how it shook out for me. I had moved from a
locality that sent voter guides regularly to one that did not. I knew an
off-year election was coming up, so I looked on vote411.org and Ballotpedia
and a few other places for what would be on my ballot. I even went to the
county Board of Elections website (Fairfield County, Ohio), but I couldn't
find my ballot there. It turns out it *was* there, but the procedure for
extracting it from the website is so arcane that I couldn't figure it out.)

It turns out that not even the *Columbus Dispatch* (which I had neglected
to check out) had all the downballot races on my ballot; the *Dispatch* lacked
a library board race as well as two or three judgeship races, and possibly
something else. The other ballot lookup sites had even less information.
Ballotpedia had my school board races, but vote411.org didn't even have
that, and neither had my township trustee race.

After my shock at having spent hours doing my due diligence, only to
discover that I couldn't vote on the down-ballot races (not honestly),
which I hadn't known about, I started checking out the problem. I ended up
calling the guy who lost the township trustee race. I asked him if he felt
disappointed that many if not most of the people who went to vote in the
election didn't even know that an election was taking place. He said he
tried to get the word out, but to little avail. I asked if he thought it
was a failure of democracy, and he replied that he thought it was a failure
of bureaucracy; we concluded by agreeing that bureaucracy had failed
democracy.

Here are some of my questions for the experts on this list; any help would
be greatly appreciated:

   - Have I somehow misunderstood the situation? Is this somehow not a
   problem after all?
   - Just how widespread is this problem? For what percentage of the
   American public is locating a complete ballot, including all down-ballot
   races, a serious challenge (as it was for me)?
   - I grew up in a locality that supplies a fine voter's guide. This isn't
   a problem there. Where is it a problem? (Maybe rural or semi-rural places,
   like mine?)
   - How do local candidates feel about this problem? Surely they realize
   it is a problem...when it is.
   - And more of a philosophical question: In your expert opinion, does
   this represent a *serious *failure of democracy?
   - And if so, why haven't we solved it??
   - Where can I read more about this problem or otherwise get insight?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Larry Sanger

-- 
*Larry Sanger*
Email: yo.larrysanger at gmail.com  Twitter: @lsanger
<http://t.sidekickopen36.com/e1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJW7t5XYg1q0NXdW2z90Hq4WrZxbVQJSG056dCt0f7H_Mz-02?t=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Flsanger&si=6419420541091840&pi=9674916d-f5fb-4315-ed38-c939b8f70df7>

Blog/personal homepage: http://www.larrysanger.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20160119/a5bb0492/attachment.html>