Election Season Ramping Up
A little bit of this and that for you on this Tuesday.
First, I want to point you to an informal poll that I am running. Presidential elections and the like have tons of polls that come out prior to the election. They give an idea on how candidates may be performing. I do not recall one for local politics, so I wanted to put one out there to see what people think so far.
Click here to go to the poll and take a few moments to fill it out.
I will do one for the other races in a few days. Curious to see what the BOCC polling data shows. Yes, I know this is not a scientific poll and may be completely inaccurate, but just curious.
As of this morning, we are sitting at 90 responses. I will give it through this week.
One thing that popped up during this that I noticed is that there are a lot of people confused about the districts and how all that works. So I will use the next few moments to help explain it.
Here is the map of the commissioner districts.
The only people this really applies to are the commissioners themselves. The law requires them to live within the district they represent. However, they are voting for everything within the county.
More importantly, the entire county votes for commissioners. As of this moment, all the races are open primaries. This means that everyone will be able to vote for the commissioners in the primary... and whoever wins the primary... is elected and takes office in late November.
Just because you live in a certain district does not mean that you can only vote for someone in that district. If you live in district 1 (Kinnard) you can still vote for the District 4 commissioner race between Bays, Herndon and Grogan. That is important to remember. I have seen a lot of people recently saying they could not vote in those races as they lived in a different district.
Another important reminder. Make sure you get out and vote in the primary if you want a say in who the next commissioners are. So far, all those races will be decided in August. They will NOT be on the ballot in November, unless a democrat, NPA, write-in, etc person jumps into the race this week.
Do not let the primary come and go and then be shocked in November when the commissioners are not on the ballot. August is your chance to be heard. This is your reminder and I will likely do more reminders as we get closer.
No excuses if you miss it.
Tonight is the first big candidate forum.
I have seen a lot of people asking questions on social media about where the candidates stand, what they support, etc. The best way to find all that out is to go ask them yourself or hear what they have to say at the campaign events like this.
There will be a meet and greet portion where you can go and speak with them individually. They each will make statements on the microphone to the audience. I am not sure if there will be public question and answers or not... but this is your first chance to see all the candidates at one time and hear what they have to say.
Take advantage of these offerings and do not rely on social media to keep you informed on where they are on the issues. Listen to what the candidates themselves say and interact with them in person. You may be surprised to learn that what you see on social media may or may not be accurate.
I will certainly be there.. Hope to see you there as well!