Deciding how to vote in non-partisan races in South Florida
Bottom Line: Having wrapped up the Florida Amendment series, the top requests I’m continuing to receive are for recommendations and/or guidance for non-partisan races. While I’m happy to analyze issues and offer up recommendations on issues, I have a policy of specifically not endorsing candidates even in partisan races. This isn’t an attempt to be PC. If you’ve ever felt let down by a politician, you’ll realize the reason I don’t want to put my name and credibility behind a candidate. Additionally, being a social moderate/libertarian and fiscal conservative in South Florida, I often find myself voting for the “lesser of evils” in many elections. Here’s how I go about vetting non-partisan races/candidates that’ll hopefully be useful.
I start by seeing if there’s anything specific to them that I’m familiar with that I have had strong feelings about. IE: Court ruling for judges. Next, I check out their websites and social media pages. I can tell you that personal social media pages from candidates are often extremely revealing. Just because a race might not be partisan, many candidates are extremely so. If I’m still uncertain, I’ll look to endorsements. These can work two ways. Are there individuals/organizations I respect that are backing a specific candidate? Conversely, are there people/organizations that I strongly disagree with that lineup behind a particular candidate? The process of elimination can be helpful in the “lesser of evils” selections. It’s rare that I go through all of those steps and still be indecisive. Hopefully this helps and happy voting.
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