Informed Voters

Only informed citizens should vote. You won’t be informed if you:

• Trust the media. Media outlets are businesses that need to make money.  They will run any ad and stir up any mess to get audience. They tend to fail to separate news from opinion from advertising.
• Count signs. Signs don’t vote. Do you really want to vote for the guy or gal with the most signs? Even if signs represented votes, would you really want to vote based on what the most think?
• Trust what a candidate says about his opponent. If you want to know what a jerk I am talk to my enemies. If you want to know what a saint I am talk to my acquaintances. If you want to know the truth, talk to my wife. It might be informative to talk to spouses of the candidates.
• Rely on the opinion of others. Really. Can’t you think for yourself. Be particularly careful about ads put out by groups not associated with the candidate. They may or many not express the views of the person seeking office.

Between now and election day I will provide information about how to be informed. I won’t try to tell you for whom you should vote, just how to be an informed voter. It’s not always obvious and it’s so important.

Next: Knowing where to vote and getting a peek at what you will face in the voting booth. If you can’t wait until tomorrow to get informed, check out the plan at NickSigur.com.