Links for voters

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2010 LINKS TO INFORMATION FOR VOTERS

*** This page will always be under construction. ***

CONTENTS
[X] Introduction
[X] Government Sources
. . [X] Franklin County Board of Elections
. . [X] Columbus Metropolitan Library
. . [X] Ohio Secretary of State
[X] Private Sources
. . [X] Central Ohio Association for Justice
. . [X] Columbus Bar Association
. . [X] League of Women Voters of Metropolitan Columbus
. . [X] Project Vote Smart

INTRODUCTION
About a month before each public election, most citizens begin asking themselves questions such as:
(a) Where do I vote?
(b) Which elective offices will be on my ballot?
(c) Who is running for these offices?
(d) What are the issues of the day for each office?
(e) What are the different solutions being offered?
(f) Which ones seem most reasonable?
(g) What do the candidates have to say?

Following is a list of several government and private voter-information sources. Instructions included with the organizations on this list are designed for a resident of Franklin County, Ohio. However, most of the sources will be of general interest.

GOVERNMENT SOURCES
Franklin County Board of Elections (BoE), OH
This web site helps answer Questions (a), (a), & (c).
The BoE site is a large warehouse of election information. As a result, it is not always easy to find the page of interest. For new voters, I suggest printing the following instructions before going to the BoE site.

INSTRUCTIONS START HERE.
For Question (a) Where do I vote?

On the left side of the BoE home page, click on "* Sample Ballots".
Click on "* Search By Name".
Enter you name, and then click on "Search". Your name and registration address will appear side by side on a new page. If your address is not current, it is time to up-date your registration.
On this new page, click on you own name.
The next page will show your political affiliation, polling location, other useful options.

For Question (b) Which offices are being contested?

In the middle of the current page, click on "Ballot" beside the words "Sample Ballots:"
Print out your "OFFICIAL GENERAL ELECTION BALLOT".

With your sample ballot in hand, you now have the answer to Question (b). However, the sample ballot, which lists all offices, does not list either all candidates or any candidate links. It shows only the on-ballot candidates running for each office. Remember, official write-in candidates are never on the ballot, that is why they are called write-in candidates.

To find an answer to Question (c) "Who is running for these offices?", one must use the BoE's Candidate List. The Candidate List will show all candidates for each office and links to many campaign web sites. To find the Candidate List:

Go back to the "BOE Home" page.
Click on "2010 Elections Information" (left side of page).
Then click on "Candidate List".
An 8-page display will appear showing "Office", "Candidate Names", ---, and "Websites".

By using your OFFICIAL GENERAL ELECTION BALLOT, determine which officers match your ballot. To have or not to have an active campaign link on this BoE page is a candidate's choice. By using these campaign links, one may learn, in a candidate's own words, what he or she thinks is important. Beyond that, a voter may able to obtain comparative information by using this Candidate List as a "home base". For a specific office, click of the first candidate's web site link, address, then return back to the home base, then click on the next candidate's site, etc.
INSTRUCTIONS END HERE.

To connect of the Franklin County Board of Elections (BoE), OH Home Page, click here. [X]
If you have questions, the BoE may be reached at 614-462-3100
The BoE web site address is: www.vote.franklincountyohio.gov.

Candidate web sites are just one possible way to obtain information that will help answer Questions:
(d) What are the issues of the day for each office?
(e) What are the different solutions offered?
(f) Which ones seem most reasonable?
(g) What do the candidates have to say about these issues?

Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML)
The CML web site indirectly helps to answer questions (a), (b), (c), and (g). Its Voter Resources page hyperlinks visitors to a large variety of resources.
To reach the Voter Resources page:

Click on a box with the words "Voter Resources" located on the left side of the library's Home Page.
On the new page, again click on the words "Voter Resources" located in the horizontal menu below the Ohio flag.
More than half way down this new page are the words (you guessed it) "VOTER RESOURCES". On the left side is another heading, "Helping Franklin County Voters Prepare for the November 2nd Election". Below this heading is a long list of hyperlink options.

The first option is a link to: List of Candidates for Local Offices". Clicking here will take the visitor directly to the Franklin County Board of Elections' "Candidate List" that includes all offices on the ballots of local voters. This List carries both web site and e-mail addresses (in a compact format) for some candidates.

To link the Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML) web site at www.columbuslibrary.org, click here [X].
If you have questions, CML may be reached at Ph. 614-645-2275

Ohio Secretary of State (SoS)
This web site will answer Questions (b), (c), & (g) for state-wide offices. In addition, the site will be helpful for state-level and federal-level offices.
To use this site as a voter guide, one may need a copy of a county board of elections personal sample ballot. State senators, state representatives, judges of courts of appeals, and Ohio Board of Education members---all run in numbered district. Without a personal sample ballot, voters may not know which district they live in.

INSTRUCTIONS START HERE.
To use the Secretary of State's voter guide:

Look on the Home Page for a separate box titled, "2010 Judicial & Candidate Voters Guide for Ohio".
Click on this box.
The next page will be is titled the same as the Home Page link box, plus "providing fair elections". This page offers five "Search-for-your-candidates" choices. In addition, this page offers three options for additional information and a gives a DISCLAIMER. [As of this up-date, the DISCLAIMER (at the bottom of the page) does not mention that Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, is excluding all approved write-in candidates from her Voter Guide.]
If a voter wants a display of all of the offices (and more) that will be listed on his/her ballot, use the "County" option. (Many counties will incorporate more than one district for offices such as House of Representatives, State Board of Education, etc. Thus, voters will need a personal sample ballot to narrow the field.)
Click for a drop-down box, select the county of interest, and then click on "Search".

The county-sorted voter guide displays a list of participating candidates. This display allows the voter to click on a candidate's photograph and jump to a voter-guide separate page about each candidate. This page includes a link to his/her campaign web site. A voter may obtain comparative information by using this Voter Guide list of candidates as a "home base". For a specific office:
* Click on the first candidate's photograph.
* On the candidate's personal Voter Guide page, click of the link to the candidate's own web site.
* After checking this web site for information of interest, jump backwards twice to return to the "home base" of the Voter Guide list.
* Go to the next candidate, and click on that photograph.
* Then click of the link to that candidate's own web site.
* Repeat the process as needed.
INSTRUCTIONS END HERE.

To connect to the web site of the Ohio Secretary of State, click here [X].
If you have questions, the SoS's Voting Rights Institute may be reached at 877-868-3874.
The SoS web site address is www.sos.state.oh.us.

PRIVATE SOURCES
Central Ohio Association for Justice (COAJ)
This web site helps answer Question (c) and gives ratings for judicial candidates.
The Central Ohio Association for Justice (COAJ) is a organization of trial lawyers. The COAJ web site states: "In 2010, we will conduct screenings of judicial candidates for Franklin, Delaware and Licking Counties. The organization's final rating of each candidate, decided by the membership, will be published in local media outlets, for consideration by voters."
To reach the judicial candidates page:
* Look on the left side of the Home Page.
* Click on "COAJ Judicial Screening Results - Franklin County.

To reach the Central Ohio Association for Justice (COAJ) web site, click here [X].
If you have questions, the COAJ may be reached at Ph. 614-228-1017.
The COAJ web site is www.coaj.org.

Columbus Bar Association (CBA)
This web site helps answer Questions (c) and gives ratings for judicial candidates.
About two weeks before the election, there will be a direct link on the Home Page for "Voter Infomation for Franklin County Judicial Elections".

To connect to the Columbus Bar Association (CBA), click here [X].
If you have questions, the CBA may be reached at 614-221-4112.
The CBA web address is: www.cbalaw.org.

League of Women Voters of Metropolitan Columbus
This web site helps answer questions (c) and (g).
The League's products are a printed Voter Information Bulletin (VIB) with two questions per candidate and an expanded internet VIB with four questions per candidate. The format is a question-and-answer forum (or a 2-part structured forum). As such, voters may conduct direct comparisons on questions of interest.

INSTRUCTIONS START HERE.
* To use this forum, a voter needs to know their own district number for legislative offices, etc. A sample ballot for Franklin County voters may be obtained from the Board of Elections' (BoE) web site. To see instructions for using the BoE web site, click here [X]
* On the League's Home Page, click on any of the words "Your Election Guide - 2010 Voter Information Bulletin - download".
* On the new page, under the words "Voter Information Bulletin" is located the table of contents of the VIB.
INSTRUCTIONS END HERE.

To connect to the League of Women Voters of Metropolitan Columbus, click here [X].
If you have questions, the League may be reached at 614-837-1089.
The League's web site address is: www.lwvcols.org.

Project Vote Smart
Vote Smart helps answer questions (c) and (g).
Elective offices at both the federal and state levels are covered by Vote Smart. To use this site as a voter guide, one may need a copy of a county board of elections personal sample ballot. State senators, state representatives, judges of courts of appeals, and Ohio Board of Education members---all run in numbered district. Without a personal sample ballot, some voters will not know which district they live in.

Vote Smart uses a common question-and-answer format. It does not introduce each question with a background statement. It submits over a dozen questions to most sets of competing candidates. As a result the issues covered are very likely to match at least one interest of most voters. In past years, some candidates have not responded to Vote Smart's questionnaires. As a result, the Vote Smart staff are now going beyond just waiting for the candidates to respond. The staff are filling in the questionnaires for unresponsive candidates based on their previous speeches, interviews, and voting records (per the Fall newsletter). The pages devoted to each candidate give both web site and e-mail addresses, some of the time. However, candidates for a specific office are not grouped in compact format suitable for convenient comparison of issues on web-sites.

To reach the web site of Project Vote Smart at www.votesmart.org, click here [X].
If you have questions, Vote Smart may be reached at Ph. 888-868-3762.

Additional sources will be added as time permits.

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Address:
Bill Buckel
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Columbus, OH 43212
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Up-dated: October 18, 2010