It’s election season in Michigan! Some of you have already voted, some of you are still waiting to cast your ballot, and a small number of you have straight up asked me who to vote for in the US Senate race, your state House race, and the Detroit school board races. While I can’t tell you who to vote for, I can help you figure out which candidates align with you most.
Our good friends at the League of Women Voters created a seven-step process you can use to vet candidates.
Step 1: Figure out what you are personally looking for in a candidate. Not every voter has the same beliefs or political ideology, so figuring out what is important to you in each race will change what you want to see in a candidate.
Step 2: Get familiar with who is on the ballot. This November, Michiganders will be voting for a new governor, secretary of state, state senator, and potentially new representatives in congress. In Detroit specifically, people will be voting for state senators, state house reps, and Detroit school board members.
Step 3: Learn who is actually running for each position. This step sounds very simple, but something that comes to mind immediately, like looking at your sample ballot, can still be misleading.
In Detroit’s school board races, for example, there are a few names you’ll see on the ballot for candidates who decided to suspend their campaigns after the filing deadline. Hence why their names are still on the ballot.
But don’t worry, there are plenty of resources to help you find information on the candidates.
Bridge Michigan and BridgeDetroit have done lots of reporting on these races you can check out. Chalkbeat Detroit has details on all the school board candidates and the issues currently facing the district. Many of the candidates have their own campaign sites and social media accounts you can visit to see if they fit your vibe.
Step 4: Look at the positions each candidate has taken on the issues that matter to you. You might not find one candidate who perfectly aligns with you on everything, and that’s OK. Just take some time to figure out who you feel is the best option.
If you’re unsure of how to complete step 4, refer back to the resources in step 3.
Step 5: Consider the leadership qualities for the candidates. This includes looking at their past job experiences, how each person campaigns and how they respond to public scrutiny or feedback.
Step 6: See how other people view the candidates. This means you should call that one friend who spends way too much time reading up on every candidate, looking at who has endorsed the candidate, and it also means looking at who is funding candidate campaigns. You can check this out at opensecrets.org.
Step 7: Put together your personal pros and cons list or a candidate report card. This will help you to visualize who the best choice is for you.
These steps take a little bit of time, but having information about all the candidates will help you vote with more confidence and understand the decisions the winners of these races make when they are in office.
Want more voting resources? Check out the BridgeDetroit voter guide and you can find more on the candidates for the Detroit Public Schools Community District here.
