Ask HN: Who is on my ballot tomorrow? (US)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8550681

by blamarvt • 12 years ago

3 11 12 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Tomorrow is the midterm elections, and I have no idea who I'm voting for. Not only do I have no idea who I'm voting for...but there isn't even a convenient place to get a list of all candidates on my ballot. Is there?

Does anyone know of a site which will tell me, based on my address, who will be on the ballot tomorrow?

I can get this information through my state website but it's not straight-forward (I have to look up each elected position individually!).

Help!

eggoa• 12 years ago

I don't know what state you're in, but google for your secretary of state's website. They'll usually have all the info.

blamarvt3• 12 years ago

Yup! http://www.elections.state.md.us/elections/2014/primary_cand...

They have all of the information there but I would have to know all of my districts to get a complete view... it's not as simple as I'd like and from what I can see there definitely isn't a nation-wide site/app which can tell me who is on my ballot so I can educate myself prior to an election.

maxerickson• 12 years ago

This seems to be what you want:

https://voterservices.elections.maryland.gov/VoterSearch

On the page it says You can use this tool to: ... View your sample ballot. "<state> sample ballot" is probably the most effective search to find these things.

My state lets anyone look at any ballot, that seems better than asking for voter information to show something (but you have to look up the district info first). Maybe I just didn't find the option there.

I think the value provided by aggregating the info that most states already have obligations to provide isn't that huge an opportunity. "Vote MD" seems to try, but I just came across it by accident just now, I don't know anything about it.

sp3322• 12 years ago

It's kind of a mess, but does this page help? http://www.fec.gov/data/CandidateSummary.do

Edit: You can find which district you're in by putting your ZIP code in here http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

jxm262• 12 years ago

This looks like a pretty good resource, thanks for sharing. But even the search functionality for this seems to be lacking/not-so-straightforward.

Maybe this is an idea to make into an app :) Been looking for a small project to do.

blamarvt3• 12 years ago

Thanks for the link. Lots of good information out there, just I think there is a real need for it to be made more accessible for lazy people like me.

sp3322• 12 years ago

Found this today http://yourfuckingpollingplace.com/

sharth• 12 years ago

1. It's very difficult to tell you what's on your ballot when it's not clear what state you are in.

2. http://ballotpedia.org/ has a list of most of the elections, but certainly not all. For example, it's missing one of the county-wide ballot initiatives for me.

3. If you are in maryland, this website may be helpful: https://voterservices.elections.maryland.gov/VoterSearch

blamarvt3• 12 years ago

Thanks for the links. While I did ask about myself, I was also hoping to find a general information resource I could point friends and family to which was easy to use. So far I haven't seen anything but http://ballotpedia.org is promising!

Also, your second link for MD specifically does give me a sample ballot PDF customized to my legislative and congressional districts but I'd have to copy/paste all of the candidate names to do research on them.

Thanks again.

anywherenotes• 12 years ago

I live in NJ, sometime last week I got a paper which shows exact layout of buttons there will be at election with all the names. So in theory I can practice at home pressing on buttons (I think the paper folds out to same size as the actual booth machine).

So it's pretty convenient. Of course I still have to go online to look each individual's positions, but there's no way to present an unbiased view of each candidate, at very least you will present them in some order, and even that matters.

massappeal• 12 years ago

democracy.com and crowdpac.com I think both have info on local candidates available

Ask HN: Who is on my ballot tomorrow? (US)

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