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Why you should never early vote

I’ve been a candidate. That means I have been through an election cycle- and attended more “candidates nights” than I can count. I’ve heard more politicians and wanna bes talk smack, talk stupid, and show how utterly confused they are about the job they are asking you to elect them to.

I’ve also seen how few people attend these events. The banality of the questions. The time limited answers. The campaign materials that say nothing.

The League of Women’s voters publishes an anemic “voter guide” as does what’s left of our newspaper in Dayton. Are you really going to base your decision on 50 word answers? To 2 or 3 questions?

I build websites for a living. I do work for candidates- creating ads, posters, commercials, billboards- and I find the whole process distasteful. For the most part, we’ve created a system that gives us the best candidates money can buy.

It also limits our choices. The idea of voting for Jeff Mims or Rennes Bowers makes me ill. We have 4 seats open on the Dayton School board- we have 3 candidates on the ballot- which almost guarantees all 3 of them will get elected- which is disgusting because one of them is Joe Lacey. Why do I despise Joe Lacey? Watch this video- which still gets views and comments today- years after I posted it. Read those comments- take heed.

There are four candidates running for write in. Do you know who they are? Should you just write in all 4? Have you taken time to investigate? Or are you waiting for some official endorsement?

Do you have your own rubric for what’s important before you vote? Are you applying it? Are you spending time researching it? Or are you doing what someone told you to? ie- voting for the endorsed candidates? Is your rubric even applicable to the office they are running for? Stands on abortion or gun control or the death penalty have no bearing on local office- unless of course you are electing someone who aspires to be a congressman some day.

How would you feel about your early vote for Mayor – if you find out just before election day something like any of these hypothetical stories came out?

“Candidate A was identified in an unsealed warrant in federal court to have being guilty of taking bribes on votes for demolition contracts, and had become an FBI informant wearing a wire back in 2015” or “Candidate B was at the Capitol building on Jan 6, and while he didn’t enter the building, was equipped with medical supplies to treat potential injuries by the folks who were storming the building, he was carrying communication equipment, wearing a bullet proof vest, and had bear spray with him.”

One of these above scenarios actually happened. Would it change your vote?

Or, how about one of your commission candidates was picked up Dayton Police for soliciting? Or another had a DUI just before he got elected? Would those change your mind?

If I told you that both of the above statements were true- would you believe me? And why?

Early voting can cause serious buyers remorse. And while I’m a supporter of voting by mail- which is in effect the same as early voting- the reason is because you can take the time to research each candidate and issue on the ballot. But more than that- I’d like to see a unified system of voter information built. It’s my goal to create a platform that allows you to match your questions with candidates answers. To provide voters with all the information they need to make an informed decision. To even be able to track how politicians, once elected, actually follow up on their promises. To make candidate more than one-dimensional and voters more discerning in casting their ballots. The non-profit that I established, “The Modern Policy Institute [1]” is still awaiting it’s 501c3 approval (applied for over a year ago- the IRS is way behind on approvals). But, that doesn’t mean you can’t make a donation, it just would have to go to Reconstructing Dayton [2] because it’s the 501(C)4 that we have that all set up.

If you enjoyed reading true breaking news, instead of broken news from the major media in Dayton, make sure you subscribe to this site for an email every time I post. If you wish to support this blog and independent journalism in Dayton, consider donating [3]. All of the effort that goes into writing posts and creating videos comes directly out of my pocket, so any amount helps! Please also subscribe to the Youtube channel for notifications of every video we launch – including the livestreams.
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