Local elections matter, but doesn’t it feel overwhelming to sift through thousands of articles, leaflets, and advertisements set to dramatic music created by the thousands of special interest groups vying to influence political leaders one way or another?

When we get down to it, the most valuable information we get about what is happening in our communities comes from our neighbors. After all, they’re the ones who also have to live in a community affected by surging energy prices, cuts to public funds, changes in traffic flow, and everything else influenced by the decisions our elected leaders make today.

In a world where disconnected leaders benefit when communities lack opportunities to come together, we need more people to push back by giving their communities new opportunities to educate ourselves and each other on the issues that affect each of us in our day-to-day lives.

Drum roll please…

Presenting…Voter info sessions!

Sounds boring, right? Sometimes, important things are a little boring, but let’s work together so it doesn’t have to be.

At the end of the post, you will see a link to download the slideshow template that can help you get started planning a voter info session in your community. The slideshow includes an outline of the issues covered in the report card found right here on the site with space to include research on the voting records of your own elected officials.

The nice thing about these sessions is that they can happen anywhere that is right for you – public library, coffee shop, classroom, or virtually via Google Meet or Zoom.

Once you finish entering your notes for each incumbent running for reelection in your community, you can schedule as many voter info sessions as you like to guide participants through each incumbent’s voting record, lead a discussion about other newsworthy actions taken by elected officials, and cover candidates who are opposing them in upcoming elections.

When this blog receives at least 5 submissions for an elected official, you’ll see a new post go up that will contain the combined grades for each official along with comments and links submitted by graders. And for every 5 new submissions for an elected official, this blog will update the grades on report cards already published.

Print out the stylized report cards to hand out or link to the full report cards published on this blog to share grades and to encourage others to participate as well.

The slideshow template is free for anyone to use or modify to fit the needs of their community.

Research your incumbents

In order to organize a session, you’ll need to know who represents you. Use sites like these to find the national and state-level officials who represent you based on your address:

https://www.270towin.com/elected-officials/

https://ballotpedia.org/Main_Page

For the slideshow template, you’ll want to keep your focus pretty narrow to avoid getting overwhelmed, so I recommend starting with each incumbent’s voting record, if a legislator, or a record of public actions for other offices.

Each state will have its own website with publicly available information that you can use to create a summary of each incumbent’s record along with a few websites here to get you started:

Legislators: https://legiscan.com/

Governors: https://www.nga.org/governors/

Plan your event

Once you have your research done, you’ll want to let participants know which elected officials will be covered so that they have a chance to find relevant news articles, from reputable sources, that can add to a discussion of the incumbent. A voting record won’t capture the whole story, after all.

Built into the slideshow template, you’ll see slides for group discussions – this is where participants can share additional information to consider while each person is filling out their own report card for each incumbent.

Keep the discussion focused on your community and how this elected official is serving the interests of the constituents.

At the end of the group discussion, you will see a separate slide where challengers can be summarized for participants to consider.

How long will this event be?

You should plan for each incumbent to take between 10 and 30 minutes, depending on the length of their time in office, so it is best to limit the number of incumbents graded in one info session to 4 or 5. The total event time would ideally be between 1 hour and 2 hours. But, if you know your community will love doing these info sessions, feel free to marathon them over a scrumptious potluck dinner.

If you have any questions or would like to attend a training session before you jump in to plan your own voter info session, please contact me using the form below.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.