Voting: How I Decide (When It's Not Obvious)

When it's time for me to choose a candidate, I rely heavily on the statements in the voters' pamphlet. And since the candidates often have generic Seattle-ish views on things, here's what I look for in their statements to separate the sheep from the goats. (I'm going to call the candidates by male pronouns here; this isn't meant to imply anything other than that I dislike "s/he.")

1. Does the candidate offer specifics or is he vague? I'm not interested in a politician who talks about how we have "problems" (duh!) and claims that he will offer "solutions." I want to know what he thinks the problems are -- top five, maybe. I want to know exactly how he proposes to solve the problems and why we should believe he has the ability to do so.

2. Does the candidate have good endorsements and ratings? Endorsements from both sides of the aisle are particularly desirable (unless they come from Tim Eyman, which is pretty much a deal-breaker -- the "Biohazard: Keep Out" sign of local politics). I'm more impressed by endorsements from people and organizations I respect than I am by a paragraph about how the candidate loves the scenery of the Pacific Northwest. Who doesn't love that?

3. Does the candidate offer a coherent, readable statement? Can he stick to one tense throughout a section? Can he make all his bullet points parallel in sentence construction? Does he understand that he should end each sentence with a period rather than splicing several sentences together with commas? Has he made sure that the page is laid out for easy readability? Yeah, it's persnickety detail stuff. So is the job the candidate wants. I want the person who is running things to care so deeply about the details that he would never do the managerial equivalent of writing a statement in 20 minutes, running it through spell-check, and considering that a job well done. Everyone needs an editor. (I don't have one, so if you see any mistakes in here, that's why!)

So, how do you make a choice between Candidate A and Candidate B, who hold many of the same opinions? What are your deal-breakers?