It’s safe to say most prospective voters in 2020 have a general idea of who will be on the ballot when primary season kicks off next month.
Most voters know they’ll pick a presidential candidate for the two major parties (yes, even the President has primary challengers, though they likely won’t gain much traction). In addition, they will pick representatives to send to the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate. And they probably know they’ll pick candidates to send to their statehouses.
I knew all of that this morning when I went onto the website Ballotpedia, which is described by Wikipedia as “a nonprofit and nonpartisan online political encyclopedia written by a staff of researchers and writers. Founded in 2007, it covers American federal, state, and local politics, elections, and public policy.”
On Ballotpedia, you can create a sample ballot for all of the major elections occurring this year. I created a ballot in mind for the Texas Primary on March 3, because early voting begins in Texas in just about a month on Feb. 18.
The sample ballot lookup on Ballotpedia. To create your own, simply click on “What’s on your ballot?” on the left hand side of Ballotpedia’s homepage. Then enter your address and email and Ballotpedia will create a mock ballot for you.
I was surprised to learn that in addition to the above candidates mentioned, there are several important judicial offices up for grabs. For example, four seats on the Texas Supreme Court are up for election this year. Four of nine. You don’t need me to tell you that’s a good chunk of the court.
After getting a generated ballot, I proceeded to learn more about the candidates I would possibly vote for next month. I’ll post a later blog post on my own vetting process to help you with yours, but in summary, I think I’ve narrowed down the list of candidates to those who I will do more research on and pick who I will vote in.
Ballotpedia includes links to campaign websites and social media pages, allowing you to research the candidate and learn more about them and where they stand.
If you’re like me and want to be as informed as possible when primary season kicks off, Ballotpedia is definitely the place to start. Check out Ballotpedia’s website and follow Ballotpedia on Facebook and Twitter.
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