A Handy Guide to Voter Guides

"278/365 I voted!" by NW Sunshine , from our Flickr pool

We here at Seattlest know you want to be educated about the issues and people on the ballot in the upcoming election. You want to, but you can’t at the moment. You have to do laundry. Then, you have to check facebook, and then check email, and then check out that link on YouTube with the dancing baby and then… wait, what were we talking about? Ah yes, an election. Ok, here we go. We promise this will be quick and painless. When you’re done, you’ll be ready to tackle that ballot and perform your civic duty with aplomb:

• The Washington Secretary of State’s website has both an electronic version of their voter guide and a video voter guide.
• On the local level, King County has its own electronic version of the voter guide, along with video voter guides that we couldn’t watch because Windows wanted us to install some random plug-in and we gave up.
• Another source for non-partisan analysis is the League of Women Voters. They’ve got a voter guide up in a seven page pdf. It’s much more digestible reading than the Secretary of State’s legalese.
• The Progressive Voter Guide (not to be confused with The Progressive Party of Washington) is just what it sounds like. It’s got a handy section for Seattle and its maze of charter amendments. Interestingly, they haven’t taken a side in the mayoral race explaining that “both candidates are generally progressive.”
• The Seattle Times has its endorsements list in one place. They’re rolling out the big ones at the end though, so don’t click here if you’re looking for their pick for mayor (to be published October 25).
• And finally, The Stranger’s election guide supports a “greasy, half-empty tub of Crisco” for Port of Seattle Commissioner Position No. 4 (along with a few other candidates and positions).

Good for you, you’re officially an Informed Voter. You now have our permission to get back to that dancing baby video.