Get informed before making a choice at the polls

Are you better off now than you were two years ago? How about four years ago or even six years ago?

With the general election less than two weeks away these are important questions for any voter to ask themselves before heading to the polls and casting ballots for governor, state senate, state assembly, House of Representatives and U.S. Senate.

For incumbents, voters must look at the actions taken and decisions made by those in office and weigh those against the assets and attributes their challengers promise they could bring to the office.

In the old Saturday afternoon spaghetti westerns of the 1960s, you could always tell the good guys from the bad guys based on if they wore a white or black hat. This made it easy to pick a side to cheer on as they gave the bad guys their comeuppance.

Despite the attempts by the political campaign machinery to paint their candidates as saviors and to demonize their opponents, the reality in modern politics is all candidates are varying shades of gray.

There are no white hats. There are only people who are doing their best with the hand they have been dealt, sometimes making great decisions and sometimes making bone-headed ones. It is up to voters to determine if that best is good enough, or if it is time for someone else to try their hand.

The challenge with any election is weighing what issues matter. It is important for voters to do their homework and be the ones to decide those issues rather than having some influence peddler tell them what they feel is important. When it comes to picking a candidate to support, it should be your own decision.

When a citizen goes into the voting booth, they are the ones who fill in the circles or select on the touch-screen. It is their choice, not their boss’s, not their pastor’s, not their weird uncle who leads the local tin-hat brigade, not even their spouse. The decision when it comes time to vote is theirs alone.

The power to vote and decide the course of an election and through that impact the running of the state and nation, brings with it the equally great responsibility for citizens to be as informed as possible on the individuals and issues of the race. Every voter weighs issues on their own scale with some more pressing than others, but it is important even with strongly held positions to always look at the entire candidate and take the sum total of all those positives and negatives in making a choice.

While campaigns have been flooding people’s mailboxes with literature and saturating the airwaves with catchphrases and fear-mongering, it is important to take some time to read articles from reputable news organization, listen to debates, explore each candidate’s campaign websites and look to non-partisan independent sources such as Politifact and Ballotopedia to do your homework before deciding on a candidate.

Likewise, it is important to check your polling place and registration status at myvote.wi.gov to avoid delays on election day and to make sure your photo ID is up to date and that you bring it with you on election day.

Democracy works when we all do our homework and cast informed votes.

Members of The Star News editorial board include Publisher Carol O’Leary, General Manager Kris O’Leary and News Editor Brian Wilson.