Q&A of the Day – How to research non-partisan races in South Florida

Q&A of the Day – Deciding how to vote in non-partisan races in South Florida

Each day I’ll feature a listener question that’s been submitted by one of these methods.

Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com

Twitter: @brianmuddradio

Facebook: Brian Mudd https://www.facebook.com/brian.mudd1

Today’s entry: Mr. Mudd, I find the research that you do before election time to be invaluable in helping me be an educated voter. I specially appreciate the research that you have done concerning the proposed state amendments. My dilemma is that I find it difficult to get reliable information when it comes to the election of judges that may be on the ballot. I would appreciate any assistance that you could give me when it comes to researching judges.

I thank you for the no nonsense approach that you take and how you strive to get to the truth. I am proud of what you have accomplished since I started listening to you. God bless you and your family and keep up the good fight.

Bottom Line: I’m truly appreciative of your kind words and am glad my stories have been helpful to you. I’ll be bringing back the Florida Amendment series, providing a comprehensive breakdown of each proposed amendments, prior to the start of early voting for November’s elections. This year there are six proposed constitutional amendments which will appear on our ballots including four which were citizen initiatives and two advanced by the Florida Legislature. For now, though, in advance of Florida’s August 18th primaries, the focus is on the elections which will be decided next month. There are several judges which will be elected next month in South Florida, and as I’ve pointed out extensively throughout the pandemic, it’s often the elections which happen closest to you which have the biggest impact on your daily life. These judgeships certainly are important races.

Each cycle one of the top requests I receive are for recommendations and/or guidance for non-partisan races. I don’t endorse candidates but want to be as helpful as possible. As a fiscal conservative, I find myself often voting for the candidates I disagree with the least. You might find yourself in a similar situation which can make decisions challenging. Here's the process I use to vet non-partisan races/candidates that’ll hopefully be useful.

I start by seeing if there’s anything specific to them that I’m familiar with and feel strongly about. For incumbent judges it might be a specific ruling. For challengers it might be involvement in specific civic organizations. Next, I check out their websites and social media pages. Personal social media pages from candidates are often extremely revealing. Just because a race might not be partisan, many candidates are extremely partisan in reality. The way they live and depict their personal lives on social media, along with the people they associate with can be telling. At this point, if I’m still uncertain, I’ll look to endorsements. These can work two ways. Are there individuals and/or organizations I respect which are backing a specific candidate? Conversely, are there people/organizations that I strongly disagree with that lineup behind a particular candidate? Process of elimination can be helpful in the “lessor of evils” selections. It’s rare that I go through all of those steps and am still indecisive. Hopefully that helps & happy voting.


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