An Informed Voter

My mom has many wonderful qualities that I hope I have gained from her. In my opinion, one that nears the top if the list is a love for anything patriotic. I get the chills each time I hear the national anthem, and I can't watch fireworks and listen to "Stars and Stripes Forever" without thanking God for blessing me with American citizenship.

While I hate to admit it, this love for America, unfortunately, rarely carries over into my political awareness. I can chalk up my apathy to a number of legitimate questions, such as: What form of media can you trust?, Are we truly represented in this "representative" form of government?, Does my vote really count?, etc. But, in the end, I am a voting American citizen who's duty it is to "let me voice be heard."

All that said, I love election day, and work hard to be at least a somewhat "informed" voter. Each year, Martin and I get better at "researching" our ballot initiatives and candidates. We just finished deciding on this year's ballot, and the true reason for this blog entry is to let all of my California friends know about a website we just found, which, in my opinion, gave some helpful information.

I don't know about you, but, in past visits to the polls, when I get to the section of judges, and other offices I know little or nothing about, I merely leave them blank. Not a good answer! So, after reviewing our list of 15+ judges on this year's ballot, Martin and I found the website "flashreport.org", which gave some detailed information about some of the judges' past decisions that helped us make an "informed" decision on how to vote. Thought I'd pass on this website for those of you who might be searching for information as well. www.flashreport.org

Happy Voting!