League voters guide provides chance to compare & contrast candidates

by | Oct 16, 2017 | Newton | 3 comments

The League of Women Voters of Newton (LWVN) has completed our new online Voters’ Guide in time for the Nov. 7 municipal elections.

Voters can go to www.VOTE411.org, input their address on the first screen, and then click on the GREEN button on the next screen to see all the candidates they will be eligible to vote for.  This format allows you to choose two candidates and compare their answers side-by-side.

ALL candidates for office, whether in contested or uncontested races, were invited to participate.  Answers to three questions were limited to 500 characters each, or about 100 words.

Questions were chosen from all those submitted to LWVN for our Candidates’ Forums.  LWVN does not support or oppose specific candidates or parties; the guide is intended to inform LWVN members and Newton voters about issues that are “hot topics” in our city and of particular interest to the League of Women Voters. 

Voters can also watch the LWVN/NewTV series of Candidates’ Forums for contested races by visiting www.newtv.org and going to the Decision 2017 Election Coverage.  We expect all the forums to be available during the week of Oct. 23. 

We urge all votes to be as informed as possible in this upcoming election…remember, democracy is not a spectator sport! 

 

3 Comments

  1. Greg Reibman
    Greg Reibman on October 16, 2017 at 4:33 pm

    Wow! This platform is really fun. Highly recommended.

  2. Marti Bowen
    Marti Bowen on October 16, 2017 at 5:05 pm

    Definitely a great way to compare and contrast candidates. Thanks.

  3. Jonathan Bassett
    Jonathan Bassett on October 17, 2017 at 7:19 pm

    Totally great site. Everyone should visit! Really informative.

    Among other things, I found that of the eight at-large ward councilor races, four are uncontested, with only two candidates running for the two seats. And Emily Norton, Ward Councilor for Ward Two, is also running unopposed. This illustrates the challenge of having an enormous city council for a city of our size: over half the city council elections I can vote in this year are uncontested. Under the new charter, every one of those seats would be contested, since there would be at least two candidates running for one seat. A smaller city council will mean more contested races, thus more responsive government.