2009-03-04 Local Elections

Are you paying attention? Do you know who you’re voting for on April 7?

When it comes to politics on the national level there is much more information and debate than any one person can keep up with.

On the other hand, those elected to local offices often have a great impact on our daily lives, yet information is harder to come by and it is less common for the public to get caught up in heated debate about the candidates and their vision for the offices they seek.

On April 7 many of us will have the chance to vote for mayor, alderman, school board and possibly other offices and issues as well. Do you even know which contested races you need to be prepared for? This is not like voting for president, when you have ample opportunity to see the candidates on TV and read all about them and discuss them with everyone you know for months on end.

It may take some effort on your part to be an educated and informed voter. For starters, if you live in DuPage County you can get a sample ballot from the DuPage County Election Commission website. There you can see which races will be on your ballot and which candidates are running. You can search for candidate websites and find out what voter guides may be available. You may be able to obtain some candidate questionnaires as well as information about when debates, forums, or meet and greets will be held as well as when some of these will be broadcast on local cable channels. Newspaper websites and candidate sites frequently provide this information.

Some candidates may be very familiar to you because they are currently or have previously held office or have been otherwise prominent in the community, so what you already know will give you a starting point for evaluating them against their opponents. Reading local newspaper articles and letters to the editor will help you become informed, but beware of potential bias.

Find out when and where you can meet the candidates in person. Meet and greets are a great opportunity to see a candidate face-to-face and perhaps get answers to whatever questions are most pressing to you.

Candidate forums in which all candidates are asked the same questions are, in my opinion, the best way to get a feel for the candidates. I have found that my perceptions of candidates can change greatly after hearing them in person.

The elections I’m most concerned about this time are for Mayor of Aurora and for Indian Prairie School Board. The three mayoral candidates have different experiences and visions for our city. I encourage all City of Aurora residents to attend or watch at least one mayoral forum, to read the questionnaires available on the Beacon website, and to check out the candidates’ websites.

Many local school districts are holding elections this spring. There are thirteen candidates running for four open school board seats in Indian Prairie School District. The board is comprised of seven people, so it’s quite possible that the new people on the board will outnumber the experienced members. Even if you don’t have children in school, what happens with the school district greatly affects the community, the value of your home, the kind of people who choose to live in your neighborhood, the taxes you pay. If you do have children in the schools now or will in the future, it’s all the more important to pay attention and get involved.

There are a few opportunities to meet and hear from all of the school board candidates as well as some smaller get-togethers set up by individual candidates and one slate of four. There are questionnaire answers available at scullen.ipsd.org and possibly other sites.

Considering how much of a difference the results of these elections have on our lives, a surprisingly low number of registered voters tend to show up at the polls for local elections. I have a hard time understanding this apathy.

Please take the time and effort to find out about the candidates and make an educated choice at the polls this April and for future local elections.