How to Use My Voter Guide (Nov 2020)
This is a companion to my November 2020 Ballot spreadsheet I’ve shared. It explains how to use my spreadsheet as a voter guide.
Every election, I release my ballot and endorsement spreadsheet to help my friends and family navigate the often-complicated process of deciding how to vote (in CA, and especially in SF, since that’s where I vote). This time, I wanted to give you a companion guide to help you use it effectively. Pick your approach based on your civic time commitment:
I want to decide my votes in an hour
That’s not much time! With over 33 items on the ballot — and a couple of those are “choose up to four” boxes — you’ll have less than 2 minutes to consider each item. That means you’ll be relying almost entirely on other people’s analysis.
Basically, pick a voter guide that reflects your values and copy it over to your ballot. You’re welcome to copy my votes if you trust me, but other options include:
- SPUR if you’re a moderate liberal urbanist / policy geek / utilitarian
- The SF Chronicle or LA Times if you trust either newspaper’s editorial board (they tend to be liberal but moderate and practical)
- Indivisible SF or the League of Pissed Off Voters if you’re a hardcore progressive
- YIMBY Action if you know what YIMBY means and like it (they’re basically pro-housing moderate market liberals)
- The Republican Party if you’re conservative (yes they still exist in SF)
- Special interest groups like the SF Bike Coalition, SF Tenants Union, and many others I don’t have room to list
Then with any remaining time you have, pick a few key issues you care about and read a few of the articles on each (SPUR has my favorite analysis) to make sure you agree with your guide. Here are the most important and controversial races you may want to focus on with your limited time:
- Supervisor for your district in SF
- SF Prop I: should we increase the property transfer tax?
- SF Prop L: should we add tax companies with disproportionately high CEO pay?
- CA Prop 19: should we change how we tax transferred property?
- CA Prop 21: should we allow cities to enact more stringent rent control?
- CA Prop 22: should Uber/Lyft drivers be classified as employees, or independent contractors?
I have 2–30 hours to spend researching my ballot
Great! You can spend time researching the key ballot measures, though you won’t have time to dig into all of them in true depth. You’ll need to budget your time wisely between many different priorities.
I’d start by picking 2–4 voter guides from organizations that you trust and that reflect your values. For example, if you were a voter who favored at various times moderate liberal policies, far-left progressive policies, sometimes conservative policies (this seems unlikely these days 🙂) , you might pick SPUR, Indivisible SF, and the Republican Party.
Then, go down my spreadsheet and look at how your chosen organizations vote on each issue. If they all agree, great! You can give the issue a quick review to sanity-check their thinking, then write down your vote. If they disagree, that’s when you’ll want to dig deeper and spend more time reading analysis and opinions from various sides (my favorite source for analysis is SPUR, but many of the linked sources offer analysis also).
In general, you should spend the bulk of your research time on issues that are impactful (the outcome makes a big difference), complex (hard to summarize), and controversial (many groups you trust disagree). Those are the issues where your individual point of view will be most valuable!
Here are the most controversial, complex, and impactful races you may want to focus your time on:
- Supervisor for your district in SF
- SF Prop B: should we split out a new Department of Sanitation and Streets from the Department of Public Works?
- SF Prop I: should we increase the property transfer tax?
- SF Prop L: should we add tax companies with disproportionately high CEO pay?
- Bay Regional Prop RR: should we add a tax to fund Caltrain?
- CA Prop 15: should we reassess tax basis for commercial properties?
- CA Prop 16: can public institutions use affirmative action?
- CA Prop 19: should we change how we tax transferred property?
- CA Prop 21: should we allow cities to enact more stringent rent control?
- CA Prop 22: should Uber/Lyft drivers be classified as employees, or contractors?
- CA Prop 24: should we enact new internet data privacy rules?
I will spend many full weeks researching my ballot
Lucky you! You’ll have time to dive deep on every issue.
You’ll probably want to pay less attention to the actual endorsements and more to the opinion writing that goes with them, along with reading the full text of each ballot measure. That way you can form your own thoughtful, informed opinion based on the ground truth.
My spreadsheet isn’t really intended for you (sorry!), but you can use it as a jumping-off point for finding many different voter guides and opinions — and feel free to copy the spreadsheet for use tracking your ballot.
I’d love to hear your feedback on this guide, as well as (civil) discussion of the propositions themselves. Text me, send me a Facebook message, or hit me up via email at charlie+vg20@charliestigler.com.
Even in a year when nothing seems normal and everything seems awry, our right to vote is a reminder of the steady, comforting rhythm of democracy. Happy voting! 🇺🇸
