Story Published:
Jul 17, 2010 at 7:49 PM CST
Story Updated:
Jul 21, 2010 at 10:36 PM CST
Director of the Putnam County Election Board, Debbie Steidl, makes it simple. We asked Debbie some of the questions that we've heard folks ask, and here are her responses:
CT: Debbie, I want to vote in this August election, and I want to do the right thing, but I’m not too sure how to prepare for it. So what do you recommend?
Debbie: The August ballot is a primary, so you need to decide how you’re going to vote before you come in. Are you going to vote Democrat? Or are you going to vote Republican?
If you have decided which way you are going to vote, Republican or Democrat, you can look in the local paper, and find a sample ballot in there. By law, we (the Putnam County Election Commission) had to print a ballot in the paper.
Or (if you don’t want to go find the paper) you can go to our website, by clicking
here. There are facts and a list of who’s running in what race. We don’t have any personal information about the candidates other than the address.
So… if you want to know what the candidates believe in, we can’t tell you that because we don’t know. You'll have to look at articles like the ones on CookevilleTimes, or a synopsis of the forum last week for City Council candidates. There's actually a lot of information out there. Most of them have Facebook accounts and other web-based ways of connecting. I think you can find those links on "Meet the Candidates" on CookevilleTimes and also a good deal of information in the special editions of the Herald Citizen. You can even call the candidate and ask them personally. They get phone calls…having been a candidate, I know this (personally). People ask them what they believe in and what they’re going to do… (so it’s okay to do this.)
So when you come in to vote, you should have made a choice by this time and decided on how you’re going to vote on the state primary—whether you’ll vote on the Democratic ballot or the Republican ballot.
Now just in case, for some reason you can’t check up on the candidates before you walk in, we will have two ballots up in obvious places that you can study before you vote. You will be able to clearly see who is on the Democratic Primary and who is on the Republican Primary.
CookevilleTimes: But what if I look at the ballots and I see some people I like on the Republican Primary and I also see some people that I like on the Democratic Primary… then what do I do?
Debbie: You have to choose which people are the most important to you. If “John Smith” is a good guy, and you want to vote for him regardless, you would pick the ballot he is on and vote that way, whether it be democrat or republican.
But the law prohibits you from voting both ways (Democrat and Republican) in the primary. You cannot mix and match.
Recap: Use the resources on CookevilleTimes and on-line to research your candidates.
You can also go to the election commission’s website, and there’s a lot of information there.
Know whether you want to vote this time in a Democrat or Republicn (for this Primary).
Note: if you are a resident of a city, there’s only one ballot, and you can vote for any candidate regardless of party.
By law a municipal or school board race is non-partisan. You will only be presented with candidates from your district for those races.
