Understanding your ballot can be difficult and the language that ballot items are written in is often intentionally confusing or dense. Voting in a way that truly reflects your values and vision for your community and the country means taking the time to research, look up, or study your ballot.
Traditional news sources like local newspapers are essential in uncovering information related to your city, county, and state.
County and city websites provide information about budgets and measures that are often being debated. Official state and local websites also track legislation, stream government meetings, provide calendars of meetings, and have a directory of local representatives.
Investigative journalists often work with local news journalists to uncover stories that explore corruption, malfeasance, and injustices in our area.
Voter education and aggregate tools can be helpful as well.
Like the federal government, the state government is broken into two representative bodies for legislation: the House of Representatives and the Senate. Their responsibilities are to represent their districts within the state. To locate your district you can use the voter information tools above.State representatives have their own official websites and social media.