The ratings
- Seems like good people
- Shows up prepared, tells the truth, treats residents with respect at public comment, and works for everyone in town, including immigrants, renters, students and minorities.
- Compromised
- Probably decent, but something gets in the way: big money from people with business before them, conflicts they didn't recuse from, going along with something bad to keep the peace, or endorsements from police unions, the gun lobby or right-wing groups.
- Not good people
- Blind loyalty to a strongman over the law, authoritarian talk, denying election results, or being fine with cruelty toward immigrants and minorities. Openly lining up behind authoritarian or fascist-leaning leaders, or taking a party's endorsement for an office that's supposed to be nonpartisan, counts too. Also lying, bullying, or treating the office as a personal business.
- Not enough info
- Plenty of local candidates have no voting record and barely a website. When we can't tell, we say so instead of guessing.
What we look for, by office
- School board
- Teachers, parents with kids in the district now, people who've worked in schools. We're wary of trustees backed by conservative groups or donors, tied to companies that sell to the district, or pushing book bans and voucher politics over running good schools.
- City council
- Regular residents who live the city's problems: renters, parents, workers, neighborhood volunteers. Votes for neighbors over developers, reads the packet, listens at public comment, recuses on conflicts. We're wary of candidates tied to law enforcement, conservative groups or donors, or businesses that stand to profit from city contracts, zoning or development deals.
- County offices
- Commissioners who spend on public defense and mental health before more jail, and who keep county contracts clean. Sheriffs and DAs who treat everyone the same and don't volunteer to do ICE's job.
- Judges
- Experience in the courtroom they'd run, fair treatment of people who can't afford a lawyer, and no history of partisan grandstanding from the bench.
The filled-in oval marks the best choice in each race. Under each name is a rough lean from the candidate's record, for people who want it. Every claim links to where we found it. Spot an error? Tell us and we'll fix it.
Who we are
The Decent Ballot is an independent, not-for-profit project. We lean center-left and we say so. When two candidates in a race come out even, we pick the one closer to our side. We don't take money from candidates, parties or PACs, and nobody on the ballot has seen a rating before it went up.
Research starts from each county's official sample ballot. Facts come from local news, candidate questionnaires, meeting records and campaign filings, and every quote is checked against its source before we write a word. A person reviews every rating.