|
The Cincinnati Beacon
The Well-Educated Cincinnati Voter
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
 Photo courtesy of here.
The 2005 race does not come close to comparing to this year’s run for City Council in terms of opportunities for voter education. In 2005, the old “Dean of Cincinnati” website was easily the number one spot for detailed information about candidates. And it was easy - hardly anyone was giving the candidates any play. Sure, there were the community forums, and that was about it. Things have changed in these past two years, but the real question will be the degree to which this change will affect how voters cast ballots. Will it really be a matter of yard signs and television advertisements anymore? Is Cincinnati waking up to the issues that lurk beneath the endorsements and ad campaigns?
When The Beacon first thought to approach the NAACP about collaborating on a voter guide, we thought we’d come up with a real gem of an idea. Who else has a voter guide, besides the League of Women Voters? This year, it turns out everyone is doing it. Cincinnati.com has voter profiles online. The Enquirer has given all the candidates free reign of their “Today at the Forum” blog. Kevin Osborne at CityBeat has been running answers from a number of candidats both in print and on the Porkopolis blog. The print Enquirer has been giving biographical profiles almost every day. Even channel five is sending out questionnaires.
In many ways, the race of 2007 has been a voter education frenzy.
While, on the one hand, it has made my own political writing more difficult—since everyone is doing this, it’s hard to find original content—but the real question is to wonder how people are being influenced by this information. There is not an election for Governor or President this time, so voter turn out is likely to consist of more dedicated voters—the kind who are more likely to know about the issues (and to read all the available information) than just to be influenced by yard sings and commercials.
So will there be an affect on the acquisition of votes? Will candidates be more likely to earn votes based on their positions as opposed to their local name fame?
|