Lots of data available to help educate voters

Whether a Westerville gas station at State Street and Schrock Road should sell beer was a hot topic in 2016.

Eighty-eight percent of the 534 voters in the precinct east of Sharon Woods Metro Park weighed in on the issue, with the majority voting to let the beer flow. A hundred fewer of them voted on who should sit on the Ohio Supreme Court.

About a third of the precinct’s active voters simply skipped over the high court candidates — slightly worse than the state average. That was the case even though the Supreme Court decides such issues as police authority during traffic stops, records that governments must make public, and how internet charter schools can collect tax dollars for students.

Voter interest tails off as people get further down a lengthy ballot, making America’s voter stats even worse than the generally poor participation rate. It’s called the “undervote.’’

“I do this for a living, and there’ll be a couple races where I don’t remember who I like,” said Aaron Sellers, Franklin County Board of Elections spokesman.

So just like at the baseball game, if you don’t know your Mary DeGenaros from your Melody J. Stewarts, you probably need a program.

A good place to start is just knowing up front what’s going to be on your ballot, specifically based on your address, before you go to vote. A great resource is your official county “sample ballot,” available online and typically tailored to the contests you will see on Election Day. Franklin County residents can punch in their address to generate it online.

It will show you all races in the exact order they will appear in the voting booth, from governor, U.S. Senate and House, down through all of the state and local questions — including the beer-sales questions that only people in your immediate neighborhood get to consider.

But it doesn’t tell you everything, like that Michael P. Donnelly is a Democrat and Craig Baldwin is a Republican who are facing each other for a six-year term on the Ohio Supreme Court. That’s because judicial races and some other races are officially “nonpartisan” — which could help explain the dramatic drop-off in votes. Some Franklin County precincts had undervotes of 50 percent for certain races in 2016.

So if knowing a candidate’s party affiliation is important, there are more “programs” available online at no cost.

The Ohio GOP, Democratic Party and other statewide parties have websites on which they have their own “slate cards” of endorsed candidates, including for nonpartisan races. For local candidates, the county Democratic and Republican websites typically provide sample ballots of backed candidates. You can print them out and take them with you to help fill in blanks on the ballot.

Or, if you want to know where a candidate came from and what he or she stands for, there are non-party programs, such as The Dispatch’s interactive Voters Guide. Just enter your address to get a detailed breakdown of the national, state and local candidates and issues.

For example, did you know Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike DeWine, 71, started his career as Greene County prosecutor in 1976, went on to serve in the U.S. House, then as lieutenant governor to Gov. George V. Voinovich and two terms in the U.S. Senate? He was elected Ohio attorney general in 2010, narrowly defeating incumbent Richard Cordray, his Democratic opponent for governor on Tuesday.

Cordray, 59, is a lawyer from Grove City who served in the Ohio House and as Franklin County treasurer, state treasurer and state attorney general. President Barack Obama appointed him to be the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2012.

Click on a candidate’s photo and see his or her responses to Dispatch questions on issues, or in the governor’s race click on the links to Dispatch stories detailing the candidates’ stances on abortion, right to work, guns, LGBT rights or marijuana legalization. You can even email yourself a customized list of your choices.

None of your information is recorded by The Dispatch.

Other groups, such as the League of Women Voters, The University of Akron’s Judicial Votes Count project and the Ohio State Bar Association also offer voter guides.