A toy example is a recent tax levy for some hospital funding. While the packet contained some thousand-foot information on what it was for and amount/etc, there was NO breakdown as far as I could tell, even online, (certainly no objective/in depth/expert sourced) that actually tried to answer "what are the pros and cons? (this sometimes exists in the packet but often not for some of the more technical decisions) Is this a normal tax? Is the argument for or against disingenous? Are there better ways to source this revenue? Is there proper accountability and controls on utilization, and is the underlying legislation solid?
Take the following not as tooting my horn but to give a point of perspective: I have multiple degrees (including advanced) in applied math and CS, and spend an inordinate amount of my time reading about politics, law, and history. I still feel ill-equipped to vote on many of these topics. It sometimes amazes me that the system is as functional as it is now, if even a portion of decisions are made in this fashion.
Maybe it's actually a good thing? Our local elections do a good job of holding candidates accountable that they never err to far off the beaten path?
"Congratulations, you've just earned your Junior Progressive badge! Vote for two more progressive candidates to level up!"
What makes you certain progressives will control election infrastructure?
And the same officials who would set the text of the app currently oversee the descriptions of the issues on the ballot that each voter gets. Can you point to a single case of any progressive politician using their power to manipulate those descriptions?
I don't believe any politician has done so in the last 50 years, from either party. Do you have evidence that I'm wrong, or do you have any other evidence that the election infrastructure being so blatantly abused is at all plausible?
Pretty much every ballot initiative in the last 50 years of the state of Illinois. Search “Illinois Democratic machine” for the history of the abuses.
One recent ballot initiative I recall read “do you support improvements to water reclamation infrastructure of Cook County at the cost of $X bond issue”. It did not mention that the full text of the measure drastically increased the number and salaries of democratic party appointees in the water dept and they would get guaranteed life pensions at 80% of salary.
When a single party has most of the government positions, election corruption abounds.
These pamphlets are made separately by each county, and large counties sometimes make different versions when there are many local elections or initiatives on the ballot (e.g. King County had 4 versions of this pamphlet, each covering a different set of municipal elections, the corresponding school districts etc).
You get them in the mail in advance of your ballot.
No need for a smartphone. The information packet + drop box / postal vote is fantastic.
