Municipal Election... how would you vote? (Decide who to vote for not literally who would you vote for)?

Question

Today there is a municpal election where I live, and for councillor there are 4 people running.

I am not happy with the current councillor and would very much like to see him replaced, as basically he does nothing and has no time for his constituants.

However the other 3 candidates have no websites, have made no effort to contact the people in their riding (pamphlets, phone calls, etc). There have been a few mentions of them in the media, but not enough for me to really know what they stand for.

What would you do? Pick a random name? Pick the one you know most about? Or would you abstain from voting for anyone on the basis that you can not make a reasonable informed decision? Keeping in mind that those kinds of votes are not tabulated even if you decline the ballot (which I wouldn't do as I am interested in voting for Mayor, though I have declined ballots in the past for what it was worth when it was the best of bad options)

What would you do? How would you decide?

Ok, I did look into the information. I have looked at every bit of information the candidates have chosen to put out there (Even a silly survey put out by a local biking group that one candidate responded to). They have just chosen not to put much out there.

Do you think that a candidate who you have to call (assuming that I could even FIND a number, assuming they even HAVE a campain office) is the kind of person you want representing you? Seriously it is 2006 it takes less than an hour and $0 to make a crappy webpage or even a mySpace account.

Answer 1

you have a chance to remove the one you don't like - take it

if you have enough info then vote for the best if you don't then use the limited info you have to choose - even with no info then you should vote at random to vote AGAINST the current office holder

next time RESEARCH the info is there you just did not make the effort to LOOK for it ( call the campaign HQ and ask questions ! )

Answer 2

I would right in a candidate. The pundits say that write-ins are a wasted vote, but it makes more of a statement than anything else. It tells the politicians that are running for the office that you were not happy with your choices, so you made your own pick.

Answer 3

Long John Silver.