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# How I vote
- URL: https://werd.io/how-i-vote/
- Published: 2024-04-20T14:28:25.000Z
- Updated: 2025-06-14T19:33:33.000Z
- Author: Ben Werdmuller
- Tags: #Import 2025-06-13 09:20, Asides

![A set of ](https://old.werd.io/file/6623d1024de5aa62cd013f52/thumb.jpg)

I like mail-in ballots because I can do my research as I go, on my own time, in my own environment. To me, it feels a lot closer to giving the process the time and attention it deserves.

I filled in my Pennsylvania primary ballot this morning. I’d never been a British voter (I’m not a British citizen), so moving to the US represented the first time I could actually vote for my representatives in the country I lived in.

Primaries are sort of a funny idea: you pledge yourself to a party ahead of time, and that party affiliation is public. It seems to me to be a little counter to the idea of a private ballot, which is the cornerstone of free and fair elections, but that’s the system we have. If you’re a registered voter for a party, you can vote in its primary, which helps to select which candidates will actually make it to the general election.

I already knew how I’d cast my vote for the big-ticket item — the President of the United States — but I had very little idea about down-ballot candidates like the Attorney General or the Treasurer. So I sat down with my laptop and, person by person, checked them out on:

- [Ballotpedia](https://ballotpedia.org/Main%5FPage)
- [Spotlight PA](https://spotlightpa.org/)
- [WHYY](https://whyy.org/) (my local public media station)
- Progressive and restorative justice groups like [Reclaim Philadelphia](https://www.reclaimphiladelphia.org/)
- Their own websites
- A general Google News search

Rather than look to a central party recommendation or trust one set of endorsements, I prefer to form my own opinions, triangulating between sources that care about the same things I do. I explicitly seek out criticism, including from the opposition party and opposing points of view, because even if I don’t agree with someone’s political position, they may bring up flaws that a candidate’s own party would not highlight.

And then I seal it up in an envelope and send it off. It feels good to vote. It feels *important* to vote (particular in this era). I’ll be crossing my fingers for the most compassionate, inclusive, peaceful outcome from our set of possible outcomes in November.