If you’ve ever gone down the ballot and wondered… why am I voting for an Emergency Services Board?  Or, what does the State Board of Education do?

In Texas, we also do this with Amendments to the Texas Constitution, where even the most seasoned of politicos have trouble deciphering the legalese, much less the average voter. This is by design.

I know the League of Women Voters does a fantastic job with interviewing the candidates, but they often miss the outlying positions that are just as important to vote on.  Last election cycle, when I viewed my own ballot , I was surprised to find that the League of Women Voters had not interviewed the candidates for the Cy-Fair Emergency Services Board, where two positions were on the ballot.

Some of us are going to do our best to track down the information, but the people we most hope to turn out to vote in elections: registered nonvoters and even some of our most dedicated voters are going to skip the race without selecting a candidate: or worse, just choose one, usually the top candidate listed, not knowing that’s not necessarily the incumbent, but who won a coin toss or whose name was picked out of a hat.

The Ballot Box exists specifically for this reason. We need to stop letting the local governances be won by conservatives. These offices often have more of an impact on your day to day life than the President.  Most importantly, they’re deciding what to do with your tax-payer dollars, whether you own your residence or rent.

We want you to make informed choices, and share this knowledge with your friends and family. We need to grow together, build up our communities, and take care of each other.

Here’s a secret the billionaires won’t tell you: they got to where they are because of investment in their community and your tax-paying dollars. And they do not want you to join their ranks, so they do their best to pull the ladder up after them by dividing and conquering – leaving scraps on the table for the rest of us to fight over.

Wouldn’t you rather your money and resources be put to better use FOR YOU and your loved ones? So instead of scraps, there’s a better distribution of the pie for all?