Who will you pick and how will you do it?
That is about all that is left of the 2012 election year. While much national and local research shows that most voters’ minds are made up, the undecided vote going into the Tuesday General Election is negligible.
Still, for those wanting more last-minute information, here are three more voting guides.
First the Honolulu Star-Advertiser has a quick, clean guide to all the elections at http://goo.gl/GKG0B.
It is free and available to both subscribers and nonsubscribers.
You can find your candidates via a map or by election. Readers can also compare the candidates in an easy side-by-side guide, listing biographical, job and civic experience.
The survey also asks candidates a series of issue questions, including their stand on same-sex marriage and gambling.
Another survey, by the Hawaii Family Forum, questions candidates in each election and the results are distributed to churches.
The questions (http://goo.gl/KLLyK) are framed around the issues important to both the Family Forum and the Hawaii Catholic Conference and some questions under statewide debate.
There are questions about making casino gambling legal and about support for physician-assisted suicide. Other questions asked of state candidates include support for an interisland electrical cable and whether to count military in reapportionment plans.
Although that last question may not be the one you use to start a lively conversation around the dinner table, the religious conservative organization also asked candidates if they would support a state constitutional amendment to define marriage as between a man and a woman.
The weakness of the Family Forum data is that it is incomplete because a large number of candidates declined to respond.
The new entry in the political survey scene this year is Kanu Hawaii, the nonpartisan, nonprofit community action group.
James Koshiba, executive director, said Kanu started by surveying its own members and going door to door in various communities asking about what questions to ask candidates. The questions were then refined by asking other allied community groups what should be asked.
Then questions were filtered by district so that Leeward candidates got questions specific to their districts.
The Kanu webpage — http://www.kanuhawaii.org/2012/ — includes the survey and several different ways to find your information, including by district and candidate name.
Interestingly, Kanu adds a game to the candidate survey. You can try to match the candidate statement with the specific candidate.
"People are saying that just looking at the statements without knowing the candidate or political party is opening their eyes and getting people to think outside the box," Koshiba said.
In researching their questions and in other surveys, Koshiba says a theme is emerging of a public that feels today’s political leaders are out of touch and voters are alienated.
"What they are talking about is, the issues are not in their hands anymore. People say there is no sense in trying to participate," Koshiba said.
Local residents, voters and nonvoters alike are saying that the political ads "treat us like we are stupid," Koshiba said.
"People are saying don’t tell us what is wrong with the other guy, tell us what you would do better," Koshiba said.
The chance to do better now is up to the voters, by making sure they have registered their own opinions by Tuesday.
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Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.