The Right Thing: What should a conscientious voter do to become informed?

What should someone do to research candidates or issues before an election?

A reader we’re calling Harris recently emailed observing that it is a presidential election year and he wants to cast an informed vote. He mentioned that in addition to the presidential and gubernatorial candidates who will appear on his ballot where he lives in North Carolina, there are likely to be “a total of 56 candidates running for 13 offices.”

In spite of all the promotional flyers sent out, Harris contended that the average person, including him, has no clue as to who the best candidates are – “especially the non-political ones, like state auditor or commissioner of insurance.” Harris asked a town council for his recommendations, but he suspects the guy doesn’t really know any more about the more “obscure” offices than Harris does.

“My local McClatchy newspaper has probably dug deeper into those candidates than my town councilman has had time to do,” wrote Harris. “It has made some recommendations that conflict with his, probably reflecting opposing political points of view.

“What should a conscientious person do when he/she can’t invest a lot of time researching candidates, especially when the ‘mainstream media’ or other resources aren’t neutral?” asked Harris. “Rely on an equally uniformed friend?”

Harris believes we are all victims of too much information and is concerned information overload will get even worse “now that artificial intelligence looms large.”

I applaud Harris and others who are committed to voting in local and national elections. That Harris wants to become as informed as possible about the issues and candidates running before he casts his vote strikes me as a good thing. Anyone who wants to take even a small bit of time to become an informed voter should be able...