If you’re like most Americans, you have no idea what it is your about to be asked to vote for on Election Day. (Actually, if you’re like most Americans, you won’t be voting at all.) You probably know who you’re voting for in races for governor, Congress, and maybe for mayor. But then there’s all those city council seats and sheriffs and treasurers and ballot initiatives. How do they work? You probably got a sample ballot in the mail, but come on, you don’t read it.
Well, it’s Google to the rescue. Now, maybe you knew this already, maybe it’s been around for years, but I just found out about it and I’m impressed. There are only hours to go before Election Day, and my wife and I were discussing this very subject, how we have no idea what it is that’s about to be asked of us on the ballot, and so I typed something-something-Maine sample ballot into the Google machine, and all of a sudden it asked me for my location, which I provided, and BLAMMO:
More or less everything that will be on my ballot is right in front of me, complete with fleshed-out links to searches on each race and topic. So now you have no excuse for going into the ballot booth blind tomorrow. Type “sample ballot” into Google, and off you go. The truth is in the cloud.
Near-Earth Object 