Do We Need A Muni Rider Voter Guide In 2024?
It won't have an "SF" Suffix But It Could Be Helpful
Many years ago, when I was publishing the N Judah Chronicles blog, I created a side project, the Muni Rider Voter Guide. Readers from that era may remember it - for those who were not avid readers of the blog back in the Before-fore Times (aka the 2010s), it was a simple guide for people voting in local elections to find out more about various candidates’s plans for Muni and transportation related issues, in one place, and easy to read.
One problem people running for office face the general public may not be aware of is the sheer number of “candidate questionnaires” from political parties, local organizations, news publications of all sorts, and so on.
Campaigns and/or candidate find themselves facing a big pile of these things, all with a deadline. Compounding the problem is that many of these so-called “questionnaires” are really just political traps, either designed to entrap candidates/campaigns in a “gotcha” question, or to ask “questions” that try to get the candidate/campaign to agree with whatever it is said group is promoting.
It ends up being a tremendous waste of time on everyone’s part, and people voting, who presumably could use some Actual Information About the Subject are left with a whole lotta nothing. Surely there was a better way?
In the case of the old Voter Guide, the goal was to ask candidates a few questions to see if they even knew what the SFMTA, et al actually do, if they even ride Muni, and find out how they make difficult decisions, which as we all know is a big part of the job of any elected official. I avoided making it something to stick it to (buses, cars, people walking, or whoever people want to stick it to in local elections). It was kept simple and easy to answer, and overall it worked out ok. It is a bit interesting to look at it today, as it turns out several candidates in 2024 were candidates back then too,
However, reviewing it in 2024, it’s clear the site lacked adequate translation services (something I could not afford then or now), and it lacks many standard features most websites have today to make it easy to read for everyone. Clearly, an updated version would take a little more effort to publish.
Hence, why I’m asking people now the following: is this something you would find useful in the fall when you’re deciding who or what to vote for? If so, what kinds of information would you want in a guide? Would you be willing to donate a few dollars to pay for things like a human designer or a human translator(s) and so on? If there’s enough response, I’ll start organizing something for the fall.
However, learning from past experience, if I do end up doing this, I will solicit donations to offset the cost. As I am not (yet) a billionaire*, I don’t have piles of cash to spend on services and so on for a good online voter guide. However, regardless of who donates or how much they donate, they’ll get sincere thanks from me, and that’s it - no vetoes over content etc. (Such policies will of course be spelled out in detail once this becomes an Actual Thing. Please keep that in mind).
If and when this comes to pass, I’ll post relevant updates and work out all the details. For now thanks for reading and let me know what you think!
PS*: Although I am not currently a billionaire, I would not turn down the funds to become one. If I was a Zany San Francisco Billionaire, I wouldn’t clog up your mailbox and ad space with junk, or ask for a lot of tax breaks, but instead fund Catbuses and CatTrams on Muni, and we’d whimsy the F outta this place in a good way.
Surely that’s a bit more fun than some grim nonsense blasted at you while you watch TV, right?