The candidates - in their own words

Posted Aug 12, 2010 by Laura Fiorilli

Updated Aug 12, 2010 at 08:14 AM

TBO’s Voter Guide went live this week. If you haven’t already, check it out!

Voter Guide is one of my favorite things to work on at TBO. It’s also a huge undertaking. We contact candidates in all 10 counties in WFLA’s viewing area, track down their e-mail addresses, and then needle them to fill out a questionnaire on their background and opinions.

We first used the Voter Guide software in 2008. An enhancement to this year’s edition is GIS - that is, geographic information systems - basically, a better way of creating maps of the various voting districts. The system should be able to identify which district you live in, down to the sub-county level, based on your address.

But there have been some glitches. The maps we received for Manatee County weren’t compatible somehow, so voters there will have to choose districts manually. And sometimes, people testing the system find other conflicts. If you find one, or have any other problems using the guide, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). I’ll do what I can to help.