CURRENT POLITICS AND ELECTION LINKS

The following GUEST OPINION appeared in the Spokesman-Review on October 9, 2011, page B9

A guide of, by and for voters

By Lance Bennett,
Ruddick C. Lawrence
Alan Borning,
and Diane Douglas

     As elections matter more, voters seem to become more frustrated and overwhelmed with the process.  And this is not an ordinary "off year election."  The Secretary of State has listed more than 35 state, county and local ballot measures.  What interests are behind these measures?  What are their merits? how best to get involved and make good voting choices?
     This year voters across Washington have a unique opportunity to share their knowledge, listen to the other side, and contribute their information to the mix.  The Living Voters Guide is available online at
www.livingvotersguide.org  to help people consider their choices and debate the issues with each other in a civil fashion, without the hype and hyperbole of campaign ads and polarizing media talk shows.
     This technology was deployed successfully on a smaller scale in 2010, drawing nearly 9,000 participants who looked through the information contributed by fellow citizens and created more than 2,500 individual pro and con lists to help them decide on the ballot measures.
     What became clear from this trial is that people want to listen to and try to persuade each other without resorting to the shrill rhetoric that dominates much public discussion today.  nearly half of the personal lists of points that people put together included one or more points written by others with a quite different opinion on the measure.
     This year, the Living Voters Guide will be available to all Washington voters with county and local measures on tap as well as statewide ones.  (Typing in your ZIP code to the system will let it present the measures relevant for you.)  CityClub, of Seattle, the University of Washington's Center for Communication & Civic Engagement, and its Department of Computer Science and Engineering have collaborated to produce this Web-based resource to advance digital democracy in Washington state.
     With funding from the National Science Foundation, we developed an online resource to promote community discourse and deliberation on the critical ballot measures before Washington voters this November.  this civic technology is inspired by three goals: restoring trust in our neighbors; learning to trust our community's wisdom; demonstrating trust in Jefferson's claim that an informed citizenry is the bulwark of a democracy.
     Our Living Voters Guide invites all Washingtonians to discuss these vital ballot measures together, to explore one another's positions, and to build a personal, customized platform that will inform their final votes.
     This voters guide is co-created by everyone who participates.  It evolves as you and neighbors across our state consider the trade-offs for each measure.  It requires participants who contribute shared points to pledge that they will not make personal attacks on others but focus on the issues before us.  It invites everyone to wrestle with both the pros and cons of the ballot measures in a deliberative path toward decision-making.
     The decisions facing Washington citizens these days are often confusing, yet they can profoundly affect the quality of our communities and our personal lives.  That's why it is imperative that we consider them carefully, with due deliberation and with the benefit of community wisdom in a forum that is nuanced, pluralistic and collaborative.  We need to come together as citizens to explore our electoral choices - without accusations, rancor and acrimony - knowing that we're all going to share the profit and loss generated by our collective decisions on Nov. 8.
     Please use and share the Living Voters Guide with your family, friends and neighbors across Washington.  Hang out at the website like you would a public park - a place where you can engage and explore the community around you.
     We hope it will inspire public trust in one another.  We offer it as our own election initiative to enable citizens' power and shared responsibility for making our democracy work.  If we are to reclaim a citizen-centered democracy, and to rebuild public trust and civil discourse, we're going to have to do it ourselves at the grass roots.

Lance Bennett is professor of political science and Ruddic C. Lawrence is professor of communication and director of the Center for Communication & Civic Engagement at the University of Washington; Alan Borning is professor of computer science and engineering at UW; and Diane Douglas is executive director of CityClub in Seattle.