Cheat sheet: The down-ballot races

What is all this stuff at the bottom of your ballot?

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The election is upon us and you have some big questions facing you on your ballot. 

Sure, you know who you’re backing for governor.

You might even know who you like for your congressional or legislative district. Maybe you even know how you feel about all 10 statewide ballot propositions. 

But is your mayor up for re-election? Who are you voting for in your city council district? How about on the Central Arizona Project Water Conservation District Board? Your local community college board? Your school district governing board? And what do you think of all those judges?

Just opening the ballot up can be daunting — it looks like a two-sided standardized test. And you almost certainly don’t know the answers to most of the questions. 

That’s OK! Neither do we! 

We’ll walk you through what you need to know to background the down-ballot races. 

We’re not here to tell you how to vote, but to teach you how to find at least the bare minimum amount of information you need to not just guess. 

So, here’s our guide to voting on all those would-be politicians we’ve never heard of and those local issues we know nothing about. 

First off, where’s your ballot?

Counties began sending early ballots to mailboxes Wednesday, so if you usually vote by mail, you should get it soon. Some counties have started allowing voters to track their ballots online or sending text message status updates about your ballot. To sign up for texts in Maricopa County, click here. You can also track your ballot in other counties through the Secretary of State’s Office website.

Pima County Recorder's Office @PimaRecorder

Voting by mail in Pima County? Now you can now get text and/or email updates about your ballot. You’ll know when your ballot’s been mailed, verified, received and counted. Go to Recorder.Pima.gov/BallotInfo and sign up to receive automatic notifications about your ballot.

If you’re not on the Active Early Voting List¹, you can sign up or ask for a mail-in ballot on a per-election basis. Just contact your county recorder². If you plan to vote in-person on Election Day, most counties now use a vote center model that allows you to vote at any location, rather than only at your specific precinct. But if you live in counties with precincts, find your polling place ahead of time. It may have moved since the last election. 

You can also vote early in-person. Just check with your county recorder or elections department for hours and locations of on-site early voting. (And if you don’t want to mail in your ballot, you can also drop it off at any of these early voting sites or at drop boxes now rather than waiting until Election Day, which contributes to slow vote-counting.) 

If you vote in person, you need to bring an official state ID (or passport, tribal ID, etc.). And it must have your current address where you’re registered to vote. If the address on your ID doesn't match the address on your voter file, you’ll also need to bring something official that has your current address. Confused? Click here. 

Finally, you can still vote in-person even if you got a ballot in the mail. But if you plan to vote in person, it’s a good idea to know what’s on the ballot before you go vote. In Maricopa County, you can click here and punch in your name, address and drivers’ license number to see your own sample ballots, complete with your local races. In other jurisdictions, BeBallotReady seems to work. 

If you know a family member, friend, coworker, acquaintance or enemy who could use this information before filling out their ballot, share this newsletter with them using the button below.

Some tips for backgrounding a candidate apply to all levels of office. 

Your first step can often be a simple Google search of the candidate’s name or local proposition number. You’ll usually find a campaign website. For lower ticket races, they may not have websites — but they almost always have a campaign Facebook page, so you should search on that platform early. 

Local newspapers, should they still exist where you live, are great resources for local elections. You can search their websites, or amend a Google search to include the name of the publication and the race you want information on. Just make sure the news source is a reputable organization, and not one masquerading as such.

The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson’s daily paper, has a whole bunch of chats with people running for offices like school boards in its opinion section online.

Some local organizations, like chapters of the League of Women Voters or chambers of commerce, put on debates about candidates and issues. Check out their websites to find them.

To get really in the weeds, you can look at campaign finance reports to get a sense of who’s contributing to a candidate. At the federal level, you’d use the Federal Elections Commission website. For state and legislative candidates, it’s the secretary of state’s site.

For county and school races, counties keep the campaign finance reports, though they typically still have paper forms uploaded online. (Maricopa County houses its campaign finance reports for candidates here.) Cities keep their own campaign finance reports, and their websites are usually even worse. 

And it’s helpful to read candidates’ financial disclosure statements. For statewide and judicial candidates, check here. Your county and city will keep the files on the local candidates. 

If you trust a particular organization, like a nonprofit or civic group, it’s possible they created a voter guide. LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Arizona’s guide includes helpful explanations of what each position does. The Center for Arizona Policy, a right-wing social issues group, has extensive surveys up and down the ballot with candidates, though Democrats rarely respond. Environmentalist group Sierra Club runs down candidates’ positions on water, energy and conservation. Civic Engagement Beyond Voting provides ballot guides, including on judicial retention elections and voting records.

You can use voter guides to inform who you do and don’t want to vote for. It’s often helpful to look at a mix of organizations to get a broader feel for how candidates stand on issues that matter to you.

While the above information applies across the board, we also want to direct you to some specific places to find out more about down-ballot races. 

Some races, like fire districts or specialty education districts, are especially hard to background, and we would basically direct you to try any of the tools we listed above to search for more information on candidates. And many of these races aren’t contested or competitive in the general election anyway.

Countywide office

Four-year county offices like county supervisors, recorders and attorneys aren’t up for election this year, as they fall in the presidential election cycle. 

But there are a few special elections, the most high profile of which is Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell’s election bid to keep the office she was appointed to following the death of attorney Allister Adel. She’s running against Democrat Julie Gunnigle. The two squared off on an Arizona PBS/Clean Elections debate last month that provides a good overview of who they are and what they want. If you’re more of a text person, here’s a primer on their positions from the Republic.

Constable

You also, for some reason, elect a constable in your local district, whose chief duty is serving legal papers, mostly notices of evictions and orders of protection. But most of those races were decided in the primary election. The job has taken on heightened importance since the pandemic, and the recent murder of a Pima County Constable serving an eviction put a spotlight on the obscure office.

The Arizona Constable Ethics, Standards and Training Board has more information and any complaints against constables, which you can kind of look up through its meeting agendas. 

There’s something of an ideological battle within the constable ranks over whether the job is closer to law enforcement or social work, so you may want to look up individual candidates outside of performance reports to see if they fall on the same side of that divide as you.

Justices of the Peace

Constables work closely with justices of the peace, who you also elect. (Though, again, most races were decided in the primary.) They don’t have to be lawyers, but we elect them to be judges for certain civil and misdemeanor cases. They’re often retired politicians padding their pensions with the six-figure gig. 

The Commission on Judicial Conduct collects and routinely dismisses complaints against JPs, but it keeps the complaints on its website.

City councils and mayors

City council elections are all over the map. Some coincide with the primary, then have a runoff for the general election. Some have a primary in November, then hold a runoff if necessary in the spring. Some happen during off years. Some cities are electing mayors this year, some aren’t. 

The Republic has a helpful rundown of the major city races in Phoenix, Peoria, Gilbert, Scottsdale, Mesa, Flagstaff and Sedona, but also check your hometown papers for more detailed coverage of local issues. 

Judicial retention

Judges for superior courts in Coconino, Maricopa, Pima and Pinal counties, appellate courts and the Arizona Supreme Court aren’t directly elected by voters, but voters get to vote for or against retaining the appointed judges on a rotating basis. 

The Arizona Commission on Judicial Performance Review provides performance reports for judges, basically saying whether or not they meet judicial standards based on survey results filled out by people who interact with the judge, like attorneys, litigants and jurors. It’s rare for the commission’s survey to result in a “does not meet” finding, and it’s even more rare for a judge to be booted in a retention election.

School district boards

Your local school board sets the budget and policies of your local school district, formerly a relatively low-key elected job that has more recently become a primary target for political parties looking for a new front in the culture war. 

The county school superintendent office will have information on all the school board candidates in your area — and the Republic has some helpful Q&As with school board candidates in Phoenix and the east and west sides of the Valley. Check your local paper for more detailed coverage in your area.

Save Our Schools also keeps an endorsement list on its website that can help you decide if a candidate deserves your backing, as does its partisan opposite: Purple for Parents. 

But usually the most useful resource for school board races is the local school booster club, which often sends Q&As to the candidates or hosts debates. To find your local booster club, you're just gonna have to Google around or check for local Facebook groups. 

Bonds and overrides

Your local school district may also be going up for a new bond or override this year. Here’s a helpful list of all the districts seeking a bond or override.

Each district has different needs, and the plans are tailored to fit those needs. But it’s helpful to understand a little about what bonds and overrides are when considering your local district’s questions. And if you want to know more about how your local school district spends its money before deciding whether to give it more, check the Arizona Auditor General’s one-pager on each school district’s spending. They’re always a few years old, but they’re surprisingly simple to understand.  

Community college boards

Your local community college district may also have board elections up this year. These boards oversee policies, budgets and tuition prices for community colleges. 

The seven-member Maricopa County Community College District’s Governing Board has one contested election this November (two other seats weren’t contested). The board member’s terms last four years, on staggered schedules. Democratic State Rep. Kelli Butler is facing Randy Kaufman, a former corrections employee, for the contested at-large seat. The Republic has interviews with Butler and Kaufman about their visions for the job.

Pima Community College’s Governing Board has two open, contested seats on its five-member board. Winners serve six-year terms. The Arizona Daily Star interviewed the four candidates running for the two open district seats this year. 

Water districts

The Central Arizona Water Conservation Board elections for five seats are on this year’s ballot in Maricopa County. The elected board oversees the Central Arizona Project, the canal system that brings water to us. It’s a 15-member board with representatives from Maricopa, Pima and Pinal counties, with six-year, rotating terms. 

Obviously, in the midst of a decades-long drought and water cuts, water management and conservation is important. But the race isn’t typically high profile, though you may have seen signs for some candidates throughout the Valley. It is contested, with 14 people vying for those five seats. 

The Arizona Municipal Water Users Association put together this guide, complete with interviews with candidates who responded, about this year’s race for CAWCD. Clean Elections also has candidate info. The Republic’s editorial board also wrote about the race, including the candidates and their affiliations with political parties, developers or water providers.

1. R.I.P. PEVL, which was so well-known in political circles we could just use the acronym.

2. We deal with a lot of terrible bureaucrats in this business, but we can confidently say that recorders’ offices are almost uniformly full of the most helpful and responsive folks in government. Just give them a call.