For West Wing Fans and Michigan voters . . .
 

. . . this ad's for you.

Background on the ad here.

Fabulous video, but I get exasperated that politicians think I'm too stupid to read the ENTIRE ballot. Nor can I, though, imagine voting strictly a party instead of a candidate and issues.

I loved it. Then again, I loved the West Wing.

And I get that you might be exasperated that people think YOU are too stupid to read the entire ballot, but obviously there are lots of people that are- so they have to go after the lowest common denominator.

I undertstand the exasperation, but the reality is that there is significant dropoff for down-ballot, and especially non-partisan, items on the ballot, particularly when they're on the back side of the ballot. This is especially true in presidential election years -- so many people vote for president and then consider themselves done -- and it seems to be more pronounced in certain demographic groups, including younger voters.

Great ad :) Makes me miss The West Wing a lot. They are really concerned this year because we are not only going to have a back to the ballot but a two page ballot because of all the ballot proposals. It has the potential to be a cluster...

That said, I sometimes skip the non-partisan ballot because I haven't always been able to find information about those candidates or do research on them. If I haven't done research, I don't know who to vote for. Plain & simple. It isn't about not knowing it is there. It's about not knowing those candidates. Our non-partisan ballot also includes board of regents/directors for several of the state universities. I really have no opinion on those most of the time.

The other issue is that a lot of the time it says "Pick 3" and there are three choices. Why bother?