Dear Editor
Now that we are in between election days, it’s time for Perry County voters to do their own vetting. Vetting is simply doing your own careful examination of the candidates that you will be voting for.
There’s a limitless way to do your own vetting, including getting to know your candidate personally, finding out what other ways they have already served your community, gathering truthful information from your friends, your family and your neighbors, go to public candidate forums, call the candidate up and talk to them privately, verify all statements good and bad that you may have heard about them, talk to the candidates friend, family and neighbors, find out who has given the candidate money, find out who the candidate has given money to, check out the Missouri Ethics Commission website, check out any public records about the candidate, and see what the candidate posts on line. There are other reliable ways to do your own vetting as well, like reading any articles about the candidates in this local newspaper. The biggest thing is not to be lazy!
If you use a vetting organization that promotes certain candidates, ask to see a list of questions that were asked of the candidates. Also, ask to read each answer that the candidate gave to the questions. If a vetting organization makes recommendations or gives approval to certain candidates but they don’t provide the list of questions that the candidates were asked, and if they don’t provide the candidates answers to those questions, the organization is subjectively biased and unreliable. In addition, don’t base your voting on the unlimited mailings filling up your mailbox; those are just as subjective and unproductive as using a biased vetting organization.
Doing your own vetting cuts through the political rhetoric, the lies, and the “group think” mentality so common with biased vetting organizations.
I have found that doing my own vetting makes me a better-informed voter, and also better able to pass my findings on to my own family and friends.
In approximately 82 days, if you do your own vetting and not just vote according to the “group think,” then you’ll walk into the voting booth with confidence, cast your votes, and walk out happy.
See you at the poll on November 5!
Sincerely,
Mark Renaud
Perryville, MO
