About Decatur Vote

Decatur Vote is a locally-minded news organization, focused on elections, government, local issues, civic and charitable organizations, and local leaders. We do investigative journalism, organize and catalogue local information, encourage local civic engagement, and hold leaders accountable.

Vision

Voters choose leaders based on policy stances and trustworthiness. Leaders decide policy based upon credible information, feedback from residents, and in the interest of the public good. Residents are well-informed about their local government bodies, local charitable and civic organizations, local leaders, and problems facing their community. Well-informed residents are engaged in shaping the future of their communities.

Mission

We strive to collect, share, and organize information about local government, local leaders, local organizations, and local issues. We will create and freely share software that furthers these goals. We will create a reproducible model for local government & local issues journalism that can be followed in other communities. We will build partnerships and foster development of similar programs in other communities, providing guidance, connections, and free software.

Goals, as of April 7th, 2023

• Catalogue all local government offices, their leaders, contact information, and details necessary for civic engagement.
• Catalogue all local civic and charitable groups, their leaders, contact information, and details necessary for meaningful volunteerism and civic engagement.
• Investigate and report local issues to find and assess significance, root causes, effective solutions, and ongoing efforts to address them. These issues may include poverty, violent crime, drug addiction and deaths, official misconduct, police misconduct, human rights violations, mistreatment in the workplace, discrimination, and more. (We are not making any allegations of misconduct, merely stating that we wish to investigate misconduct IF it is happening.)
• Investigate and report on local services and infrustructure, identifying their intended purposes, costs, success rate, how they can be protected or improved, and who financially benefits from such services.

Goals for November 2024 Election

• Catalogue all elections relevant to Decatur voters.
• Catalogue and detail all candidates for local offices, relevant to Decatur voters.
• Build comprehensive profiles on candidates for local Decatur offices, which include policy stances; financial, personal, and professional affiliations; and goals for their time in office.

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