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Trying to sort out your thinking about what’s on the ballot this year? Why not make a party of it, a Voting Study Party? Here’s an introduction to the idea from the good folks at Voting Study Party, a small group of friends who decided to pull together some DIY guidance to help others organize their own collaborative discussions about what the ballot items mean for them:

Politics are complex, and it’s easy to get lost in the confusion of organizations swaying you to feel a certain way with loaded language and partisan fighting. Voting Study Party (VSP) has created templates and worksheets to help voters analyze the policies and candidates on our ballots–especially the local ones that haven’t been publicized as much–to allow voters to feel confident about what they’re voting for and why they’re voting for it. The templates are shareable so that you can send your notes onto your friends and neighbors who may not have dedicated as much time to analyzing these issues as in-depth as you have and want a quick summary before making an uninformed (or informed-only-by-propaganda) choice.

Best of all, we’ve created a hosting guide that walks you through some good practices to follow if you want to do your research in groups! Studying is always more fun together, and adding pie and beverages (of your choosing) to that gathering makes the work more expedient and also a blast.

All of VSP’s materials are free to use and share. If you do end up using our materials–or hosting your own study party!–we’d love it if you filled out our survey.