Know Your Vote-Washington Parish

05/22/2026

05/14/2026

Know Your Vote-...(Ben Stewart), created this page to be able to follow candidates and public officials and share information both from them and to them,.. and among ourselves, the voters of Washington Parish.

Not many people in our area post stuff that we can reasonably use to make our votes as informed as is practical.

In speaking person-to-person with some candidates (and some everyday voters), several people have commented to me that by posting their views.. they open themselves to misinterpretation, misrepresentation, and unfounded accusations and innuendo.

If the "good guys" (who vocalize support for good governing) allow the "bad guys" (who vocalize innuendo, slander, casting aspersions against those with opposing views) hold back about posting or commenting, then we effectively enable only the overheating one-point-of-viewers to present ideas to the voters who follow our group posts.

If you believe the Face Book metrics, there are over a hundred of us in the group with about 95 people following the Page and reading posts in the Washington Parish Community Voters group. They also say that we have about 500 views each month (some from outside our membership).

Our group, whether considered large or small in viewership) is not intended to "win" political debates.. but is rather intended to enable some bit of sharing on a very "grass roots" community level. Bad guys(in politics for self interests) have views as well as the "good guys" (promoting governing to "restrain evil" as is mentioned in biblical writings). We each have to use our own "discernment" to choose the good ideas over the bad when we vote.

Good ideas are not limited by party, ethnic background, s*x, religion, or social/economic standing.

If you are able to articulate your personal reasoning to support a candidate or issue, please consider posting somewhere, even if not in this specific group.

Ben Stewart

05/09/2026

A few years ago one of the cities up north took away people's residential property to create a more expensive property use to bring in more property tax revenue. This was found to be an improper use of the eminent domain principal.

I personally believe that the carbon capture issue is a similarly inappropriate use of eminent domain.

For example, if an enemy was attacking a town and a single property owner "refuses" to give permission for his property to be used as a staging ground to repel the attack, then the eminent domain principal is reasonable(my opinion).

The current carbon capture issue is economic and political and personal property should be protected (my opinion).

All other things being equal, I will lean toward voting for candidates who support property ownership rather than those who support governmental force to secure an individual's property.

Ben Stewart

05/09/2026

Early voting ends today.This is your last chance to cast an early vote in the May 16 election. Polls are open from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.. Check out your sample ballot, or find your early voting location at GeauxVote.com.

05/09/2026

The next Washington Parish School Board meeting will be Thursday, May 14th, at 6:00pm. You can attend this meeting in person or via youtube by visiting youtube.com/-live.

💻 wpsb.org
📲 985.839.3436

04/27/2026

Anyone interested in becoming a volunteer for Washington Parish Fire District 5 please contact Blake Duncan, Chief of Administration (985) 205-0126 for more information.

04/25/2026

I believe that we sometimes choose one thing to focus on. I also believe that people are made up of differing characteristics that "blend" to create individual abilities at certain jobs.

Integrity is high on my list of traits that I look at in voting. But knowledge (the common sense kind) is also high.

Ben

04/01/2026

A few years ago we had a big controversy over whether the Democrats "rigged the election". Today we have a controversy over whether the Republicans will try to rig next election.

I believe that no one should rig any election...

One person one vote.

One local citizen.. one local vote.

No electronic intermediary.

No bribing or vote buying.

No forgery or duplicate votes.

No stealing or falsifying ballots.

No lost, misplaced, or hidden ballots.

Full witnessing of ballots and procedures.

Full review of anything other than in-person and day-of voting. (ie., I would expect mail in ballots and early ballots to be somewhat in line with the day-of percentages. I would not expect all mail in votes to be for one single candidate or single issue. eg., if 60% of the day-of of vote goes to candidate A, then I would question if 99 percent of early votes or mail in votes went to the opponent.

Compare the current total vote count with the total vote count from previous elections. If there is a significant spike (up or down) then question it. Unless there is some very, very significant issue, it is generally the same people who vote in each election(check political science findings and historical voting averages).

The ballot should be timely, verifiable, secure, believable, and trustworthy.

Any delay or "glitch" in a voting district with significant change in historical outcome should be questioned and verified.. even states with paper ballots can use electronic tools to upload individual ballots for electronic statistical validation if questioned.

In Louisiana voter records are public records that can be purchased from the state for about a penny per name. Either big party can run their own analysis. If neither big party has the electronic savvy to do the analysis in-house, then I will personally volunteer to show any trusted member of both parties how to set up the electronic query and comparison. There are hundreds of independent programmers who can write a query to do the comparison.

We do not want political party politics to put our voting outcomes in question. We can have our own checks and balances in place in advance without having to depend on a single source count that some people will question.

We voters have the tools and resources to do a reasonable analysis without having to question our voting system, question the integrity of our officials and their account methods, or to depend on counts from possibly biased third parties.

Ben

03/31/2026

Pros and cons of a brake tag sticker:

It may help identify some vehicle hazards for careless/forgetful drivers before an accident occured or before getting a ticket for no tail lights, brake lights, headlights or wipers.

If everybody checked their own brakes, lights, horn, and wipers there would be no need for the law.

We should let our congressmen know how we wish them to vote on removing the La brake tag law.

03/08/2026

We need to not only know what to vote on and when the vote is coming up, but "why" the issue or candidate's office is important to us.

In my opinion, the most important human reason for any government issue is to protect the innocent (and sometimes weaker) citizens from sometimes stronger "bad guys".

The human term "Bad" in my own definition is an action taken that helps self at the expense of another person or group.(Only God is "good" according to biblical writings ).

There are a dozen or so governing principles that I believe are inalienable(universally accepted as true). All of the hundreds(thousands) of issues can pretty reasonably be compared to these as a standard.

I personally believe that the human mind is capable of "rationalizing" any human made law to fit self over others - even the best worded of our existing laws. Because of this, I believe all laws, ordinances, guidelines, policy statements must be reviewed periodically to see if any bad guys are using even well-intentioned laws for bad purposes.

Ben