The Lefty Cheat Sheet at leftycheatsheet.org has arrived as a practical civic utility built to solve one of Seattle’s biggest voter headaches:
filling the void from uncertainty about the new directions at The Strangercramming at the last minute to fill out your ballot- untangling the region’s dozens of fractured endorsements
Instead of acting like an editorial board that hands down a candidate slate and binary yes-or-no verdicts on ballot measures, the volunteer-run platform functions as an aggregator. Voters can review tracked endorsements across dozens of labor, housing, environmental, and transit advocacy groups, customizing weights and filters to match the specific causes they trust most.
Share The Cities, the group that developed the Lefty Cheat Sheet, describes itself as an all-volunteer Seattle grassroots collective focused on land use, transit, and housing justice and backed by modest community micro-donations. The nonprofit is led by educator and organizer Laura Loe and Kate Rubin, also the co-executive director at Be:Seattle, according to the city.
Naturally, launching an election resource in Seattle’s hyper-charged and robust political left ecosystem brought immediate friction. An independent PAC was blamed for weaponizing the guide in mass campaign texts while taking shots at The Stranger’s ownership changes, forcing the Lefty Cheat Sheet’s volunteer creators to publicly declare their independence. Around the same time, rival political consultants reportedly purchased the .com version of the address to possibly reroute web traffic toward a competing voter guide. Digital arguments quickly flared over who was genuine and who was attempting to manipulate voters.
Even with the crossfire, the tool’s underlying premise seems like it could hold. Rather than relying on top-down decrees from legacy institutions or wading through endless social media spats, Seattle voters might have gained an adaptable way to more carefully decide their ballots.
You can find the cheat sheet at leftycheatsheet.org.
CHS reported here on the major issues Capitol Hill and Central District voters will decide on in November. You can find all CHS Election coverage at capitolhillseattle.com/tag/elections/
The General Election is Tuesday, November 3rd.
Subscribe to CHS to help hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month — or choose your level of support