Overview and Research This guide is ordered from most general to most specific. I’ll start with Federal and work my way down to County so you can stop reading once it’s no longer relevant to you. For those who have read my summaries before and were expecting California, I’m now living in Washington State. Yes, I’ve read most of the details of the propositions and would recommend that you do too as the summaries often hide the important aspects of any given proposition.

US Voters: This year, in King County WA, I have 36 choices to make an educated choice on. Most of you will have similarly broad choices to make, from endless propositions to various seats of government. I typically spend in the order of 40 hours working out how I’m going to vote on my ballot. That’s not to say that you have to spend that much time, but that it does take time and it’s time worth investing.

In many states you can vote early in person. Given Trumps efforts to undermine the postal service, if this is available in your area it may be worth considering (and is generally a great option to avoid long lines). The US Vote Foundation has an excellent chart of all the methods and options available. vote.org also has great information and tools, including election reminders. Here’s a breakdown of when voting starts, with links giving details.

The US Military has some quite excellent, and approachable, guides to improving your safety online. These are all accumulated on their fact sheets page. In particular, the Identity Awareness, Protection, and Management Guide is very friendly for the non-technical. It’s a goldmine of handy visual references on how to configure everything from social media to WiFi networks and dating websites. I highly recommend going through and taking their advice as far as locking down the social networks you use and locking down privacy settings on your phones.