“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union…”
I love the voters’ pamphlet.
Washington State puts the whole ballot in one place, in plain print, and mails it to your house: here is what is being asked, here is the official summary, here is who argues for it and who argues against. It is not perfect. The arguments are written by advocates, so they persuade more than they explain. The fiscal notes are dense. And almost nothing in it answers the question I actually have, which is what does this mean for someone like me?
But I would rather have an imperfect pamphlet than none. It gives you a place to start, and starting is most of the battle. Used well, it is a way to organize your thoughts before you cast a vote — which is exactly what a vote deserves.
Why civics, and why “more perfect”
The Preamble does not promise a perfect union. It promises a more perfect one. That one comparative is the whole idea: the work is unfinished, and it is ours to do together.
That is what civics is to me. Not a unit you sat through in school, but the ordinary, repeated work of living in a community — understanding how decisions get made, paying what we owe, showing up to weigh in, and figuring out what we owe each other. Taxes are part of it. So is a ballot measure about housing. So is a neighbor who reads the pamphlet and tells you what they found.
What I’m building
CivicGuide is a small, nonpartisan companion to the pamphlet. It starts with Seattle, King County and Washington, and it does two things:
- Shows where your taxes go. Enter roughly what you earn, and you can tap through federal, state, county and city to see what each dollar funds — with the arithmetic shown, so you can check it.
- Shows what a measure costs over time. Simple charts for a levy or bill, personalized to a household like yours, with the arguments for and against side by side.
One rule shaped everything else: you should not have to hand over your life to understand your ballot. Your income, family and home are turned into ranges in your browser and stay there. No account, no exact numbers, no address. When you share a finding, it is about a group — “a homeowner family earning $50–100k” — never about you.
Where it is
It is in beta. The measures on a Seattle ballot this November come from the official voters’ pamphlet and Seattle’s own fiscal numbers, and the tax math uses the published 2026 rates, with every source and assumption listed on the page. Some pieces are still being checked, and it says so where that is true. I am sharing it now because the fastest way to make something like this trustworthy is to let people poke at it and tell me what is wrong. If you try it, there is a Feedback button on every screen.
You can find it at civicguide.jasonburt.page.
If it helps even one person walk into their ballot a little less overwhelmed, that is a small, real piece of the more perfect union.