Do you feel it's effective to assess candidates with focused research a week or so before voting? Or do you think it's necessary to always stay up to date on the news to be a good participant in democracy?
Depends on the person, I suppose. Most people go into voting booths fairly poorly-informed, so really any research you do is great.
I don't think normal humans will do homework before voting, since normal American humans vote pretty infrequently to begin with. But I think doing such homework can be a great alternative to staying engaged with the news consistently - I do it (sometimes/reasonably often but certainly not always) when voting for judges, or offices that never come up in the news I read.
The problem with that approach, beyond remembering to do your homework, is that it can be kinda hard to catch up on everything. Like, let's say there's something your mayor does that you hate, or would hate if you knew about it - are you sure that's gonna come up during your research? If it's a big deal it might.
