Our 2018 ballots will be among the longest we’ve seen in a very long time. In August, there will be nonpartisan school board elections and local referenda, and political parties will choose their candidates for federal, state and county offices. In November, there will be the general elections for those and other offices as well as thirteen proposed constitutional amendments and a local sales tax referendum. Fortunately, there will be opportunities for us to become informed, meet the candidates, and hear the pros and cons of proposed amendments and referenda before we vote.

But I haven’t found any one place where those opportunities are/will be posted.

So I created an event calendar at www.sparkers-soapbox.com/dates-events.

The calendar has three types of listings:

• dates and deadlines related to the primary and general elections themselves (in green),
• dates and details of candidate forums and information sessions (in blue), and
• dates and details of “Vote Smart!” talks and classes I’ll be giving in the coming months (in red).

For each calendar listing, you can click the name of the event for more details.

You can also view the calendar as a list:

As of today, the calendar lists ten forums and information sessions including:

• County commissioner and school board candidate forums
• a forum on the sales tax referendum
• Town Hall information sessions re: North Collier Fire Control & Rescue District non-ad valorem assessment referendum

I’ll be adding events as I become aware of them, and if you learn of one that should be listed, please let me know. I hope you find it helpful. And if you do, please share!