WaterlooRegionVotes.org is an online hub that puts together municipal election information to help local voters get informed.
Community group, Civic Tech Waterloo Region started the website four years ago when candidate information was not listed on municipal websites.
While that's no longer the case, voting municipally can often involve digging around online to see who stands for what issues.
"I actually think that not having political parties in municipal elections is a feature and not a bug," said Paul Nijjar, who helped create WaterlooRegionVotes.org.
"There's no question it's much more complicated to vote when candidates don't have official political parties, but I think it results in a much less polarized and a much more functional way of governing."
Visitors to the website will first be shown a map of Waterloo Region wards, then information on candidates and their positions.
This includes endorsements by local organizations, surveys on various issues, meeting recordings like debates, news items on candidates, and opinion pieces.
"Municipal websites are really reluctant to post things that might be opinionated. So if somebody has a hot take on the school board election trustees, they're going to be very reluctant to link to that, even there's fantastic Rogers TV debates that were posted up," Nijjar told the Mike Farwell Show on CityNews 570 on Wednesday.
He said municipalities don't want to appear biased.
Nijjar said the Civic Tech Waterloo Region team spends around a couple hours per day gathering information and monitoring social media for election-related posts.
While, he's not expecting it, Nijjar is hoping for increased voter turnout on October 24.
You can find the website here.
