Posted on October 31, 2018
By Caitlan Butler
Staff Writer
Local man Keith Alexis has built a website for El Dorado and Union County residents to get to know their local candidates for government office.
The website, voteeldorado.com, includes information on current El Dorado and Union County officials, polling places and candidates and issues that will appear on Tuesday’s ballots.
“Every time I’d go to the polls, I’d see all these names on there that I didn’t know who they were,” Alexis said.
Alexis said he had the idea several years ago, but this was the first year he’d been able to turn the plans into reality. He is the owner of Astonished Man Designs, a web development and design (as well as logo making and print design) company.
Alexis said he funded the website’s creation and maintenance himself as a way to bring “greater awareness for the community for their knowledge of the candidates.” He does not endorse any candidates on the site, saying that helping voters get informed is what is important to him.
“I wanted to keep it as neutral as possible so it wouldn’t look like the site was trying to promote one candidate over another,” Alexis said. “I strictly wanted it to be for informational purposes.”
In creating the candidate profiles featured on the webpage, Alexis said he reached out to each candidate within El Dorado or Union County who will be on the general election ballot next week. He said about half have replied so far. Candidates were asked to submit biographies and talk about the platform they are running on.
“What do they want to do for the city, the county, the constituents,” Alexis explained.
He said he also reached out to local Democratic and Republican party chairs, who reported that they would also reach out to their candidates. Candidates have the ability to alter their own profiles, Alexis said.
“If you go on the site, you’ll see some [candidates] that the information’s not complete on, and that’s just because I haven’t been able to get replies from them with the contact information that I have,” he said. “I sent them each a link that they can go and update their own profile and that way it’s not going through me.”
Originally from Louisiana, Alexis moved to El Dorado in 1988. Alexis said in future elections, he may try to sell advertisements in order to help keep the website online longer. He has made plenty of websites before, he said, including political websites, but never one specifically for local elections.
Caitlan Butler can be reached at 870-862-6611 or cbutler@ eldoradonews.com .