I voted early yesterday.

Days before, I went to my county auditor's web page and downloaded a sample ballot. That way I could see who is running besides the well-known candidates. I knew I would vote straight-ticket for every candidate who identified as Republican. But the candidates who don't get any press or online attention don't have party affiliation listed.

These are candidates for local races, agriculture and conservation roles, and most importantly judges.

And most of them have THE MOST generic names like Michael Harris, or Angie Johnston. How are we supposed to know who they are from all the other social media profiles with those names?

So I pasted them into Grok, and asked to find their social media profiles and party affiliations.

Grok said they had no X accounts, and likely didn't have activity on other platforms. Grok did determine that one judge candidate is independent, but donates to Republicans, so he's my guy.

But isn't that troubling? Before artificial intelligence (or should I say super intelligence), it would have been too hard to investigate these candidates in the ocean of obscurity. In the past, that's how state and local corruption grew while our attention was on national races.

But it's a new day.

Ain't life grand?