Image by League of Women Voters of California LWVC licensed under Creative Commons.

With more than 400 candidates on the ballot this year, it's often hard for voters in DC to know where to find good information on their local Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) races. With the help of some amazing Greater Greater Washington volunteers, we've put together a tool to help you easily identify your candidates, and read about their views on everything from housing to bike lanes to local controversies.

Click here to access GGWash's ANC Voter Guide!

What is an ANC Commissioner, and why should I care?

Every two years, DC voters elect Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners in nonpartisan races on the November ballot. An ANC is a neighborhood council of unpaid, elected representatives who meet monthly and weigh in with the government about issues important to the community. They don't have any legislative power, but they wield a lot of influence on many issues, particularly transportation and development (and liquor licenses).

ANC races are woefully undercovered, and it's often hard to figure out what your local candidate thinks about neighborhood issues. More than 180 candidates for ANC seats in DC filled out Greater Greater Washington's canddiate questionnaire this year, explaining their views on everything from housing, to buses and bikes, to local neighborhood controversies. With our tool, you can search for your local candidates and read their responses side-by-side.

If GGWash's office chairs got a vote, here are their candidates!

Each ANC single member district is supposed to encompass about 2,000 voters. There are 40 commissions citywide, 296 districts, and this year more than 400 candidates on the ballot — some are unopposed, some districts have no candidates, and some have up to four (!) candidates.

Greater Greater Washington’s ANC endorsement process

In 2016 we endorsed more than 50 candidates, and 30 won their races. This year, our first step was hosting public forums for prospective ANC candidates to educate them on our issues and to provide them with information on how to run for office. More than 120 people attended!

Then this summer we crowdsourced a questionnaire for ANC candidates, asking readers to submit questions they hoped candidates would answer about hyper-local issues. We recently sent this questionnaire to all of the ANC candidates on the ballot and received over 180 responses.

Right now our volunteer team is evaluating the candidates in competitive races (about 100 races), and we will soon publish our endorsements and analysis (which will also appear in the tool when we are done!)

Take a moment to learn what your candidates have to say, and please share with friends and neighbors — November is less than two months away! See a technical error? Please email me at dwhitehead@ggwash.org, and I'll work to get it fixed!

Click here to access GGWash's ANC Voter Guide!

David Whitehead was the Housing Program Organizer at Greater Greater Washington from 2016 to 2019.  A former high school math teacher and a community organizer, David worked to broaden and deepen Greater Greater Washington’s efforts to make the region more livable and inclusive through education, advocacy, and organizing. He lives in Eckington.