Well my approach is:

• Mark off every candidate who did not bother to provide a statement
• Mark off every candidate with no listed volunteering experience in the little section for it
• Mark off every candidate whose statement claims they can do things their office is not able to actually do
• Mark off every candidate with a platform that doesn’t claim to be aiming for any kind of change or improvement in particular. (I don’t support chair warmers.)
• Mark off every candidate whose email is a personal one listed as @yahoo.com or something else similarly unprofessional
• Mark off any candidate supporting the party that supported a coup attempt on 2021

After this quick pass, which only takes a couple of minutes, I’m typically only left with two or three offices with more than one remaining choice to compare. I then read their platform and pick the candidate with the platform goal that seems most relevant to my or my community’s interest.