Here is the current list of individual attributes. I’ve expanded it and changed the language used to define attributes a bit. I’ve been thinking about attributes in terms of individual “willingness” to do something (i.e., a person can exercise discretion to do it or not) versus “ability” to do something (i.e., a person lacks the capacity to do it). Both important, but applied differently depending on the attribute. For example, with an attribute like “Communication Skills”, it seems fair to assess the individual’s “willingness” to communicate and their “ability” to communicate, but with an attribute like “Fair Play”, it’s more a matter of an individual’s “willingness” to engage in fair play since, presumably, “ability” is not a factor. And with something like “Management Skills”, presumably, all individual’s have a “willingness” to be good managers, but some may lack the capacity or “ability” to be a good manager.
There are 18 attributes covering a fairly wide range of topics that should be of interest to many if not most voters. I have no plan to use all of these attributes. That would be way too much to ask given that incentives to put forth effort are in short supply. I’m thinking probably around 5 in most cases. One exception might be for rating the performance of currently elected officials. I’m going to toy around a bit with that here where I live (Mount Vernon, NY). When it comes to rating currently elected officials, the attributes selected will be determined by the position. For example, the attributes selected for rating the performance of a city council member will be different from the attributes selected for rating the performance of the comptroller, will be different from the attributes selected for rating the performance of the mayor. The mayor has the broadest scope of responsibility and, therefore, it seems appropriate to use a relatively large pool of attributes for assessing the mayor’s performance.
I should have things programmed shortly (leaving “shortly” undefined), so community members can assess currently elected Mount Vernon officials. I’ll also set up to track the NY Governors race (between Hochul and Zeldin), a couple of local state races, and I’m thinking a couple of Pennsylvania races (e.g., Fetterman vs Oz for Senate).
The revisions I undertook this summer are pretty much done, so when these new races are programmed (soon), anyone who visits the site will have the ability to see how an individual is rated across all attributes selected, not just the summary scores, which is how it was set up earlier in the spring. I’m hoping that might entice some visitors to take the step of rating some officials/candidates. I’m trying to get the system in shape for our local mayoral and city council elections in 2023.
Feedback is always appreciated!
Attribute List September 2022