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I rated candidate responses to questions asked at a League of Women Voters Candidate Forum held July 27, 2022. I transcribed the answers by listening and using the closed caption feature on the video. Then, I rated the quality of candidate responses using a 5 point system: 1 = least favorable 5= most favorable. I […]

The ratings speak for themselves so just a couple comments. Financial knowledge is key. I can’t emphasize this enough. My top ranked candidates are the ones who I think have the firmest understanding of school finance. Absent evidence of wrongdoing, motivated incumbents have an advantage. Therefore, in order for newcomers to unseat incumbents, they have

Feedback Overall, the feedback has been very encouraging. There were some technical glitches around registering and login (always a turnoff), but other than that this preliminary round of feedback is going well. Some people were thoroughly confused at first about what I was up to, but then there was kind of an “okay, I see”

Extreme partisanship, gerrymandered voting districts, and politicians who treat elected office more as a platform for personal wealth and power than a civic responsibility. The evidence is clear: our system is in trouble and it needs help. The prescription? Inject democracy with clearheaded, critically thinking voters. Our Goals Prime voters to think critically about candidates

For first time users, this approach might help. 1. The first time you login to rate candidates, the goal is to familiarize yourself with candidate names, attribute definitions, and the process of rating candidates according to those attributes.  What you’re doing is akin to what psychologists call “Priming“. You’re setting the stage for your brain

Primary elections determine who will represent a political party in a general election. The primary process operates like a general election with the exception that in some states, some political parties have “closed” primaries, which means only registered members of that party can vote in their primary. In New York, for example, only registered Democrats

I’m a trained behavior analyst and I work in education. I’m on Linkedin but I don’t know why since I’m terrible at networking. I am a registered democrat but as I describe in this post, that’s because in the city where I live, the Democratic primaries determine elections. I dislike this situation but unfortunately I