 The League of Women Voters of Arlington has explained how it chose questions it asked of state-representative hopefuls on candidates' night. In a statement sent to YourArlington on Feb. 3, LWV representative Clare Gordon said the nonpartisan group changed how questions from the audience were presented -- from permitting people to ask spoken queries to having the public write questions on cards. League representatives then chose which questions the candidates would answer
Jan. 27: Candidates' night summary
The five candidates responded to eight questions, one direrectly from the LWV and seven from the audience.
The LWV statement says, in full:
"Many thanks to all who participated in the Candidates Night on January 24th. The full house demonstrated the importance of state issues to the voters. Unlike the national and state-wide contests, there are few sources of information about those who want to represent us in the statehouse. This was a natural opportunity for voter service by the League of Women Voters of Arlington and we are glad so many took this opportunity to hear and question all the candidates together.
"We changed our previous format for audience questions on January 24 and asked people to submit written questions on cards instead of going to a microphone and asking in person. More than fifty questions were received and most were very well-formulated and to the point. We found several advantages to this method and believe we had more audience participation than we had using the microphone.
"With cards, a selection committee was able to group questions by topic and be sure to ask those questions that were of interest to many people and to select the most concise question of several on the same topic. Questions already asked in the Voters Guide were not repeated. The committee shortened some questions, usually by eliminating introductory comments that would have taken up extra time at the microphone.
"They gave priority to issues that a state legislator has power over. And they directed questions to all the candidates that writers addressed to only one. Except for the first question, which had been written by League Board members, all other questions asked by the moderator were taken directly from cards submitted the evening of January 24.
"Several more topics were covered than at past candidate forums, particularly compared to questions from audience members at the previous State Senate Candidates Night with the same number of candidates. It is true that many good questions were left over due to time constraints, just as questioners would be left standing at the microphone in the past.
"We hope that people will use other avenues to have important issues addressed and that candidates will continue to make themselves available to answer the voters’ questions.
"Since this method seemed to work reasonably well, we are likely to continue it at our next Candidates Night before the Town Election. You will help to make it an informative evening by being prepared to write a concise question that pertains to a specific office.
"League of Women Voters of Arlington Board."
The statement was addressed as a letter to Nicole Laskowski, editor of The Advocate, but the league agreed to provide a copy to YourArlington.
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