Questions to Ask Election Candidates
Questions for voters at a candidate forum, a doorstep visit, or a town hall, covering priorities, the real powers of the office, budgets, donors, record, accountability, and what a candidate is prepared to be held to.
20 questions, each with the reason to ask it · includes a conversation guide
The questions
Open any question to see why it works.
- 1
What are the first three things you would try to do if you win?
A limit of three forces a ranking. Candidates who cannot cut their platform down are running on mood rather than a plan, and the three they name are the ones you can check against the record later.
- 2
Which of those can you actually do from this office?
A great deal of campaign material describes powers belonging to a different level of government. Asking a school board candidate about zoning, or a mayoral candidate about immigration law, shows quickly who has read the job description.
- 3
What is the budget of this office, and what line would you change?
Someone who cannot approximate the budget has not done the reading. Watch for a candidate promising new services and lower taxes in the same breath without naming a single thing they would cut.
- 4
How would you pay for that?
This is the follow up to any spending promise, and it should be asked every time. A real answer names a revenue source or a trade off. Eliminating waste and fraud, with no line item attached, is not an answer.
- 5
Who is funding your campaign, and what is your largest single source?
Ask for categories and names rather than gratitude for grassroots support. Then ask the sharper version: does any donor have business before this office, such as a contract, a permit, or a rezoning.
- 6
What have you actually done on this issue before, in office or out of it?
Intentions are free. A record, even a small local one, shows what someone does when the work is unglamorous and nobody is filming. If the answer is only about attending events and rallies, note that.
- 7
Where do you disagree with your own party?
Every candidate claims independence. The test is whether they can name one specific disagreement that has cost them something, rather than a stylistic difference or a safely unpopular position nobody defends anyway.
- 8
Name a decision or a vote you got wrong.
This measures capacity for revision, which is what separates people who govern from people who campaign. A regret about not being bolder is a dodge dressed as humility, so press for something with a date attached.
- 9
On the issue that brought me here, what exactly is your position?
Insist on a single declarative sentence. Sympathy for your concern is not a position, and candidates are trained to convert one into the other. If the answer wanders, ask whether it has changed since the primary.
- 10
Who advises you, and who would you appoint?
In any executive office most decisions are made by staff nobody votes on. Ask for names, or failing that the kind of background they would hire, and whether anyone from the current administration would stay on.
- 11
How will constituents reach you after the election?
Ask for the mechanism and the frequency: office hours, town halls, a phone line answered by a person. The strongest answer describes something they already do rather than something they intend to start in January.
- 12
What in this district is working, that you would leave alone?
Challengers are trained to describe decline and incumbents to describe progress. This question interrupts both scripts and shows whether the candidate knows the place or has only been briefed on it.
- 13
What would tell you your own policy was failing?
A candidate willing to name a measure and a timeline is handing you the tool to hold them to it. One who says they will know it when they see it has left themselves nothing to ever be wrong about.
- 14
Who else would you need to work with to get this done?
Almost nothing at local level passes alone. Ask which council members, which committee, which county or state officials, and whether they already have a working relationship with any of them, or a feud.
- 15
What parts of this job are unglamorous, and are you ready for them?
Procurement, zoning appeals, casework, bond schedules, and very long meetings are most of the actual role. The answer shows whether the candidate wants the job or the title, and whether anyone has explained the difference.
- 16
What would you say to a voter who disagrees with you on this?
The office represents everyone, including the people who vote against them. Listen for whether the answer engages the disagreement or characterises the people who hold it as confused or acting in bad faith.
- 17
If a major donor asked you for something you thought was wrong, what would happen?
A candidate who says donors never ask for anything is either new or not being straight with you. A useful answer describes a specific process for saying no, or an occasion when they already have.
- 18
Have you ever been sued, fined, sanctioned, or investigated?
Asking directly beats finding out from an opponent's mailer in October. What surfaces matters less than how they handle the question, and whether their account matches the public record when you check it.
- 19
What are you willing to lose this election over?
This locates the floor beneath the positions. Someone with no answer is telling you the platform is adjustable, which is worth knowing before you decide what your vote is actually buying.
- 20
In your own words, what should we hold you to?
Ask it last, write the answer down, and date it. It gives you a commitment in their phrasing rather than yours, which is much harder to disown at the next election.
Getting a real answer from a candidate
Practical guidance for the conversation itself.
At a forum, a doorstep, or a town hall
At a forum, a doorstep, or a town hall
One question, no preamble
Long framing gives the candidate material to respond to instead of the question. Ask the shortest version, then stop talking. Silence after a question is the most useful thing a voter can do in a room.
Keep the follow up ready
The first answer is usually stump material. The second answer, prompted by a plain how or when, is where the real position lives. Decide your follow up before you raise your hand.
Ask about the office, not only the issue
Issue questions get you the platform, which you can already read. Questions about budgets, powers, staff, and process get you information that is not printed anywhere.
Ask the staff too
Campaign staff and volunteers are less rehearsed and often more specific about priorities. They also show you how the campaign is run, which is the closest available preview of how the office would be run.
Reading the answers
Reading the answers
- A restated question is a stall. If they open by telling you what a great question it is, what follows is usually prepared.
- Watch for a pivot from the specific to the values. Nobody pivots away from a number they are happy with.
- Note whether the answer is in the first person or the plural. We will look at it often means someone else will.
- Compare what you hear with what the same candidate told a different audience last week. Positions that shift by room are the ones to test.
- Any promise with no cost, no timeline, and no counterparty attached is a slogan rather than a plan.
After the event
After the event
- Check the claimed record against actual minutes, votes, or filings. Local ones are usually public and rarely read.
- Look up campaign finance disclosures for the largest donors, then reread the answers about them.
- Ask the same three questions of every candidate in the race so you end up with comparable answers rather than impressions.
- Keep your notes until the next election, when the same person will be asking for your vote again.