Sunday, November 12, 2017

Blinded voters guides

A common practice when hiring is to "blind" the resumes of candidates at initial evaluation stages so that attributes such as race/ethnicity, gender, and age do not unduly influence the initial process. I would like a similar "screen" for voters guides for local elections where I may be unfamiliar with the candidates. The guide would present candidates as unnamed #1, #2, ..., and then give the pros/cons (e.g., policy stances, competence, etc.) for each. The viewer could read the information and then later choose to reveal the names (and associated demographics) of the candidates.