I have already written up my idea for getting candidates to clarify and contrast their positions. Ideally they would work together to produce a list of positions on which they disagree.  However, the challenge in getting this to happen is that the candidates have to cooperate.  Both sides can drag the process out while blaming their opponent for the lack of progress.  Maybe someday a debate sponsor might be able to make this happen.

In the meantime I have a partial solution.  This fall I was reading a local election “voter’s guide” and realized that it was mostly useless when it comes to helping a voter select a candidate that thinks like them.  That gave me an idea to get this started without requiring the candidates to work together.  As part of the “Voters Guide” the local paper should ask each candidate to identify the most important position that they support, that their main opponent would not support.  In other words, explain to the voters that there is something important on which the two of you have a different stand or opinion.

Although I think my original idea would be better, I can see this new idea being used to get the ball rolling. It would be even more helpful in local elections where the candidates don’t have media rehashing their opinions.  So I have written my local paper to suggest that they include this question in their voter’s guide next year.  Maybe if this catches on at the local level it will bubble up to the state and national level elections.

Here is the letter I sent:

During the last local election I tried to prepare for the vote by reading about the candidates using your voter’s guide.  I found that despite the wealth of words, the voter’s guide was pretty much useless when it came to deciding how to cast my independent vote.  Everyone explains the wonderful things that they have done and the wonderful things that they support.  But I think it would be much more helpful to get a few words of contrast between the candidates – even if it is in their own words.  So I wonder if you would consider having the candidates answer the following questions as part of their submission:

“Please describe the most important position or policy that you feel your opponent will not act on or support, but that you will act on or support, once you are elected.”

In other words you ask them to give the voters one thing, ANYTHING, that differentiates what they will do from what their opponent will do.