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The Voter’s Speakeasy featuring unbiased reporting and insight into life at Vote Smart from our staff, interns, and volunteers.

April Common Ground E-Newsletter

2012 April 24



America's New Pastime

It's baseball season in America, a time when we can set aside our partisan ideology and cultural differences and just agree to hate each other for living in different cities. For Smart Voters, however, this month is also the start of another much-celebrated pastime: the Political Courage Test (PCT).

Congressional candidates in IN, NC, WV, ID, NE, OR, AR, TX, IA, MT, SC, VA, CO, UT, NJ, & KY have already received the Political Courage Test.

Each election year, the PCT examines one key aspect of political candidates' public integrity: their willingness to tell voters how they may handle important issues on the voter's behalf.

It is essentially a one questions Test, asking are you willing to tell citizens where you stand on the issues you will most likely face if elected. If the candidates say yes, we ask them to prove it by answering a series of questions covering issue areas including Afghanistan, guns, the budget, same-sex marriage, immigration, and more.

We know 2012 candidates will be inundated with surveys and questionnaires from organizations all over the country, however, the PCT is the only Test of it's kind; meticulously objective, neutral, and most importantly, the Test represents the Peoples' interest in transparent, honest campaigning. But don't take our word for it, just read what other news organizations are saying about our work:
 
 
“Project Vote Smart is trying to make sure that candidates running for office aren't able to dodge the important questions ...

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