Be an Informed Voter! LWV Candidate Forums

The League of Women Voters was formed in the 1920's with a goal of educating voters on issues and candidates, and ensuring that voting is accessible to all adult citizens.  We have continued with that work for more than 100 years, and won't be stopping anytime soon.

Across the nation, local and state Leagues are holding candidate forums for city, county, state and federal offices.  The forums are recorded and posted to YouTube and websites, and shown on local cable channels everywhere. Vote411.org gives you access to many of these videos nationally. 

If you are in Anoka County or Champlin, LWV ABC has probably conducted a forum for candidates in your area.  The web address to the left (and the QR code) will lead you to the LWV ABC YouTube channel where we post all our videos, listed alphabetically by county, then city, then state.  

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LWV Forum Rules:  The League of Women Voters has strict rules to ensure that forums are objective and fair to all candidates.  LWV leaders at the state and local level (League Presidents and Voter Service Chairs)  are not allowed to donate to candidates; this stricture does not apply to other League members.  The moderator of the event comes from outside the area so they are neutral in their work at the forum.  Questions are submitted by the public through the LWV website, and the script for the moderator is developed by the moderator.    The timer and event organizer are also present for the forum.   The timer lets candidates know when the time is up for their answers.  The organizer handles scheduling and coordinating the taping space, invites and follows up with all the candidates and cable television and resolves problems.  The organizer does not control content of the forum in any way.

No live audience unless we have partners:  Most of the LWV ABC forums are recorded at a closed event by local cable channels for posting online and broadcast on cable TV. ​ The recording of an LWV Meet the Candidates Forum is not a public meeting, it is an LWV event and LWV alone is responsible for determining who may attend and other rules.   LWV does seek partners for our forums, to bring greater depth into the event.  In those instances where League has a local partner willing to provide a location, staffing and security, the public is invited to attend in accordance with the host site's policies.   LWV forum rules still apply to the moderator and script development.  

Why no live audiences at LWV forums?  In the past two years LWV ABC has learned from events held at the beginning of Covid that it takes fewer volunteers at a taping without an audience.  Since we put on more than forty forums per general election, this is an important concern.  No audiences also means that  volunteers do not have to be concerned about security for the space we have responsibility for, there is no need to train volunteers to address audience members acting out or disrupting the event, there is less work setting up and cleaning up, and our older members feel freer to help us as they then have less concern about their own health risks.

We hope that you will spend time viewing the candidate forums for your area.  Use this link (same as above) to find the LWV ABC forums for the 2022 General Election.  
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