Policies & Guidance
Candidate Forums During COVID-19 (Guidance)
There are many questions about how to conduct candidate forums during a pandemic, especially since local health conditions, and government and facility requirements and recommendations, may continue to evolve and change. Our goal is to educate voters while upholding the integrity of the League and our candidate forum process, while also ensuring the health and safety of our members, candidates, and the public. We will continue to rely on guidance from public health officials to inform our guidance to local Leagues.
All candidate forums and voter registration events must abide by any Executive Orders of the Governor, if in effect, as well as any specific requirements of the facility in which the event is held. Local Leagues should also consult and consider current public health guidance from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) when setting event requirements for candidates and attendees.
Leagues may decide to implement more stringent requirements than the facility where the forum is being held, consistent with MDH and/or CDC recommendations, in order to protect the health of volunteers, candidates, and the public. In-person candidate forums should use masking and social distancing as recommended by MDH.
To help ensure the health and safety of all in attendance, as well as maximize candidate participation, the following are some options and variations to consider:
Conduct the forum without a live audience.
Conduct a fully virtual forum with candidates and the moderator participating virtually.
Hold the candidate forum outdoors as weather and local facilities allow.
Require proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test within 72 hours in order for candidates to participate unmasked. This could also be required of an audience, however challenging it would be to enforce.
Allow candidates to be unmasked while speaking and maintain 6 foot distance while requiring audience members to be masked.
If there are no local masking requirements, Leagues could require members and volunteers to be masked and distanced, when possible, with candidates and audience members not required to be masked. In these cases, Leagues should consider the size of the venue where the forum is being held and the number of audience members expected to attend.
Live-Streaming and Recordings
Whenever possible, Leagues should live-stream and record candidate forums online or on local cable access so they can be viewed live or after the forum by those not attending. This is a good opportunity to develop or enhance League media capabilities and relationships with local cable channels as recording partners.
10+ Candidates
If you have races with a large number of candidates (10 or more), consider randomly splitting the candidates into two groups and holding two forums. In these cases, the forums must use the same questions, in the same order, and cannot be live-streamed to ensure an equal playing field for all candidates. See the Candidate Forum FAQ for additional guidance.
Fully Virtual Forums
Leagues considering fully virtual candidate forums through online meeting platforms like Zoom or GoToMeeting should be aware that LWVMN does not have staff to support such forums and the questions or issues that may arise. Any online candidate forum may confront many issues and variables including technical difficulties, difficulty enforcing timekeeping, an inability to control the appearance of the candidate’s surroundings, and failure to have adequate internet access. There is a potential that technical glitches and different technology access can lead to unequal treatment of candidates and violations of our nonpartisan policy. Leagues should prepare contingency plans in case of technical issues on the part of either the host, the moderator, or candidates.
If a League chooses to move forward with a fully virtual forum, it should be recorded for playback and definitely not live-streamed. This would permit dealing with difficulties before voter viewing. Recall that our candidate forum policy is that we do not edit candidate forums. They are shown in their entirety. Editing a virtual forum would have an additional set of challenges and issues and could lead to actual or perceived unequal treatment of candidates.
Interview Format
We recommend against individual, one-on-one interviews with candidates as an alternative to forums. This can result in allegations of favoritism or an uneven playing field, including:
The candidate that goes first has a head start in any follow up communications through their campaign or the media.
Questions and follow ups do not or cannot get asked consistently across candidates.
No chance for candidates to react or respond to each other’s answers.
No Option May be a Good Option
Finally, there may be situations where no option is a good option and not holding a particular forum this year is the best choice. Public health and safety is the first priority. If a candidate forum cannot be held safely and cannot uphold the integrity and fairness of a League forum, then we should feel comfortable opting out of that forum.
As your forum planning develops, please continue to ask questions and get clarification.