2018 Issue 4 Jul/Aug - Focus Mid-South Magazine

special report
WELCOME TO THE FIRST-EVER
FOCUS® MID-SOUTH
SHELBY COUNTY
CANDIDATE SURVEY
SPECIAL PULL-OUT
POSTER FORMAT!
Back in early June, we
invited every candidate (per
the Shelby County Election
Commission’s Certified
Candidate list) who will appear
on the August 2, 2018 Shelby
County ballot to participate
in the survey. We wanted to
give them a chance to answer
questions about LGBT+
equality issues. A little more
than half of the candidates who
were invited participated in the
survey and we sincerely thank
all those who did. Sadly, there
were some who chose not to
participate in this 14-minute
survey.
The questions we asked
were designed to be answered
in a yes/no format. We did
not want to have to interpret
lengthy, written responses. We
did, however, offer candidates
an opportunity to give a brief
explanation of their yes/no
answer. The yes/no answers
they gave are here in print.
Candidates’ written responses
are available to view online at
focusmidsouth.com.
Note that some of the
questions that we asked the
candidates will never come up
for them to vote on. We asked
them all the same questions
anyway because if elected, they
will be influencers. We feel that
it’s important to know what
they think.
CONTACT THE CANDIDATES!
See the emails by the candidates’
names? If you see that your
favorite candidate didn’t respond
at all, contact them DIRECTLY
at the email provided. It’s up to
you, the voter, to be sure that your
representatives are fully engaged.
For those who did respond, we
cannot explain their answers, but
they can. Email them with questions
about their survey responses.
What’s next for you to do?
Carefully pull the page out, review
the responses, mark your favorites,
and take the guide to the polls.
Consider yourself an informed
voter—and an empowered one!
Focus magazine does not endorse any candidate. We do encourage all citizens to get out and vote.
ABOUT THE FOCUS® MID-SOUTH CANDIDATE SURVEY
Goal: To offer our LGBT+ readers and allies a look into the attitudes towards, and
commitment to, LGBT+ equality among the candidates for local, state and federal offices.
Methodology: A list of certified candidates who will appear on the August 2, 2018
ballot was requested from the Shelby County Election Commission. The SCEC issued an
Excel spreadsheet with the qualified candidates to date as of May 31, 2018.
Focus staff formulated a list of questions that were relevant to current concerns in the
LGBT+ community. Explanatory text about the survey itself accompanied the questions.
Both were uploaded to the internet using the Surveymonkey.com interface. The SCEC
list of candidate emails was then uploaded to surveymonkey.com. The first invitation to
participate in the survey was sent to certified candidates on May 31, 2018.
When an email was found to be incorrect or missing altogether, every attempt was made
to contact the candidate in question to obtain a working email address. Reminder emails
were sent to candidates who did not respond to the invitation or who had submitted the
survey before all questions were answered.
To further ensure each candidate had ample opportunity to respond to the survey,
the survey team made daily phone calls to candidates who had not yet answered the
questions. In the event that a candidate was called and there was no answer, messages
were left, and those efforts were documented. If candidates were reached, a new survey
link was offered to them, or the candidate was asked to return to a survey already in
progress to answer the remainder of the questions. If a technical problem was uncovered,
it was addressed and rectified.
Not all candidates were reached. In a few cases, the email address we received from the
SCEC was incomplete or incorrect, and a working email address could not be found. In
several instances, the candidate neither answered our calls nor returned our voicemail
messages. In the case of judges, law requires that they not participate in surveys such as
this. Please see the TN code that pertains to this law by the judges’ names.
The questions: For considerations of space, fairness and clarity, the questions were
asked so that a yes or no answer was appropriate. Answers to open-ended questions
would have required far more space than afforded by the column-style pull-out ballot
we have included in this issue of the magazine. Furthermore, constructed responses
would have required some analysis on the part of magazine staff to ascertain support
on a particular issue (or the lack thereof). Though the answers that appear here
reflect the polar nature of the survey, it is the most accurate and fair representation
of the candidates’ support of issues important to the LGBT+ community. We did offer
candidates space to explain their yes-no answers if they so desired. That text (and the full
survey) is available online at focusmidsouth.com.
Understanding the answers: Following each name on the ballot is the candidate’s
answers to the questions posed on the survey. In the absence of answers, an explanation
is given for the status of each candidate’s survey invitation (e.g. the survey was left
unanswered, accessed but not completed, or the candidate declined to participate).
Upon signing into the survey, and again when contact was made via phone or email by
a representative of the magazine, candidates were made aware that skipped questions
would be reported as such. All candidates were also informed that text explanations of
their yes-no answers would only appear online.
Page 26 / focusmidsouth.com / JUL+AUG 2018 / Splash