About the Political Courage Test
What is the Political Courage Test?
The Political Courage Test (PCT) is a test of candidates' willingness to tell citizens their positions on the issues. The Test asks candidates specifically, "Are you willing to tell citizens where you stand on the issues you may face if elected?" In order to pass the test, the candidate simply has to answer a few questions on their issue positions. If a candidate states that they will not take the PCT or they simply do not respond to any requests to complete the Test prior to their deadline, then they fail.
How is the Political Courage Test constructed?
The issues included in the Political Courage Test have been researched by the PCT staff and reviewed and approved by senior leadership and Vote Smart's Board. The issues included on the test are those at the top of the public's mind and most likely to be addressed in the next legislative session. This is determined by examining national and state polls, majority, minority, and third party platforms, key addresses, and media coverage.
How is the Political Courage Test conducted?
Vote Smart administers the PCT to Federal (President & Congress) and State (Governor & State Legislature) offices. The testing process is similar for these two levels of office, but there are a few differences worth noting.
Federal:
- All candidates for President and Congress are tested over the course of 4-6 weeks during both the Primary and General elections. During this time, Vote Smart contacts the candidates multiple times (documenting every point of contact or attempted contact), encouraging them to complete the Political Courage Test. These questions are the same for all federal level candidates.
- Should a candidate for President or Congress choose not to respond, Vote Smart will research his/her issue positions. Issue Position research is critical, as it fills in all of the data for candidates who refuse to take the PCT. These inferred determinations are provided to the public on each candidate's profile on Votesmart.org.
State:
- All candidates for Governor and State Legislature are tested over the course of 4-6 weeks during the General election only. During this time, Vote Smart contacts the candidates multiple times (documenting every point of contact or attempted contact), encouraging them to complete the Political Courage Test.
- For state level offices, we send state specific tests. Meaning, there will be some of the same questions asked to every state, but each state may also have some questions specifically to that state. So state level candidates in Alaska may get a question about oil drilling offshore the Alaskan coast, but state level candidates in Maryland would not get this question.
- We currently do not have the resources to research state level candidate answers if they do not take the test. So, Issue Position research is only done for federal candidates.
Issue Positions
Issue Positions research is Vote Smart's response to candidates' decreasing willingness to complete the Political Courage Test. When candidates fail to provide their positions directly through the Political Courage Test, our researchers investigate candidates' public record to determine their most likely response to the Political Courage Test’s most salient questions. Each piece of evidence undergoes intense scrutiny before an inferred response can be determined.
Click here to go to the wiki pages on Issue Positions for more.
