Opinion Before voting November 3, ask these 12 questions

“Your every vote, as surely as your chief magistrate, exercises a public trust.”—Grover Cleveland (inaugural address, March 4, 1885)

“There is but one unconditioned commandment … we should seek incessantly … so to vote and to act to bring about the very largest total universe of good which we can see.”—William James, “The Will to Believe …” (1896)

For whom should I vote? That’s a biennial and quadrennial question I face in the spring primaries and on Election Day in November. For whom indeed.

As many, I’ve wrestled with that query for a long time—since I attended the 1964 Goldwater rally in Montgomery’s Cramton Bowl, preparatory to casting my first presidential vote, as well as votes for local and state office-seekers.

I remember the rally because I’d never seen Cramton Bowl filled, other than when Lee and Lanier High School football games were being played. I got so charged up that night, I began keeping a journal to record memories of such events. I’m still keeping one, describing my impressions of the many memorable days I’ve enjoyed since 1964.

Over the years, I’ve recorded meetings with many famous Americans—from judges George Wallace, Hugo Black and Frank Johnson, who became a friend, preachers such as Billy Graham, presidents Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and/or vice presidents George and Barbara Bush, with whom I corresponded for two decades, and Hubert Humphrey, to civil rights leaders and activists Martin Luther King Jr., Whitney Young, Gregory Peck, Charlton Heston and Sidney Poitier—to name-drop per se. I mention them not to gratuitously name-drop, but to suggest that, in addition to studying about civil rights and civic affairs at four universities and three law schools, I have met many of the people who’ve played prominent roles in the political life of our nation. That brings to life such studies, making me wish I could have met my favorite American president, Abraham Lincoln.

On the basis of education and experience, I’ve concluded that to cast an informed, responsible vote in local, state or national elections, one ought to ask and answer such questions as these—a dozen Qs that I ask myself (some are obvious; some perhaps not so):

• Does the office-seeker meet the minimum qualifications of the office, as stated in relevant statutes and constitutional provisions? If not, or if it’s not perfectly clear, I may be wasting my vote on that person. Why should that ever be a live issue with any candidate? An elected officeholder may still be disqualified, I should think.
• Does the candidate’s personal and professional life comport with at least minimum standards of ethicality and decency, including his/her behavior during the campaign, if not before? If not, why do I want such a person in office representing me, regardless of his party and without regard to his endorsements? The person will not be changing in office.
• Has the candidate made clear during the campaign what he/she really stands for and what he/she would do and be like in office? Will he/she inspire me or irritate me—even worse, embarrass me and the people he represents? Isn’t it time that we elect office-seekers who meet that test?
• What is the candidate’s reputation among people who know him/her best for civil public discourse and propriety in his public and personal life? Has it changed over the years for better or for worse?
• How does the office-seeker treat his/her fellow Alabamians/Americans? With respect? As fellow human beings with constitutional rights? It matters how public officials treat the high and mighty and the low and powerless, doesn’t it?
• Does the candidate have any experience that would facilitate his/her actually doing the job sought? For example, does a gubernatorial or presidential candidate have any executive experience beyond running his/her own office?
• Does the candidate stand for the same things I do in regard to establishing an agenda or set of goals for the term, sticking to it and accomplishing any of it? Shouldn’t executive offices be led by a person with a mission and related goals, to which we the people are privy and to which legislative proposals are connected and not just a list of proposals? Running a legislative office or small company, for example, is not the same as running the governor’s office.
• Does the candidate have a moral compass by which he/she guides public decision-making, preventing him/her from making amoral or immoral decisions, no matter who supports them? Only such a compass will keep one from missing the moral values inherent in a decision that blindsides one in the rush of events on a busy day. I learned that from William Ruckelshaus, one of the “Saturday Night Massacre” heroes, who refused to follow President Nixon’s Watergate orders.
• Now comes the usual question: Does the candidate have a record of his/her public service? If the person has not previously held public office, are there substitutes that might stand in for a record in the person’s profession or work that might inform us of his/her likely behavior in office?
• Do I know the ballot I’ll be using and where my candidate’s name will be listed? I have sometimes found ballots so confusing that navigating it easily without prior notice of it may be surprising.
• Are there any sources of reliable information beyond that available via social media, which can be notoriously unreliable?
• Finally, can the office-seeker’s campaign claims and assertions in ads, televised and printed, be verified? Are they consistent with what is known about the candidate as well as his/her opponent(s)?

Those questions are ones I’m asking today and have been asking, particularly in regard to the major offices for which I’ll be voting on November 3. What are the sorts of questions you ask?

Note: The last two questions above were suggested by Sydney Braxton, a junior journalism major at my alma mater (Auburn), in an October 25, 2026, article in The Auburn Plainsman, “How to research candidates before the polls.”