Opinion: The Voting Public Deserves Complete Picture of Candidates
By Deepest House
(Europeia - May 22, 2019) - On May 20, Senator Rand began a discussion in the Senate where he proposed requiring a foreign affiliation disclosure for a number of positions within the Europeian government. While I think requiring this disclosure for appointed officials may be ambitious, there is significant public interest in knowing the foreign affiliations of our elected officials. We should encourage the Senate to move forward exploring this requirement.
Given the tremendous authority and responsibility our elected officials possess, identifying potential foreign influences and responsibilities provides a fuller picture of their candidacy, without establishing a difficult barrier for entry into our electoral process.
A simple line item could be added to election registration forms, which candidates already complete when they stand for office. “Do you possess any foreign affiliations, including citizenship or official positions in other regions,” would certainly suffice. No explanation would be needed, just a simple yes/no and a list of the affiliations.
Such a simple disclosure would provide the electorate with a significant amount of information, and provide candidates an opportunity to expand on these affiliations if asked. The voting public should be as well-informed of the candidates as possible, and such a requirement can provide insights into workload capacity, potential conflicts of interest, and how particular foreign connections could help advance Europeia’s agenda. A candidate with known and established foreign connections may bring additional value to the position.
Should such disclosures be deal-makers or deal-breakers for candidates? Most certainly not. We already evaluate many aspects of our candidates, and this disclosure would eliminate a knowledge gap for a substantial part of the voting public. Foreign affiliations are just a single additional, but useful, data point for the electorate to consider during elections.
We, as the voting public, should encourage our Senate to promote greater voter awareness so that we can make the best informed decisions possible. When the citizens have a complete picture of candidates, they make better decisions and elect better candidates.
The burden placed on a candidate to disclose is not unreasonable given the authority and responsibility vested with these elected officials. Indeed, Europeia already asks for foreign affiliations when citizens join the region. Given that many politicians have spent significant time here, such a requirement would merely serve as an update to the information previously provided.
Europeia can only benefit from an improved electoral process where election candidates disclose foreign affiliations.