Platform Alignment Score (PAS)
Beyond the singular act of endorsement, the primary piece of information the members need is an easy to understand scoring scheme whereby a voter can readily identify candidates more closely aligned with their own views on a host of important policy planks. A visual display of this information in a condensed form will be the most effective and easy to understand tool for the members to use in their decision making.
This tool can also be used among voting blocs (or factions) as a means to identify potential alliances and trades that may be agreed upon within the organization, from time to time.
The following is an example of the type of graphic and information content that should be most effective, and shows a level of simplicity desirable from a member point of view.
The outer ring shows the overall score by the organization and indicates a candidate's level of support for the major policy thrust of the organization, which is People over Profit (99% vs 1%). It represents the organizations level of endorsement strength. A minimum level of, say 60%, would be required to get, and keep an endorsement by the organization.
The top half of the bar chart area is used to indicate a candidate's strength in each of the five platform pillars that affect voters on the local to national level.
The bottom half of the bar chart area is used to indicate how well the candidate identifies across the five pillars that affect voters on the national to international level.
The overall score includes the gap between policy strength and the negative trend bars as a way to claim that space for a candidate to grow and improve.
Because chart is measured on an absolute scale of 100%, candidates can be compared directly side-by-side using only the visual proportions.
At a Glance
To illustrate how this would work in practice, a voter can evaluate this candidate, Mx Diesel we will call them, to have the following:
- An overall endorsement score of 88%
- A strong policy record on Energy with comparable understanding of how that affects the quality of our Environment
- An extensive Foreign Policy portfolio with only moderate support for how those polices impact our domestic Economy which is also clouded by some troubling negative trends
- Moderate strength on the Justice agenda coupled with a slightly less detailed set of Heath policy plans
- Good policies on Gov Affairs, but with only limited specifics on the Society that result from them
- A weak understanding of polices on Media and almost no specifics on Education while clouds of troubling negative trends overshadow both areas
- Some negative trends exist under each policy pillar, but there is ample room for improvement in all but 3 areas