In the age of the Internet, there is simply no acceptable reason for good candidates to be effectively invisible to the electorate.

All that’s needed is for some basically impartial entity to sponsor a consolidated web site at which voters could find statements, debates, and give-and-take from all candidates and contenders—not just the few whose names voters have already heard of, and would think to seek out individually, as at present.

An organization like the League of Women Voters would be perfect for such a role.

Unfortunately, at my own last check, this organization recognized the need, but seemed to believe it had already been met—when in fact, what LWV had created was a very disorganized agglomeration of web pages, most of which had little relation to one another, and a disturbing number of which had little relation to elections. (It was sometimes necessary to rummage through things like program listings for public television stations before finally finding a candidate statement.) But perhaps LWV is ready now to re-examine how it is meeting the public’s information needs.

At any rate, the League of Women Voters is by no means the only entity capable of setting up such a site. Certainly any news organization could do it—at minimal cost, and with a high public relations/credibility payoff.

The main requirement is just to provide a centralized space, where people don’t need to have heard of a candidate to read what that candidate has to say. Let the candidates say whatever they want, at whatever length they want. To deal with the potential for propagation of baseless claims, simply include a “forum” section, and leave it to their opponents to expose and debunk and counter them.