Make a Direct Impact this Election Season with 10 Questions

To take advantage of 10Questions.com, you have to act now. In two weeks (September 21st at midnight), question submission and voting on 10Questions.com will be closed, the top 10 Questions in each race's forum determined, and sent to the candidates.

All too often, campaigns and elections are only about who has the most money to buy the nastiest ads. The media covers the horse-race instead of the issues, and voters are left wondering if any of the candidates running have an original thought in their heads.

There's no silver bullet that will fix what ails American democracy overnight. But with the rise of the internet, more and more people have gotten the sense that maybe politics is something they can take into their own hands. After all, you don't need millions of dollars to spread a message online--you just need something compelling, that people want to share with each other.

And unlike TV or print, where space is scarce, the online space is infinite. There's no need to speak in sound-bites, and believe it or not, substance sometimes sells. (Just look at the 6 million YouTube views of President Obama's speech on race and Reverend Wright, which runs 37 minutes long.)

So here's one easy-to-use opportunity to inject your concerns directly into the agenda that candidates running for Congress and Governor have to address this year. On 10Questions.com, voters are posting questions for candidates and voting on their favorites. Lots of candidates, including several running for high-level races in California, Florida and Ohio have pledged to answer them online. Major media players, including The San Francisco Chronicle, The Miami Herald, and The Philadelphia Inquirer are going to follow up and ensure that happens. And then voters will get to judge their responses.

If you’re tired of the lack of answers, the run around answers, or worse, the ignored questions that define our current culture of dialogue and debate, here’s your chance to dive in and change that.  You have two weeks to mobilize your peers and community around questions that move you.  What's more, From October 14th - November 2nd anyone and everyone will be able to vote on the candidate answers, to provide a direct feedback loop recognizing replies that directly answer the questions, and noting those that are more soundbites than substance.

This process rewards questions that appeal to both broad constituencies and specific interest groups. Here are some representative questions from among the hundreds submitted across the platform's 46 races.

Net neutrality in the California's Governor Forum

Citizenship (14th Amendment) in the Minnesota's  6th-CD Forum

Education in the Georgia's Governor Forum

Rarely does election season provide us with an opportunity make a direct impact. 10Questions.com is just that. We hope you take advantage of it, and in the process, help create a more robust and responsive democracy for us all.