About Podium

Every municipal election, I find it surprisingly hard to figure out where candidates actually stand on the things I care about. Not everyone can make it out on a given night to an all-candidates meeting, and not everyone is on social media, so I wanted a place that's open to anyone, any time: where a resident can ask a candidate a direct question, and the candidate can answer it properly, in their own words, on their own schedule — with the whole exchange staying public and citable, before the vote and after.

Why I built this

I'm not a candidate, I'm not working for one, and I'm not affiliated with the Town or any political party. This is an independent, volunteer project — I'm just a resident who thinks our local election deserves better tools than a Facebook comment section. You might recognize my name from around town; I've spent a fair bit of time volunteering here over the years, including leading a local service club and mentoring a competitive robotics team for high schoolers. None of that is political, and none of it is affiliated with Podium — I mention it only so you know this comes from someone who's actually invested in this community, not an outside operator.

How it stays fair

• Every candidate in a race gets the same kind of profile and the same tools to answer.
• I don't write, edit, or endorse anyone's answers — candidates answer in their own words, or not at all.
• Questions go through light moderation before they're posted, purely to filter out spam and abuse, not to filter out hard questions.
• Nothing on this site is paid placement — there's no way to buy better visibility.

If you're a candidate, a resident, or a reporter and you want to know more about how this works — or you've spotted a bug in the software, or something that seems unfair — I'd genuinely like to hear from you. Reach me at [email protected].