Rating & Vetting Program

From our Chairman Brent Regan:

The Kootenai County Republican Central Committee candidate rating and vetting process is just that, a process involving questionnaires, interviews, candidate forums, due diligence, sub-committee reports, discussion and debate, and finally a vote by the full KCRCC.

Candidates are initially invited to fill out a questionnaire. The questionnaire and the candidates’ answers are available on our website. They are then interviewed by our Election Committee. We conduct candidate forums for committee members and visitors to meet and question the candidates.

We then hold a meeting of the full KCRCC for the purpose of ranking the candidates. During that meeting the Elections and Diversity sub-committee Chairmen each gave their reports on their findings. Any committeeman with specific or first-hand information about any candidate is given the opportunity to share that information with the full committee. Once all the information is presented, ballots are distributed to evaluate and rank the candidates. The secret ballots are deposited in a ballot box and tallied in full view of the committee so the candidates overall ranking can be determined. The top rated candidates earning more than 50% of the votes are the ones we recommend.

The process is designed to be open and transparent. The final secret ballot ensures no pressure is applied to any committee member to vote a specific way.

Voters are invited and encouraged to read the questions and the candidates answers posted on our website.

Most voters do not have the time or resources needed to interview all the candidates on their ballot and so are grateful for the hundreds of man-hours our committee invests to help inform voters and provide recommendations.