Fill it all out, or don’t run.
We deserve to know.
The standard for officials and candidates is one sentence: answer every subject and every question, then share the full record, or you have not answered. A complete record means all ten subjects and their issues in order in MyPriorities, all $1 billion assigned in MyBudget, every subject graded from 0 to 10 in MyGrade, and every question answered in MyOpinion. On the Top 10 board, “I’m running for office” mode produces the full PDF record only when every subject and every answer is complete.
Why do officials share it all when citizens choose?
Officials share it all because they are asking for the power to decide for everyone; citizens choose because they are not. They have to share it all. We don’t. We aren’t running for public office.
The difference is built into the board. A citizen’s answers stay in their own browser, and a citizen shares cards one at a time, choosing which cards and which opinions to include, or downloads their own Top 10 PDF at any time with whatever they have answered. Citizens are never required to complete everything. A candidate in “I’m running for office” mode shares one thing: the full PDF record, with their name, office and the date completed on the cover. No single cards, no social images, no highlights. The record is all of it or nothing.
The privacy chapter and the opinions chapter explain why private answers carry no obligations. Representation explains why public power does.
Does any politician get a shortcut?
No. No politician gets a shortcut: answer everything, or get nothing. The record, the PDF, exists only once every subject and every answer is complete: MyPriorities, MyBudget, all ten MyGrades and every MyOpinion question, 62 answers in total. There is no partial record, no preview and no cards or images to share instead. There are no exceptions for any party or any office.
Fill it all out, or don’t run. We deserve to know.
Citizens are different. A citizen can download their own Top 10 PDF at any time, with whatever they have answered, because they are not running for office.
Why is half a Top 10 a non-answer?
Half a Top 10 is a non-answer because candidates would choose which half to show, and they would choose the easy half. Any candidate can find five subjects where their view is popular in their district. The five left blank are the ones where a voter most needs to know where they stand: the tax they would raise, the program they would cut, the side they would take when their own supporters disagree.
A partial record also breaks the comparison voters rely on. If one candidate answers education and housing and another answers safety and immigration, a voter cannot set the two side by side on anything. The point of giving everyone the same ten subjects and the same questions is that every answer lines up with every other answer.
Finally, a partial record says something on its own. A candidate who will not grade the government on immigration, or split money between health and defense, is telling voters that those choices will be made later, out of view. The standard moves those choices into view, before the vote.
Why does the job require every subject?
The job requires every subject because officeholders do not get to choose which parts of public life reach their desk. The legislative branch drafts proposed laws and reviews the budget for the entire federal government.1 Congress sets funding levels for federal agencies every year, divided among twelve appropriations subcommittees that each handle a different area, from defense to energy and water.2 A bill can start in many places, including a proposal made during a congressional candidate’s campaign, and then it moves through committee and a vote in each chamber.3
State legislatures, county boards, city councils and school boards work the same way at their own scale: whatever reaches the agenda gets a vote. A representative who skips a subject now will not be able to skip it in office. See Every level of office for what the record means in each seat.
What counts as a complete record, and what does not?
A complete record has every part filled for all ten subjects. MyPriorities places every subject and every issue inside it. MyBudget assigns the full $1 billion. MyGrade gives each subject a grade from 0 to 10. MyOpinion answers every question on every subject. “In my words” is optional, one short statement per subject.
These count as complete:
- An answer in the middle of an opinion question. The middle is a real place to stand, and the board makes room for it. See MyOpinion for officials.
- A grade of 0 or a grade of 10, when that is the honest grade.
- A small budget line. Assigning $10 million to a subject is a clear statement about it.
These do not count as complete:
- Anything less than the full PDF record, including a few cards shared the way a citizen shares them.
- A platform page, a speech or a questionnaire in other words. Those can sit beside the record, never in place of it. See A record, not talking points.
- “I will get back to you.” A promise to answer later is shown as not answered yet. See Not answered yet.
What does the standard ask of the people who ask?
The standard asks voters, journalists and moderators to apply it the same way to everyone. Every candidate in a race gets the same request, at the same time, in the same words. A full record counts as answered. Anything less counts as not answered yet, whatever the party, the polling or the incumbency.
The guides for each reader are Ask your officials, For journalists and debate moderators and Same cards for everyone.
What My Vote Forward can and cannot do here
My Vote Forward defines the standard and builds a board that enforces it for candidates; voters decide what a missing record means to them.
Can:
- Produce the full PDF record in “I’m running for office” mode only once every subject and every answer is complete.
- Put the candidate’s name, office and date completed on the cover, with the record marked as self-reported by the candidate.
- Publish the standard in plain words, so anyone can apply it.
Does not:
- Require anything of citizens. Citizens are never required to complete everything, and they share only what they choose.
- Endorse, rank or score any candidate for meeting or missing the standard.
- Run official votes. Official voting is a separate platform My Vote Forward does not build.
Unresolved questions
Two questions about applying the standard are still open.
- New questions mid race. When an opinion question is added to a subject during an election season, how long should a candidate have to answer it before their record reads as incomplete?
- Offices with narrow powers. Should candidates for offices with narrow powers, such as a water district board, be asked for the same full record? The working answer is yes, because the record measures judgment, not jurisdiction.
Sources
Government sources cited on this page, opened and checked on October 29, 2026.
- USAGov, U.S. General Services Administration, “Branches of the U.S. government.” usa.gov/branches-of-government
- USAGov, U.S. General Services Administration, “The federal budget process.” usa.gov/federal-budget-process
- USAGov, U.S. General Services Administration, “How laws are made.” usa.gov/how-laws-are-made
Make my Top 10
Fill it all out, or don’t run. We deserve to know. Make your Top 10 now, and if you are on the ballot, make the full record.
