Push for clear answers on your questions. If you do not receive an honest answer, keep pushing. If you hear someone else ask a question and the candidate sidesteps it, help out and press for a followup question. If candidates will not answer questions honestly and in full, they are fence sitters and useless for this city, state, and country. Do not feel bad telling them that either.
If you get called a racist, xenophobe, sexist, or any other ist or ism...you have just won. Congratulations. Once the labeling and name calling begin, simply say thank you for making my point and then sit down.
Here are a few questions that you might find useful. More will be added. This is a start.
Should non-US citizens qualify for social welfare benefits, food stamps, etc? Why or why not?
Should non-US citizens be allowed to vote in local, state, federal and other elections?
Should states be given back the right to secure their elections and limit "across the border" vagrant/transient voting?
And what would you do to assure that voting fraud is ended?
What are your thoughts on the unethical way the Memphis mayor and city council manipulated the system to set up a fake entity to sell city property to a council member for a $1000 in order to get around state laws protecting monuments?
What can be done to be certain that these same unethical tactics can not be used in our state?
Do you think that the voter fraud commission should have been allowed to do their job?
Should states be required to keep transparent voter registrations and should they be audited periodically to maintain voter integrity?
Do you think that states, cities, schools, churches, etc, should be allowed to set up sanctuary cities and welcoming cities to shelter lawbreakers and criminal aliens?
What will you do to try to make economic development dollars available to South Dakota graduates and native born residents that might want to start a business, rather than continue to invite large companies from other states and countries to take advantage of our tax dollars for development? Shouldn't our communities and residents come first?
How do we keep economic development dollars and the income created by that money HERE in the state?
We recognize that people have the right to access to health care.
Do you think that it is the responsibility of taxpayers to pay for socialized healthcare?
Is there a way to encourage more private providers and facilities to set up in rural cities?
Regulations, oversight, and the billing nightmare associated with large/investor owned facilities are driving up costs and not only affect availability of healthcare, but also decreases the quality of healthcare.
Instead of forcing taxpayers into a health care system based on socialism (we do not have or want a socialist form of government) because investors and large companies have created out of control healthcare costs, wouldn't it be more prudent to force control measures to create reasonable health care costs?
Maybe we need to find ways to encourage more private providers and facilities that are not beholden to investors and profiteers?
Pick a ballot measure and then ask the candidate to explain it and which way would they vote on it?
Do non-US citizens qualify for Obamacare? (hint: they do)
Who are the real stakeholders in a community/city/state/country?
Should legal residents of a community be allowed to vote on ALL major issues and spending before the mayor, city council, city manager, etc implement things?
Shouldn't residents have a say in how their money is spent?
What would you do to keep outside influences such as Soros and other non-South Dakota residents from continuing to disrupt our communities and elections?
So many shadow groups and organizations have formed and continue to form that no one can keep up with them. How can we protect our residents from these special interest scam artist groups operating on a faux altruism platform?
Why are you running for office? And what are some of your priorities for when you are elected?
Do you think that accusers (male and female) of sexual assault, should have to go to the police before the media when making accusations against candidates?
Or is it ok to make unproven accusations against people in order to hurt them?
Should there be a better process in place that protects both the accused and the accuser?
Do you support e-verify?
What penalties, if any, do you think might be appropriate?
What is your position on 2 A ? Do you support the right of citizens to keep and bear arms? Do you support their right to also have ammunition?
Do you also support "Stand Your Ground" ?
It is reasonable to think the different levels of government require a certain amount of money in order to run and to keep the roads and infrastructure maintained. Do you think the time has come to re-evaluate the responsibilities of government and hand back some financial control and responsibility to local governments? (Keep tax dollars local.)
Does government at any level really need to be in our healthcare, uterus, finances, dietary choices, marriages, private businesses, and day to day activities in general?
Haven't we moved towards being a nanny state dependent upon public funds?
Isn't creating a sustainable community really about creating communities that are NOT reliant upon state and federal tax dollars and grants to survive?
Doesn't local stewardship better create sustainability locally than federal and foreign meddling?
Aren't local residents better prepared to understand their own needs and how to care for their community?
Swamp corruption has over run the septic tanks and has even managed to seep into South Dakota. One only need to look at the EB-5 scam and debacle to demonstrate how corruption has managed to get a foothold in South Dakota. Economic development dollars are going to outside/foreign investors, multiple companies, groups and programs have been started just for the purpose of harvesting economic and tax dollars from state to state.
How can we get this under control and how do we begin to address the widespread corruption?
There is a long list of Visa programs available for businesses, entertainers, schools, and medical facilities. How many Visa programs do we need? Shouldn't those be revised and the programs better managed?
Public education used to be a great idea. Unfortunately, it has gone the way of the rest of the corrupt public entities. It is now weaponized against the parents and communities. And spending is out of control as well. Parents and kids have not only been left out of the education process, they have been beaten into submission and taxed and bullied by public school systems. As costs have gone up, our end results have spiraled down.
What can be done to bring back productive classrooms that welcome parents to participate?
What can we do to encourage parents to be in the classrooms and hallways again?
How do we get back to a curriculum that teaches reading, writing, arithmetic, and good STEM courses instead of sex education, CNN, and activist agendas?
Can we design a PTA that is effective and can counterbalance the school board and administration?
Did you know that if a craft/microbrewery in South Dakota wants to wholesale beer they have to sell it to a distributor and can not directly wholesale? Why is this? Doesn't this just put up obstacles for small businesses and guarantee money for big outside corporations? Is it designed to protect the big corporate brewers like Budweiser?
Why was CAIR designated a terrorist organization in United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia?
Work Opportunity Tax Credit -- this program was supposedly designed to help target groups in target areas. The program has been repeatedly abused by investors and large companies. It is set to expire in December of 2019.
Do you support the expiration of the tax credit? It has been extended and several people in Washington and immigration companies are pressuring to make the tax credit permanent. Instead of helping communities, it has become a diversity and sustainability program that does very little to help the communities it pretends to help. Instead, it has become a tool for "soft" human-trafficking of refugees for low wages for the chamber of commerce and big companies like meat packing plants, manufacturing, and corporate dairy . It doesn't seem right to use tax payer money to literally build outside competition for local businesses and then also support the maintenance, infrastructure, and wages of competing businesses of outsiders. Why are we financing the demise of our own local businesses with programs like this?