Half-baked voting ideas

By Josh Moss - Editor

Nov. 9, 2026

With our growing group of Louisvillians who weigh in each week on how we’re doing as a city (and how we might get a bit better), I’m never going to ask us which candidates we voted for or which political party’s platform might best align with our beliefs. Not really what we’re up to with this project, and you can find plenty of that elsewhere.

But almost a week after last Tuesday’s midterm results, I did want to revisit a question I asked us back in early October:

Let’s say the midterms go in a direction you favor. Which of the following worries that keep bubbling up among our group has the best chance of being addressed or reduced? (pick one)

— risks for the future of humanity
— loss of constitutional protections
— loss of national character
— loss of free elections with fair results
— a forever war between political parties
— none of these

And here’s how we all answered:

Best chance of being addressed?

So not much optimism about the forever war between Republicans and Democrats, with just 5% of us saying that particular worry had the best chance of being addressed or reduced. (And I can’t imagine that percentage has changed much since Election Day.)

I was thinking about that forever war recently and, from a more local perspective, about how our mayoral and Metro Council races were nonpartisan for the first time, meaning no Ds or Rs by the candidate names on the ballot.

For our group, we decided to toss out some half-baked alternatives for making two voting groups, asking us to weigh in on each by selecting 

worth considering

terrible idea

or somewhere in between

With the following scenarios as our options:

— Conduct temperament and skill evaluations like some corporations do, and make two teams that should be able to work well together

— Group them by common interests outside of work, so they’re more likely to get along even if their politics are different

— Group them by expertise (for instance, one group for finance, budget and business, one for operations and human services…)

— Group them randomly (for instance, even-numbered birthdays in one group, odd in the other…)

— Pull the names of two “captains” out of a hat and have them each draft their team

For several of us, not our favorite batch of questions.

“Silly,” one of us said.

And from another: “Not a big fan of these questions, as I believe they do more harm than good (even for fun). A two-party system requires compromise and making peace with a candidate that may not be perfect.”

But most of us played along, with one of us noting, “With all due respect, these ideas were not half-baked. As Benjamin Braddock said in The Graduate, ‘They are fully baked.’”

48% of us said grouping by expertise was worth considering, and 42% said the same regarding temperament/skills.

Half-baked ideas for making two voting groups

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Thinking about all of the new leaders who’ll be taking office soon, I also wanted to reshare some of our group’s answers to this one from back in September:

Which of the following leadership qualities would most address your current level of worry? (pick one)

— devotion to legal justice
— commitment to personal freedom
— empathetic compassion
— fighting spirit
— idealism
— realism
— dedication to fairness
— purity of vision

Nobody picked idealism. Our most popular answer, chosen by nearly a third of us: empathetic compassion.

Leadership quality to best address worry level?

One thing I love each week is spending time with all of our answers, and here are just a few of our thoughts about leadership that stuck with me…

If someone you know is the kind of person who’s interested in exploring what’s best and what might be a bit better about Louisville, I’d love it if you’d nominate them to join the weekly conversation. And I wonder: Do you have a half-baked idea for making two voting groups? Lemme know: josh@louisville.com