Frequently asked questions

Youth Town Hall is a campaign-paid, independent venue for written questions and recorded candidate answers. This page explains the same process to voters, campaigns, and members of the press.

For Voters

Who can ask a question?

Participants attest that they are between ages 18 and 35, confirm a working email, and provide a city and ZIP code consistent with the Hall's district. That is the whole screening process — Youth Town Hall never asks for your street address, and it does not verify identity, residency, or voter registration. Questions that pass screening are published exactly as written, or not at all.

What happens to my address and phone number?

Neither is collected. Youth Town Hall never asks for your street address — the district check uses only your city and ZIP, checked against public Census data on our own servers, and the ZIP is not kept afterward. Phone numbers are not requested either; in the rare case a Town Hall enables phone verification, the number is passed to the verification provider for a one-time code and is never stored by Youth Town Hall.

Who chooses which questions are answered?

The candidate's campaign reviews every submission and chooses the questions the candidate will answer. Questions that publish appear exactly as submitted; neither the campaign nor Youth Town Hall can edit them.

Why are there no votes or comments?

There are no public votes, comments, reactions, or rankings. Every question goes through verification and human review. The public Town Hall remains a focused record of questions and the candidate's answers.

Can I remove my question?

You can always remove your name from a published question — instantly, at any time, forever, no reason needed. One click switches your name to Anonymous, the same display you could have chosen when you submitted; the question and its answer stay on the page. Use Manage My Questions (re-verify by email) or the permanent link in your published-question notification. If your words themselves could identify you, you may request full removal of the question. Requests are granted generously when the text is self-identifying. If you have lost the link after verification data was purged, use the Report form.

For Campaigns

What does the campaign control?

Campaign staff curate submissions, prepare a recording list, and decide which completed answers to publish. The recorded answers are the candidate's own speech. Campaign staff cannot edit submitted questions and never receive voter contact information.

How are campaigns treated consistently?

Every candidate in a race is offered the same published price and terms. The public symmetry record documents the offers and response status. A campaign's payment buys the venue; it does not buy different rules.

How do recording and publishing work?

The campaign records opening remarks, selected answers, and optional closing remarks. Published videos require captions and transcripts. Answers can be released in batches, and the hall remains online as an evergreen public record.

Can the campaign add its own questions?

Yes — in a clearly separate, labeled section. Candidates hear questions in many places beyond this page: in person, by email, on social media. A campaign may bring those questions here and answer them on video in the section headed From the Trail. Trail questions are labeled by how they arrived, never mixed into the screened list of questions asked here, and never counted in the submitted-and-answered numbers shown on the page. The screened list contains only questions that came through Youth Town Hall's screening process.

For Press

Is Youth Town Hall neutral?

Youth Town Hall is an independent campaign vendor, not a debate host or campaign committee. Its neutrality rests on symmetric offers, rules that campaigns cannot change, strict separation from voter contact information, and public records that let readers inspect those claims.

Where can I verify the process?

Each Hall publishes its paid-for disclosure, question and answer counts, Voter Commitments, and a link to the race's symmetry record. Those surfaces are designed to make the platform's promises inspectable rather than asking readers to accept them on faith.

Where do complaints go?

Complaints and takedown requests go to the Youth Town Hall platform operator, not the campaign. The campaign is informed of outcomes but has no veto over removal decisions.