THE SUGGESTION: For Elections, allow the user to view a specific candidate and see things such as...

• How many of my own questions has this candidate answered ?

• How have I rated this candidate's responses to my questions ?

• How many of this candidate's questions have I answered ?

• How has this candidate rated my answers ?

• How has this candidate participated where I have also participated (e.g., when I made a comment, did this candidate also comment ?)

Certainly there could be other things that would provide a better informed voter, but these five should be enough to start some discussion about what would be helpful and harmful for the election process.

I see two major (positive and negative) possibilities here

• (Positive) People who contribute desirably get more support from those whom they've helped.

• (Negative) StackExchange degenerates into a "Popularity Makes You Smart" contest.

Whatever, whatever, I want to vote, and I'm seeing User IDs whom I just don't recognize. The reputation thing on StackExchange is clearly a product of pure genius; and it certainly is a useful indicator of the person's qualifications to be a moderator.

The facts are, though, that I'm voting to promote someone to a position of authority over others including myself. In that context, a little knowledge like these five factors (and others?) would be a very desirable guide for informed voting.