You don’t understand the incentive pattern here. The people who pick who runs (once you’re past the very bottom) are political consultants. The key is NOT taking a test. Or molding into the twisted form a consultant will accept.
I accept your evaluation of “the incentive pattern” to some degree.
My interest is simply practical in identifying an intercept point for normal people who by law ought notchave ignorant tyrants on the ballot, and the intercept point is *before* acceptance on the ballot with publicly declared fealty.