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.
I don’t like the ‘gatekeeper’ concept in a free country. It’ll always come down to ‘who gets to put the questions on the paper’. I don’t like that.
The people who choose should be citizens in a private ‘booth setting’ casting a vote.
It’s bad enough that political consultants do the ‘choosing’ based on being able to support their families.