Press and media

This page is rendered by the press template. The standing sections, including the license terms, come from the theme. Anything typed here appears above them.

What this is

PortsmouthVote publishes individual video interviews with candidates for Portsmouth, Virginia elections. Every candidate in a race gets the same questions, the same amount of time to answer, and the same recording conditions. We publish what they said. We do not tell anyone what to think about it.

A nonpartisan voter education program of the Olde Towne Business Association Legislative Committee. Produced by Total Media Lab. Not an endorsement. The OTBA Legislative Committee is the editorial owner of record.

Embedding and linking

Yes, always. Embed or link any video from this site or from our YouTube channel. No permission needed, no notification needed, no conditions, no expiry.

Every embed on this site uses the privacy-enhanced player. If you copy the snippet below, your readers are not cookied by us or by YouTube on page load.

<iframe width="560" height="315"
  src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/VIDEO_ID"
  title="Candidate name, Portsmouth City Council, PortsmouthVote.org"
  frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Replace VIDEO_ID with the ID from the video URL. In WordPress, pasting the plain YouTube URL on its own line also works.

Broadcast files

Downloadable files for broadcast are available on request. Contact the OTBA Legislative Committee. Two conditions apply, and they are identical for every outlet:

What is not available

• Raw footage, outtakes, unused material, alternate takes, or room audio. To anyone, at any price. That applies to news outlets, to candidates, and to us.
• Exclusives and early access. Nothing is released before publication day and nothing is held back after it. If one outlet got a preview, every other outlet and every candidate would have a legitimate grievance.
• Registration data. Treasurer contacts, phone numbers, and signed releases are not press material.
• Comment on a candidate answer. We will not characterize it, clarify it, or correct it. That is for voters to judge.
• Comment on why a candidate did not participate. The page says invited, did not participate. That is the complete answer.
• A seat on a panel that rates, ranks, or compares candidates. The Committee will explain the process on camera. It will not sit in judgment of answers.

The fairness protocol

This is the part that matters if you are writing about the program rather than about a candidate. Every line is a commitment made to all thirteen candidates in writing before anyone was recorded.

• Every ballot-qualified candidate for the covered offices is invited on identical terms, in a single email sent to all of them at the same time.
• All candidates in a race receive the same questions in advance, at the same time. The questions are published on this site.
• Questions are selected and approved by the OTBA Legislative Committee. No candidate, campaign, or agent of a campaign has any input into question selection, format, scheduling, or publication order.
• Answers are time limited, enforced by a visible timer. Same limits for everyone.
• One retake per question, available to every candidate on the same terms.
• Identical lighting, lens, background, framing, and microphone for every interview.
• A host from Good News Portsmouth moderates off camera. Only the candidates appear on screen.
• Editing is technical only: trim, color, and audio. No answer is cut for content, shortened, or reordered.
• Publication order is set by a public random draw. Not alphabetical. Not incumbent-first.
• Each candidate reviews their own video for factual correction of on-screen text only.
• All videos publish simultaneously.
• Candidates who are invited and do not participate are listed as such, without comment.

The complete question set for both races is published at How this works.

What we do not do

The Olde Towne Business Association does not endorse, oppose, rate, rank, score, or comment on any candidate. Appearing in these videos does not mean OTBA supports that candidate. It means they accepted the same invitation everyone else received.

Candidate statements are their own and have not been fact-checked by OTBA or Total Media Lab. We do not fact-check candidate statements. What you hear is what the candidate said.

Comments are turned off on our videos and on this site. This platform presents candidates in their own words. It does not host argument about them.

Disclosure

Producer disclosure: Mobile Photo Lab, a business of MrDearShotMe LLC and a sister brand to Total Media Lab, has been paid for photography work by candidates who appear in this field. That work was commercial photography, unrelated to this program, and it carried no political advice or advocacy. Every candidate in this program is recorded, edited, and published under the same protocol regardless of any prior business relationship. Nothing in this program was billed to any candidate or campaign.

This was disclosed to every candidate in the invitation and it is published here, because a disclosed conflict can be evaluated and an undisclosed one cannot.

Assets

Please do not alter the logo, recolor it, or place it on a background that reduces legibility.

Contact

This is not an official election website

PortsmouthVote is not affiliated with the City of Portsmouth, the Office of the General Registrar, or the Virginia Department of Elections. For registration, polling places, and ballot information, contact the Portsmouth Office of the General Registrar at 757-393-8644 or visit elections.virginia.gov.