COA Overview & Purpose

What the COA Is:

The Candidate Operating Agreement (COA) is the standardized, pre‑election disclosure system used by CTS. It ensures every candidate follows the same rules, submits the same categories of evidence, and receives the same verification. process.

Why the COA Matters:

The COA:

creates a level playing field
protects candidates from misinformation
ensures fairness and neutrality
produces standardized, comparable transparency outputs
prevents political capture
enforces mission‑locked governance

What Candidates Commit To:

By signing the COA, candidates agree to:

provide truthful, complete disclosures
submit verifiable evidence
personally approve all submissions
follow the code of conduct
respond to flags
participate in verification
accept public transparency outputs

What CTS Commits To:

CTS commits to:

neutrality
evidence‑based evaluation
reviewer anonymity
immutable audit logs
transparent scoring
strict conflict‑of‑interest rules
no narrative interpretation