(ABC 6 News) – The League of Women Voters has been hosting candidate forums over the last few weeks for voters to meet and hear from candidates for various offices ahead of November’s general election, but recently some forums have seen noticeable absences.

According to the League, the forums are intended to give voters a chance to compare candidates in a more direct route than just reading their policy stances online, so when a candidate misses an opportunity like this, both the candidate and the voters suffer.

The process for organizing the forums starts well in advance of the election, long before a candidate likely even knows they’ll be running for office.

“So we actually set a group of dates, we reserve dates like two years in advance,” said Ginny Amundson, the voter service chair for the LWV and the organizer for the forums.

That makes rescheduling a forum nearly impossible, as the league relies on the availability of the library to host the events, So they try to inform candidates of those dates as early as possible.

But they also have to wait until after the primary election.

“It’s very important that no candidate should have any advantage,” Amundson said. “We believe that, the state guidelines are very strong, no advantage to any candidate.”

For the most part, they have good luck getting everyone to attend.

This year though, not every candidate has made their appearance.

Wes Lund is running against Andy Smith for State House District 25B.

Lund did not show up for the forum, he says, because of a work conflict.

“To get a day off for me is a matter of speaking to my boss a while in advance,” he said.

Lund also believes the format the forums have taken over the years are too restrictive for voters to fully understand a candidate’s positions.

He wants to see forums run by the candidates and the public more directly.

“I mean why wouldn’t you have open air where people can bring their own questions to a public microphone say, ‘My name is Jane Schmo and I live in Rochester, Minnesota and I want to know what you’re going to do about my taxes,” Lund said.

Amy Perna, the associate director for the League of Women Voters MN, said questions posed at forums mostly do come from the public — they can be submitted by phone, online, or in person.

“Every question is vetted by trained question facilitators to ensure the questions are relevant to the office, forward-looking, applicable to all candidates, nonpartisan, and not hostile or personal in nature,” Perna wrote.

The League, meanwhile, continues to plan out the forums as they always have, and are already beginning to look at the next election cycle and how they can improve the process going forward.

“It’s been successful in the past and there’s always going to be some and we’re going to hope that it’s a minimum,” said Amundson.

Lund was only the first candidate to not make an appearance at the forums. Christina Barton, running for the Rochester school board’s seat 7, missed her forum last night.

ABC 6 attempted to reach her for comment, but the phone number filed on her candidate paperwork was not in service.