The OTW is a fannish organization. Why aren't the fannish identities of candidates publicly disclosed?

Board members must use their legal names on our official legal paperwork, but many excellent people whom we don't want to exclude from board candidacy prefer to exercise some control (inasmuch as that's possible) over connecting their legal names with their fannish pseudonyms. What some people have done in the past is asked the candidates/board members privately via email; to the best of our knowledge some have answered, with the expectation that the information will be kept off of the public internet, while others have preferred not to answer. We consider this a legitimate question to ask in confidence, and a legitimate question to answer or to decline to answer, and it's equally reasonable for an individual voter to take the answer or nonanswer into account in their voting. If you would like to submit a private question, please use the elections form and our elections officer will pass it on to the candidates.