Put me on the email chain - sarahelisedavidson@gmail.com
Notre Dame '21
Rice '25
PLEASE don't call me judge, Sarah is fine.
Online debate: 
-I'd prefer if you have your camera on, but having it off is fine
-If my camera isn't on, I'm not ready
-Ask for confirmation that I'm ready before giving your speech
General things:
-time your own speech and prep
-tech > truth
-fairness > education
-I tend to place a lot of weight on evidence quality. I'll still vote on spin of course, but, if the debate is close, I usually look to the quality of both sides' evidence.
-I care a lot about judge instruction in rebuttals. It's really helpful and will get you good speaks
-I love impact turns, advantage cps, and well-debated disadvantages
-I don't like judging topicality or theory debates, but you should still go for it if you know it's the right strategy.
-I was a 2A, but my views are probably more in line with that of a 2N.
T:
-Topical versions of the aff and case lists are good.
-A smaller topic is probably better than aff innovation.
-Competing interpretations > reasonability
Soft left affs: 
- I'm predisposed towards extinction-level impacts, and I tend to think utilitarianism is the best framework for evaluating choices between policies. You're far better off spending more time attacking the link and internal link level of a DA than wasting a bunch of time on framing, which is usually a wash anyway. I think that a securitization-type framing argument is way better than some arbitrary "probability first" or "util bad" claim, BUT winning this requires meaningfully reducing the risk of the DA.
DA:
- My favorite debates are DA/case debates.
- I love politics DAs, but aff specific and topic DAs are even better. But feel free to read whatever contrived DA scenario you want. I'll vote on it if you win it.
- Pls do impact calculus - it makes my decision 1000x times easier
- Turns case is also super persuasive to me
- If you're going for a non-unique + link turn, actually explain why the aff resolves the link
CPs:
- Impact out your solvency deficits or explain why the perm shields the net benefit
- I'm not a good judge for process CPs. Complicated competition debates are confusing to me
- I won't kick the CP for you unless you tell me to
Theory:
- I will vote on theory, but you need to give examples specific to abuse within the debate and impact out theory in the 2AR
- cheaty fiat cps (ie Tsai should resign or Saudi should stop the war in Yemen) are definitely bad
- Agent CPs, 2NC cps, 50 state fiat, consult Cps, con cons, etc are probably good
- condo = good (but, again, I can be persuaded otherwise)
- perf con is a reason you get to sever your reps
Ks on the neg:
- i feel like my views on the k have changed a lot over the past few months. i like it more than i used to.
- cap, security, fem ir, and settler colonialism are the literature bases I'm most familiar with -- if you want me to vote on other things, i need lots of explanation
- i prefer specific links to the plan - the more specific, the better
- actually engage with the 1ac and spend time on case in the 2nr - i like when neg teams take lines out of the 1ac and/or recut 1ac ev
- floating PIKs are bad
- the alt should resolve your impacts and links
- i hate long overviews - your overviews should be short & contextualized to the aff
K affs:
- I prefer that you read a plan & im probably not the best judge for you if you read an untopical aff, but I'll still vote for a k aff and I have several times in the past
- at least have some sort of relation to the topic
- just asserting that the USFG is bad is not enough to get my ballot
- k affs probably don't get perms - if the aff doesn't have to be topical, then Cps / K's don't have to be competitive, but this needs to be explained in the debate
Neg v. k affs:
- framework - fairness is an impact (but you have to explain why it is), TVAs are great, tell me what debate looks like in the world of the aff & neg and why your model is better
- presumption - go for it. a lot of k affs just don't do anything
- k's vs k affs - not great for this. if you're going to go for a k, pls do thorough explanations and impact out each of your links
Speaks
- I'll dock your speaks if you're mean or rude to me or others in the round