This year’s federal election campaign is only five weeks (and two days) long. Which is good, because if it went any longer there would probably be no candidates left.

Since Prime Minister Scott Morrison called the May 18 election on April 11, close to 20 candidates have been disendorsed. A few have had citizenship issues (surely we should have a handle on that by now?), one was disendorsed because she is an Australia Post employee and another, Liberal candidate Murray Angus, because he called his Labor opponent a “good bloke”. Outrageous.

Then there have also been the candidates from many different parties who have been disendorsed, sacked, or made to apologise due to their shady online behaviour.

Mamamia’s daily news podcast The Quicky spoke to a competitive intelligence research consultant whose job it is to find the dirt on politicians… because in the game of politics, you win or you die. Post continues below audio.

This all begs the question: Who the heck is vetting these people?

Here’s a run down of the embarrassing/disturbing/infuriating things 14 of our candidates have done – people who, by the way, are asking us to vote for them.

Touché, Labor. Image: Twitter.

Jessica Whelan comment about refugees. Image: Getty.

A screenshot obtained on Tuesday, April 30, 2019, from Nine's A Current Affair, that shows One Nation senate candidate Steve Dickson in a US strip club. Image: AAP.

For good measure, let's add two more candidates that have us feeling less than enthused for the rest of the campaign:

It's a sad list, huh?

A survey from July 2018 found Australians' trust in politicians and democracy was at an all-time low (and this was evenbeforeAugust's leadership spill). Is it any wonder why?

When we are presented with candidates who openly share racist, sexist and homophobic content online, and don't even have the foresight to wipe their social media history before putting their hands up for public office, it paints a very clear picture as to why we have no faith in politicians.

Being active in our democracy by voting isabsolutelyimportant... But wow, can we please have some better options?