In this and the next post, I’ll answer the next question posed two articles prior. How do we create the second part of accountability, answerability? How can we get politicians to answer our questions so we can evaluate them?

Answerability – the essence of accountability

Do you have a boss, a manager, an employer? Does she just announce every year on whether you still have a job or not? Of course not.

At regular intervals, you, the employee, talks to your boss and answers her questions. Did you accomplish your goals? If not, why not? Do you just report on the things you want to report on, the parts that went well? No. She asks you to report on the things that are important to her. And she judges you.

I think it’s wrong that Marijuana is a “Schedule 1” drug. To me, it should be a Schedule V drug, or removed from the list entirely since it’s safer than alcohol. When I asked my senator about it, she said it’s dangerous and most Californians don’t want it legalized. She didn’t answer where it should be on the schedule. I want her to. More than that, I want her to report to everyone on it.

Demand reports on issues and they’ll report

On PeopleCount.org, when we release the new version, you’ll be able to check a checkbox on each issue saying you want a monthly report.

Currently, most members of Congress have their staff answer single emails or written letters. When hundreds of people signal that they want accountability on an issue, they’ll answer.

Note the report might just be, in the beginning, how one party or the other is blocking on an issue. Or maybe they’ll say it’s scheduled for committee meetings later in the year. But maybe they’ll say who in that committee they’re putting pressure on. The point is, they’ll report.

And you can bet that challengers will. Challengers would love to! They are hurting for inexpensive ways to reach you. Sending a short report to you on an issue important to you is ideal for them. And they’ll be thinking hard about what they would do different, better. And that’ll put pressure on the incumbent to do the same, to do the job better, rather than settle for the usual excuses.

They will want to report

Right now, most congressional staffs are inundated with emails, letters and phone calls. Contacting your senator or representative’s office is currently the only way to make your voice heard, unless you can find a local group that supports your issue. And these staff members, while often not paid much, still chew up a lot of their budgets.

By reporting on PeopleCount, they’ll be able to report to you much more efficiently. In fact, when someone calls in to state their opinion, in the future the staff’s response will often be, “If you didn’t vote for this on PeopleCount, please do. If you did, we’re listening and our latest response on the issue is right there.” This will free up many of these staff members to spend more time working on legislation.

And currently, representatives and senators have to spend a lot of time fundraising so they can buy expensive ads to communicate with voters. By reporting to voters on issues approximately monthly, they’ll be able to spend so much less money on ads that they’ll no longer need to fundraise while elected. That’ll be a huge incentive to report.

Plus, of course, this will be a real way they can be accountable to voters. If they don’t report, the other candidates will promise to deliver accountability.

The next post shows that it’s not just about delivering a bunch of information. The report is the gateway to interacting with constituents.