How can we lessen the political power of money and the wealthy? PeopleCount has a new answer, plus empowers the old ones Continue reading
PeopleCount Will Lessen The Political Power of Money
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PeopleCount Overview
Featured
PeopleCount has designed a political communication platform that gives politicians and voters a relationship and gives voters a relationship with each other. In the beginning, “politicians” means congressional incumbents and challengers.
The politician-voter relationship is accountability, where the voters direct and review the politician’s work. The voter-voter relationship is that of co-managers.
In the first version, there are mainly two parts to learn about.
Feature: Voting on Issues – Directing Politicians’ Work
On the issues they’re interested in, voters can answer questions to express the solutions they want on issues important to them. The results will look like survey results, but this isn’t a poll. Plus, you’ll be able to see the results for your district and state as well as for the whole country.
The questions involve voters in an issue and give them an idea of the options. When there’s a substantial majority, voters will have expectations that something can and should be done.
This is very different from surveys which usually interrupt people, many of whom are poorly informed. After a survey, if you research the issue, you can’t change your answers. And you can’t see the results. A few surveys publish results, but people only see these if they later search for them. Surveys theoretically represent everyone, but practical considerations and cost make that doubtful. Answers on PeopleCount will represent voters who care about the issue.
The questions on PeopleCount stay in your account. If you talk to friends about an issue or research it, you can come back and change your answer. You see the results and know others see them, so they have more value than survey results. Over time as the issue evolves, new questions will appear. The results from these questions inform both voters and politicians, both incumbents and challengers. Your voice matters.
Feature: Reports – Viewing Politicians’ Work
Your representatives in Congress and their challengers will be able to file a report (written and video) on the issue informing voters of progress and plans. Once questions are answered on an issue, besides seeing the results, you’ll also find a list of your politicians so you can view their reports.
After you’ve read a report or watched its video, you’ll grade it on how well the incumbent is doing representing constituents, or how well you think a challenger will serve voters. You’ll see cumulative grades as well, so you’ll get to know what other voters think of each politician.
After just one or two sessions of reading and grading reports, you’ll have a good idea of how well the various politicians will represent you on issues. When it’s time for an election, you’ll know whom to vote for.
For these reports and grades, the votes on issues are the context in which you’ll evaluate candidates, adding to the value of the votes.
Cost of PeopleCount
In the beginning, PeopleCount will charge politicians a fee so that not everyone runs for office, but it’ll be a few percent of what a campaign currently costs. For this cost, they’ll get high-quality communication with voters on the issues voters care about. To ensure affordability by challengers, it’ll cost at most one-quarter of the funds they raise.
Later, it can be funded by voters. In fact, by drastically reducing the cost of a campaign, PeopleCount will make public funding of campaigns extremely affordable. Today, the average successful Congressional campaign costs over $2-$3 per citizen, $5-$8 per voter. That would be 2-3x the cost of paying for services for all campaigns.
A Few Benefits
Ending the Incumbent Advantage: Challengers will be able to report to voters on an equal footing with incumbents. In some ways, the incumbent advantage will shift to challengers! Many of the issues have been around for a long time, desired by voters, but ignored by Congress, whether because of objection by the party or due to corruption- lobbying by industry.
Passing Popular Legislation: On issues with overwhelming majorities, incumbents will be under pressure to pass legislation right away or be graded poorly. There are many of these. (Some anti-corruption issues have over 90% approval rating.)
Lessening Extremism and the Power of Parties: If incumbents and voters know what voters want, and incumbents can report to them their progress and accomplishments, incumbents can represent voters rather than extreme groups and parties. They’ll be accountable to ALL voters. When an issue is divided, their report can justify compromise.
Lessening the Political Power of Money: Incumbents will easily be able to stay in touch with all voters during their whole tenure in office without raising money while in Washington DC, freeing up the 2-4 hours they currently spend daily fundraising and being influenced by lobbyists.
Lessening Corruption: This is part of the previous point but deserves highlighting. It is politicians’ need for campaign money that fuels most corruption, not the availability of money. PeopleCount will let them communicate better with voters for much less cost.
Lessening the Information Bubble: All voters will hear from all candidates, not just the ones they agree with. (An information service is also planned, exposing voters to even more sources.)
Increasing Competition in Elections: PeopleCount will allow challengers to very easily reach many more voters and show voters their strengths, via their reports and cumulative grades.
Creating Unity: On many issues there is quite a bit of unity. One organization has a list of over 150 issues on which informed Americans agree. Since we can’t vote on issues and see the results today, unity is hidden from us. Partisan voices often falsely claim extreme positions are wanted. PeopleCount will let people unite on issues, not depend on parties.
Fewer Extreme Positions: Currently, we don’t know what most people want on most issues in our state or district, so we don’t know what candidates should do. So candidates adopt positions, usually adopting the party position, and often a more extreme version of it to appeal to extremists who are more likely to make a campaign donation. On PeopleCount, candidates will be able to promise to support voters, rather than parties.
Follow-up: There are issues that 80% or more of voters agree on. On some anti-corruption issues, over 90%, yet Congress does nothing. On PeopleCount on such an issue, you’ll be able to pressure the incumbent to get it done.
Much More is Possible: There are many ways for the parties to share power in Congress. Bills could be smaller and simpler. Members of committees could be rated on the committee’s performance, penalizing them for holding up solutions that voters desire. The thousands of pages of federal law could be reduced so that processes and projects can be completed more quickly. Voice votes could be prohibited, so every legislator is on the record on bills. More features can be added to PeopleCount giving information on candidates and issues by integrating with existing non-profits and media. There are more options for grading reports as well. Once many people are on the site, we can experiment with other features, such as mock elections that use different kinds of voting methods.
Rewarding for Voters
It will be rewarding for voters to be able to vote on issues, see what all concerned citizens want, and hear from politicians just on those issues. It will be rewarding to hear about progress on important issues and give feedback in the form of grades, even right after the election. It will be rewarding to hear from challengers about what the incumbent is ignoring or doing poorly.
Rewarding for Politicians
It will be rewarding for politicians to focus on issues and serve voters instead of having to announce rigid positions. It will be rewarding to reach more voters easily and not have to spend time raising money. Incumbents will appreciate being able to serve voters instead of attacking the other party and posturing on hot-button issues.
Summary
Much more than we know is possible for politics. Many sites have been created that let people vote on questions, issues, or bills, but they made fundamental errors. And alone, this ability does little. By coupling it with politicians reporting and grading those reports, PeopleCount will have the minimum features necessary to make politicians truly accountable to voters and independent of parties and wealthy donors.
If you’d like to support PeopleCount, please post a link to this post on social media and add your email address to our mailing list.
Inefficiency brings Disruption to Politics
Currently, candidates try to reach voters by sending messages to them.
They don’t know HOW to reach each voter, — via email, text messages, postcards, news, billboards, social media, or ads on TV , radio, or the web — so they have to try all of them.
They don’t know WHEN voters are receptive, so they try lots of different times.
They don’t know WHAT each voter wants to hear, so they choose a few issues which they think a lot of voters will like. But they end up skipping most issues important to each voter and sending short, low-content messages.
Not knowing How, When, or What leads to inefficiency. In other words, it’s expensive. It’s ripe for disruption. Today, politicians are hoping (or fearing) that AI can answer these questions. Good luck with that! Knowing is not always the answer to not knowing.
They’re missing a much more direct approach, the one PeopleCount has designed.
Instead of PUSHING content to the voter, PeopleCount will put the voter in charge of PULLING richer content on the issues important to the voter, when it’s convenient for the voter, and in a way that works for them.
Plus, by design, it will have a context that rewards voters. It lets them quickly have choice, power, and responsibility.
What’s more disruptive than a better, less expensive solution? A whole paradigm shift.
It’ll make politics rewarding for politicians and rewarding for voters. If I wrote a lot more, you’d see that this is the foundation that will make democracy work.
Go to PeopleCount.org today and sign up for the mailing list.
Support PeopleCount and be invited to join the Beta.
Summary of PeopleCount
PeopleCount is a web application (under construction) designed specifically so that participation transforms politics to be democratic, informative, peaceful, and constructive. It does this by creating new kinds of political communication.
New, Scalable Political Communication
“Communication” doesn’t mean only messaging to anyone, or about anything. Nor does it mean conversations. PeopleCount offers structured communication so that it “scales.” This means that if millions of people communicate on PeopleCount to you, it is still easy and fast to understand that communication quickly.
What communication? The communication needed for our members of Congress to have a relationship of accountability with voters.
What is accountability? It’s most of the relationship between an employee and their manager. The manager directs the employee and requests regular reports on certain subjects. The employee reports. The manager evaluates each report and gives feedback. In politics, the voters are co-managers together.
Thus the communication is the directing, reporting, and evaluating communication between voters and politicians, plus between all voters so we can efficiently manage (directing and evaluating) together.
In addition, the voters are co-hiring-managers of challengers. They’ll report too, focusing on keeping the incumbents honest and what they would do if elected. After a few months of seeing and evaluating reports, we’ll have a much better idea of whom to vote for.
You might call PeopleCount a marketplace, where voters find and rate politicians. Keep in mind that it’s more than this as well. By voters stating (voting) their preferences on issues, we will also know what our representatives should be doing. Knowing what all voters in the country want allows us to set our expectations of what’s likely.
PeopleCount’s Benefits to Voters and Democracy
PeopleCount’s biggest effects will be to:
- lessen the power of money in politics
- lessen the divisiveness of the parties
- motivate Congress to pass legislation on issues voters want.
Note there are many issues on which significant majorities (over 60%) of voters agree, such as health issues, abortion, even some gun issues. One independent organization has a list of over a hundred issues on which majorities of informed voters agree. Especially, there are many political-reform issues that voters agree on that Congress has avoided for years. Currently, these are hidden. Members of Congress don’t talk about them much and the news media ignores them.
On PeopleCount, these hidden majorities will be obvious. Voters will expect action. On issues where 80% or more of Americans agree, we’ll expect action right away.
Currently, we rely on the media and the political parties and their leaders to make issues known. Once known, there’s no way to pressure Congress to act. On PeopleCount, voters together will be able to make issues known plus pressure Congress to act.
This is not “direct democracy.” As a voter, you won’t need to read bills or negotiate what is in them. That’s still our representatives’ job. Your new role, on PeopleCount, is to co-manage them.
PeopleCount’s Financing
PeopleCount will pay for itself by charging politicians a reasonable fee, with a discount for challengers with low budgets. The current plan is at most $5,000 per month for a member of the House of Representatives, or one quarter of their money raised. There’s a starting fee and a minimum monthly fee to ensure only serious contenders run for office.
Donations to PeopleCount are welcome. Money donated to PeopleCount will be credited to your account for you to assign to candidates for their PeopleCount expenses. As per federal rules, your donation to each candidate is limited. To donate, click here.
“Impossible” is for the Little People
Much more is possible than most people know. In fact, much more is possible than anyone knows. Muhammad Ali said: Continue reading
Problem: Political Opinions Don’t Matter
Your political opinions don’t matter. What difference did those opinions make today? Yesterday? Last week? Last month? What difference did they make in your city? Your state? America? Continue reading
Context is Key: Why the Infinite is Small
Context is key. While I’ve known this, I’ve struggled to understand how to communicate about PeopleCount in a way that attracts others. Continue reading
Life is Over, Time to Begin Again
I turn 60 today. All I’ve wanted for the last 5 years is to work on PeopleCount full time, with a competent partner. We could have it launched in 6 months. Continue reading
Support Accountability and PeopleCount
This is your chance to say you want members of Congress to be accountable
I’m putting together a confidential list of voters who believe they would use PeopleCount once it’s completed. This list will be shown to a few potential sponsors. Please send me a short letter saying that you plan to use PeopleCount, and optionally a few words about who you are, a short bio. Please start with your name and the city in which you live. If you want to just have your initials show, just list them. So, something like:
R Strauss, Mountain View, CA, computer software engineer, I would love to use PeopleCount.
Please send your email to Rand@PeopleCount.org
Reminder: What’s PeopleCount?
On PeopleCount, you’ll hold them accountable, with others. You’ll:
- Vote on issues
- See how others in your district, state and the country vote (the vote counts)
- Say on which issues you want short monthly reports from your representatives
- Grade the reports on how well they’re doing their job representing their voters
- See their average grades
This will let you, easily and quickly:
- Get the information you want from your politicians
- Quickly tell them what you want
- Know what you can expect from them
- Let politicians connect to voters at low cost, making money less important in politics
- Allow good people to run effective campaigns without becoming professional politicians
- Make Congress accountable to voters
Thanks much,
-Rand
PeopleCount is very different from Surveys
PeopleCount is not a new way of polling. It has nothing to do with surveys. The data collected is even different. A bright friend of mine confused for years on this. Let’s clear it up.
Yes, on PeopleCount, one thing you’ll do is answer multiple-choice questions. This is similar to answering a survey, but only on the surface. There are many other significant parts of PeopleCount.
Surveys ask a random sample of people what they think about an issue.
PeopleCount will not survey random people. On PeopleCount, citizens who care will make their desires known. Who cares what the others think? If you don’t care about something, I assure you, your politicians don’t care.
Should the Federal Reserve exist? Or should we have a national bank? Most people don’t care because they don’t know the issues involved. Who cares what they think while they’re uninformed?
Pollsters try to make a survey that won’t influence voters.
A question should not be biased. But the goal of PeopleCount is to influence citizens to be responsible and informed citizens. Since surveys ask random people, surveys don’t make you responsible. Knowing your vote matters does.
On many questions, I add interesting answers rarely seen in the media. Probably the members of Congress considered some of them, but they don’t publicize them. Why? They think you’re uninformed and uninterested. And they’re right- our opinion means nothing right now. Why should we be learn about issues?
That’s where PeopleCount is different. These are real issues. Most of us understand real solutions about real issues. PeopleCount’s promise: We make your opinions matter. A real issue that matters- you can understand that. And you get to vote on it, then hold your politicians accountable.
Surveying doesn’t let the answers change the questions.
A survey is a single set of questions that are answered once. Occasionally they’re answered yearly by different people. When they have their answer, they report it and are done.
PeopleCount will add questions and/or answers as an issue evolves. If people mostly favor two answers, maybe we’ll then split those into five which involve more tradeoffs. You can say how desirable each one is. Maybe a compromise is the best solution.
Surveys report what interrupted, surprised, uninformed people thought once
I hate when pollsters call. A few years ago I answered most of them, but then I got busy. In fact, fewer and fewer people are accepting their calls and that’s leading to less accuracy.
They refuse to tell me how many questions there are. I’ve asked them to send me the questions and they say no. Or, “Will you please call me back in two hours?” They say no. I’ve asked for a five-minute break so I can look up something and they say no.
PeopleCount lets you answer whenever you want. You can skip a question and come back later. You can talk to your friends first. Or answer a question and later change it. You can do whatever you want to express yourself well. If Congress is set to vote on it, so there’s a deadline, we’ll tell you. We empower you.
Surveys open up NO communication between people and politicians
Most surveys are national, so they tell your representative nothing about your district and your senators nothing about your state. Partly, this is because they’re expensive. It takes 1-3,000 answers to have some accuracy. To do that in 435 districts is expensive. They can guess that your district will be the same, but do you believe them? You’ll believe a vote.
Survey results are hidden from you
To find survey results, you have to search for them- they don’t even send you a link to them in gratitude for your participation! PeopleCount is designed to be your dashboard to an issue. It’ll have results right there as well as links to information about an issue and reports from your politicians. Being organized and searchable, you’ll easily find what you need.
It’ll show you the results for your district and state so you know what your representatives should be pulling for. It’ll show you the results for the country, so you can set your expectations.
PeopleCount and surveys are complete different
The bottom line: Polls are for people who want to know people’s simple thoughts and opinions. They’re a private, often commercial tool for making money, winning elections and manipulating voters.
PeopleCount is different. PeopleCount is for you to guide your government and hold it accountable. Plus to communicate with your fellow citizens so we can all steer government together. Answering questions is just part of the communication. But it’s not polling.