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.
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