PeopleCount is offering breakthrough benefits for both voters and politicians. This article is for politicians and their parties, a view of the campaign benefits.

A less expensive campaign is a huge benefit. But in this article, we’ll look at the great benefits you get for that lower cost.

Campaign Benefits: Candidates can promise true accountability

If voters want to find out what there member of Congress is doing on an issue, they must write her or call her and then wait a week or two. On PeopleCount, she’ll be accountable every month on the issues each voter selects.

Plus they’ll be able to grade her on her performance. I’ve talked to hundreds of people. Most were intrigued by both being able to see what others in their district want, plus being able to grade their representative on each issue.

Imagine all of your party’s incumbents and challengers promising a complete breakthrough in accountability. Besides being able to give this extraordinary promise, they’ll have rich communication with voters every month.

Campaign Benefits: Developing a relationship with each voter

Currently, most voters never develop a relationship with a politician. I met my representative twice. It took a lot of time and effort. It’s enormously expensive in terms of my effort. And for what? The first time I just introduced myself. The second time, she nodded her head… And in all my years of voting, that was the first time. Mostly I get a post card or read an article or two about a candidate. Rarely do I remember much about them a few weeks later.

On PeopleCount, I’ll get their monthly reports on my highest-priority issues. I can scan them and grade them. Say there are two issues I’m mainly tracking. In a year, that’s reading 24 half-page reports plus I get to give feedback. That kind of relationship is priceless. If your candidates are effective leaders, it’ll let them establish that solidly with voters. 

Campaign Benefits: Candidates won’t need to adopt controversial positions

Today, candidates often hedge, trying to say something while not saying too much. They try to stake out a position that will satisfy most voters while not making others angry.

They often do a lot of polling first. But polling asks questions of surprised, uninformed people. And the answers they give often differ from how people react to a candidate’s position. Most positions have pros and cons. Most voters might even react negatively to the cons of any position, rather than supporting the answer that a survey says they like best. And most voters don’t see the results of most polls, so their expectations aren’t reasonable.

Instead, imagine being a candidate and being able to say you’ll support the public. And if the public is split, you’ll seek a compromise. And you can promise the voters that they, too, will know what everyone wants.

Imagine you are asked your position. But you see on PeopleCount that 40% are for A and 40% for B and 20% for C. You can honestly say you don’t want to commit to any position because a majority won’t like it. We can all see the split. You can honestly say you’ll work for a compromise. In fact, in your monthly report, you can propose one. PeopleCount even has plans for letting voters give you feedback on new ideas.

Knowing they can vote on issues and judge their politicians, voters will feel more responsibility. They will be more interested in learning about pros and cons, in being informed. And for controversial issues, we will work with groups that specialize in bipartisan solutions. 

Parties, join us. Your mission has for too long been to beat the other party. With PeopleCount, that will fade into the background. You’ll win by being in communication with voters and serving them.

There’s are three benefits mostly for incumbents, in the next article.