Campaign contribution limits have worked a bit, but they’re a lousy solution to the wrong problem. The wrong problem is that officials cater to the rich, whether they are wealthy individuals, corporations, industry lobbies, foreign governments or special interest groups made of millions of members. Not knowing what we want, and unable to report to us (to be accountable), politicians must try to get elected using ads, and that costs money.

The solution is obvious. We should build a system that tells them what we want, enables them to report to us, and lets both our officials and challengers report to us inexpensively. This solution is easy and inexpensive.

To tell them what we want, we need to say it in a way that can be counted, to make advisory votes on issues.  The questions must be fair and cover an issue broadly with a bit of depth. The answers must allow at least 90% of people to express their opinions fully. Those of you who’ve registered on PeopleCount.org know that’s where we’ve started.

The great thing about voting on issues is that it also tells us what we want, so we know what to hold our officials accountable for.

Then comes the accountability part. You’ll be able to say on what issues you want to hold officials accountable, and they’ll be able to report to you. You’ll be able to rate their reports as well as how well they’ve satisfied your district (or state, depending on the official), as well as how well they’ve satisfied you.

We also need to be able to hold officials accountable, and that means having choice in elections, and this can only happen if challengers can have inexpensive campaigns. Otherwise we’ll continue the current pattern, where almost no one in a district’s dominant party has the money to challenge the incumbent.

But, with these key features:

• Money will make less of a difference in campaigns
• Officials can represent us instead of parties
• Officials can fashion compromises
• Officials can legislate with confidence, fashioning compromises that serve most of their constituents while also being realistic, serving most Americans
• Politicians will compete to represent us, instead of to represent parties

And, once we’re able to communicate well about what we want, we’ll also be able to enact changes to the constitution if we want to, such as limiting lobbying, clarifying the “right to bear arms”, mandating politicians be honest, ending gerrymandering, and many others. We could even say that money is not freedom of speech, and limit contributions to political campaigns and PACs.

PeopleCount.org is a B corporation, set up for the benefit of society. Though it will be easy and inexpensive to make this system, it’ll still take your participation, a team and some start-up capital.

Do you want to continue to fight expensive battles on every issue? Should congress continue to be deadlocked along partisan lines? Should wealthy interests continue to dictate US policy? If your answer is no, join us.