No taxation without representation. We’ve all heard it. We all know what it means. Hell, we founded a country on it. But does it still apply? Have we lost sight of what it means? Let me ask you a few questions. Do you personally feel represented? Do you feel like your representative has your interests in mind when they are voting on potential laws? Have any of your representatives asked you how you feel on a particular issue? I’ve asked this question many times and the answer is always “no.” So how do we fix this?
We fix it with by building an electronic system that presents the user with a list of issues and a way of voting. Picture a simple app that users can log into with a state-verified ID. State verified ID is required so that each participant is verified and gets only one vote on each issue. Once logged in, we see a dashboard of current issues our representative is faced with. We get to vote on each issue without revealing our identity (although identity is verified behind the scenes). We get to see how many other people voted which way, and even how many people participated in the vote out of all registered users.
So what does this accomplish? It creates a record of how many constituents feel a certain way about a potential law. Then, the same dashboard would update the issue with how our representative voted. There is now a record of how the majority of constituents wanted the rep to vote and how the rep actually voted. This could be used later to create a scoring mechanism that shows what percentage of the time the rep voted in accordance with how the majority of their constituents wanted them to. It creates transparency and accountability. More importantly, it does so in a simple app.
I believe one reason people aren’t more involved in government is that it’s not an easy thing to do. It’s not easy to stay current on bills that are hundreds of pages. It’s not easy to call your representative or compose and email every time you want your voice heard. Even if you call or compose an email, you have no idea if that ever reaches the representative with any consideration. Further, you have no idea how many other people called with that same stance. You have no idea if you’re a majority or minority. You’ve just got to hope you were heard and that your voice meant something. This system solves that issue by making it easy to make your voice heard and then see how your representative voted. Then, come election time, all a person would have to do is log into the app and see if that representative truly did vote the voice of their constituents.
How did we get to a point where we don’t feel represented? It’s simple really. Our population size is one reason. The other reason is complexity, be it by design or coincidence. The population size is simple to understand. In times past when populations and cities were smaller, we could have representatives actually talk to large groups of people and get a good feel for how the majority felt. Nowadays, the population is so large and we’re spread so far out that it’s not even possible to talk to everyone. However, we are all connected electronically. So why not leverage that electronic connection and get everyone’s input?
The other reason we don’t feel represented is complexity. There are an outrageous number of bills introduced and they are outrageously complex at times. It really is impossible for anyone with a job and family to stay on top of it all. There are websites one can log into in an attempt to view bills and track their activity, but again, very complex and time consuming. One could speculate that this is intentional but that’s another conversation altogether. Either way, the size and complexity of the system does make it difficult. So difficult in fact that many people have just given up on the system; given up on trying to change things. Given up on trying to make their voice heard. They think their voice is so small that it won’t make a difference. How do we fix this complexity? Easy; make it simpler. Make it a user-friendly app. Prove that their voice is being heard, being counted, being recorded and documented and proven to matter.
Our current system’s lack of representation can be fixed by three concepts: transparency, accountability, and simplicity. Without any one of these things the system is a failure. In today’s time, no one is going to do anything that isn’t simple. So simplicity is paramount in order to get participation. And we can’t participate in something in which we don’t have information. Hence the transparency aspect. And what good is transparency if we can’t do anything about it anyway? That’s where the record of voting history and scoring mechanism comes in. We can easily view their record at a glance and hold them accountable.
Think about where we are now. There are many people who have just given up because they don’t feel they have a voice, and if they did it wouldn’t matter anyway. Let’s give them a voice. Let’s show them that their voice was heard, and documented. Then let’s show them at a glance how their representative voted. Let’s do all this with a simple, user friendly app. Let’s increase constituent participation and hold our government officials accountable.