Keeping tabs on Congress
Americans live in a society where they vote on who they want to represent them in local, state and federal government. This democratic system works well in principle, but the sad truth is that many people either don’t vote or cast their vote without having a good reason why. For the former group, many may eschew the vote because they don’t understand the issues or know who they should vote for. For the latter, voting indiscriminately can be damaging to the nation’s well-being. If you accidentally vote in someone who is anti-military loans or anti-installment loans, you’ll even be damaging the economy and turning your back on free market competition.
So it pays to be informed. But the average person may not know the voting record of their Senator or Representative. How can they obtain this information? Visible Vote may just be the answer.
Who’s your Congressman?
Natasha Korecki of the Chicago Sun-Times tells the story of Paul Everton. After Congress gave the go-ahead for the $700 billion banking industry bailout, Everton went online to see how his Congressional representative voted on the measure. He couldn’t easily find the information.
“I went to eight different Web sites,” said Everton, 29. “I couldn’t understand why this was so difficult – and I’m a technical person.”
So Everton and friend Steven Trac decided to take action. They took it upon themselves to create a way for anyone to find out who their representatives are and how they voted in Congress. Moreover, Everton and Trac wanted there to be an easy way to give feedback to their lawmakers. They want you to know how they’re voting on the war, taxes, installment loans, et al.
Enter Visible Vote
Months later, Visible Vote was the result. The interactive program currently appears on iPhone, Blackberry and Facebook. It has proven popular, even in this post-election season – there are currently more than 10,000 users. Within hours of the time that Visible Vote was released into the iPhone App Store, there were 500 downloads of the free application.
Once the iPhone app is installed, simply create your account with an E-mail address and password. Enter your ZIP code and state, then the Visible Vote will call up a listing of your representatives in Congress. You’ll see how they have voted on major issues and the approval rating they’ve received from Visible Vote users.
What are you waiting for? Weigh in on what matters!
You can vote on pending legislation yourself and see how often your vote agrees with elected officials in your area. You can also vote on the same bills and see how often you agree with your elected official. If you have something to say to your elected officials about how they voted, you can even write a letter that is automatically faxed to their offices. How amazingly simple is that?
Visible Vote user votes are added up each week before they are faxed to lawmakers. You are a member of their constituency, so they should know what matters to you. According to Everton, 115,000 votes have been sent to Congress so far. As I see it, this number will only increase. It could be just the thing to get people off the bench and involved in the political choices that affect their lives – like the availability of military loans and installment loans.
iPhone is king, but Blackberry is not forgotten
On Facebook, Visible Vote adds another wrinkle in that it shows you how often your voting opinions match with those of the friends in your network. It does this discreetly with agree/disagree percentages, rather than revealing how you voted on specific issues.
The Blackberry application (as profiled on the Indian news Web site Freshnews) works in a similar fashion to the iPhone app. Visible Vote on Blackberry does the following:
- Sends an overview fax every week to your legislators on how YOU and others in his/her district are voting.
- Automatically provides feedback to you when senators vote for or against you.
- It will update you on new issues to vote on from your profile page. (This is done by using the Add to Profile button in the application.)
- Send you an overview report next election so you know who to vote for and against.
And also much like the iPhone and Facebook Visible Vote applications, you have the option of doing the following things to get involved in the politics that affect you:
- Send a Letter to your Legislators through your Blackberry.
- Track how your legislators are voting on issues you care about.
- Vote on the same issues as your legislators.
The mobile Visible Vote apps even sync with Facebook
Moment after you begin to dig into the mobile Visible Vote app, you’ll notice that it syncs with the Facebook version (and vice versa). That way, you don’t have to play catch up with your voting records as you switch from one device (or app) to the next.
Everton is pleased with the feedback Visible Vote has received so far, but he wants to hear even more. For both mobile device and desktop/laptop users, constructive criticism is welcome and may very well make it into future versions of the Visible Vote application.
Make your vote count. Get Visible Vote today – it’s free!
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I believe the people should know how well our government officials conduct themselves in office. It’s our right to know. After all, everything they do does affect our lives in many different ways. There is a lot more we can do than just cast a vote to have the person we feel has the necessary skills and knowledge to fill a political position. The greatest ideas in the world lie in the hands of the people – don’t let it go to waste!