A tech startup company in California, PlaceAVote, would like legislation to be voted on by citizens, replacing Congress.
“If a PlaceAVote candidate is voted into office, all bills that come before Congress will be decided by the district via majority vote online,” states the company’s web site.
The company has 2 candidates running for Congress who promise to vote according to tallies from the public.
More details from their website:
1. Registered voters can place a vote on all bills that come before the United States Congress.
A. They can place or change a vote as soon as the bill is made publicly available.
B. Voting ends 15 minutes before the elected representative is required to place their vote.
2. Registered voters can choose to delegate their vote to another registered voter in their district.
A. Registered voters may be allowed to temporarily withdraw delegation for a single issue.
3. Registered voters get real-time stats on the status of any vote at any time.
4. Registered voters can view their historical votes.
5. Registered voters can audit their vote and insure that it was counted.
6. Registered voters can discuss bills through a forum-style format.
7. Registered voters can quickly and clearly understand all the riders on a bill.
8. Bills will be summarized outlining key elements such as costs, who benefits, who pays and who or what industry lobby wrote the bill.
9. Registered voters can suggest new bills.
10. If a bill is authored by the district, it must receive majority vote before it is proposed in committee.
Your thoughts?
The startup, PlaceAVote, envisions Americans voting on legislation through their software system and is currently running two candidates for Congress, both software engineers, who vow to vote according to the tallies recorded by the system.
“If a PlaceAVote candidate is voted into office, all bills that come before Congress will be decided by the district via majority vote online,” states the company’s web site.
One of PlaceAVote’s candidates, John Catano, said that the Founding Fathers “designed a political system that countless others have been based off of.”
“That being said, if they had access to current technology, don’t you think they would use some of it to address the will of the people?” He asked.
While the push to bring back power to the individual is encouraging, especially when the congressional approval rating is in the single digits, there are, however, some pitfalls with the concept, which appears to revolve around the “will of the majority.”
For one thing, the creators of PlaceAVote announced they are “committed to democracy.”
But America was founded as a republic under the rule of law with respect to individual liberties, not as a democracy which only leads to mob rule fueled by the unrestrained whims of the public.
“Democracy is the ‘direct’ rule of the people and has been repeatedly tried without success,” states a U.S. Army training manual from 1928. “Our Constitutional fathers, familiar with the strength and weakness of both autocracy and democracy, with fixed principles definitely in mind, defined a representative republican form of government.”
“They made a very marked distinction between a republic and a democracy and said repeatedly and emphatically that they had founded a republic.”
In other words, the Founding Fathers did not want a democracy in which the birth rights of the minority could be voted away by the majority.
Additionally, there is always the possibility that voting software can be manipulated or hacked by corrupt officials, allowing the establishment to flip votes in its favor while also giving individual voters the false impression that they are more empowered than ever before.
It’s been well documented that electronic voting machines, for example, are extremely vulnerable to voting fraud.
The Government Accountability Office even admitted as far back as 2005 that it was possible for voting staff to alter electronic ballots without being detected.
“This critical finding confirms that rigging the 2004 vote did not require a ‘widespread conspiracy’ but rather the cooperation of a very small number of operatives with the power to tap into the networked machines and thus change large numbers of votes at will,” the GAO declared in its report on the 2004 presidential election. “With 800,000 votes cast on electronic machines in Ohio, flipping the number needed to give Bush 118,775 could be easily done by just one programmer.”
While steps should be taken to empower the individual in the face of collective tyranny, attempting to do so with mobocratic concepts and fallible technology is fraught with danger.
Well, when I read this, (I quote:) “The company has 2 candidates running for Congress who promise to vote according to tallies from the public…” I knew it to be a total fail, because POLITICIANS are ALWAYS promising, and promising, and promising, and they NEVER EVER KEEP their promises. That is bullcrap. And #2, “…Registered voters can choose to delegate their vote to another registered voter in their district.” means that the democrats plan to lie and steal your vote, and claim you delegated them to vote FOR you. And “A. Registered voters may be allowed to temporarily withdraw delegation for a single issue.” Same thing here. It SMACKS of forced voting, compulsory voting – which Hitler forced as well. The rest of it I like EXCEPT That it will replace Congress, because THAT is EXACTLY what Obama wants in order for him to crown himself king. ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!
The bills are so long and convoluted most people wouldn’t bother. Too much room for voter fraud.
No. This is a republic, not a democracy. The public is too inclined to be swept away by fleeting trends and sentiment — and personal hobby -horses. So are congress critters, but they generally have a more serious and much better informed approach.
doesn’t matter Thom,they pass em before they read em anyway.
No they just need to have ALL states show voter ID’s and require ALL Electoral College Voters to vote as the public wants. There are only a few states that require an electoral college voter to by public popularity.
Love the idea but it fails in multiple ways. ONE: we are a Republic not a Democracy, our system allows for a representative government. TWO: This would require a knowledgeable and informed public otherwise people would just vote themselves pay increases with more benefits and no reqard for a budget (congress). Voters would have to be aware of more than on idea at a time.
I think we should vote on everything. That way Congress could not vote in a raise for themselves. We could put then
We could put them back to minimum wage ha ha good idea to me.
then we’d have to pay for everyone to have a pc and internet in the homes wed have to buy…lol
Yea,right. George Soros already wants to control vote counting through his computer companies so he can say liberals won every election. Now he wants to control votes on bills.