The Standards We Hold
How we will maintain integrity!
Our Standards-
Every American deserves to know how elected officials vote, where campaign money comes from, and how those decisions affect our communities—presented factually, transparently, and without partisan spin. In order to develop a platform of unbiased factual information regarding how our government is developing and applying our laws we must apply these common standards to how the site and eventual Organization will operate.
The intention is clear
The intent of Philadel.us is to create essentially a committee voting register that shows how our elected and appointed public servants are voting and deciding. This means that it will hold a lot of data to track what any representative has done in previous and current roles.
The site may use mathematical algorthimns to demonstrate details but must do so always in an unbiased manner. An example might be displaying a number that indicated the percentage of times an individual votes with their party. Any indication thereof must, however be factually provable. In this case that might mean a large enough vote that there are numerous people from one party or more who vote in a specific way on a bill. The specifics of this are not yet fully determined but if it can't be unbiased and fact based it doesn't belong on or associated with Philadel.us.
Sponsorship and Bias
While it could be critical that Philadel.us can accept sponsorships. The idea is that sponsors know the only special treatment they get is appearing on a page confirming they stand with the american people to better understand and guide our political machinery. While they will be immensely appreciated and perhaps required for this to have the reach intended, sponsors have no sway over content on the site or how it's presented.
The Goal
What we are working to achieve will be a very simple to use system that allows a person interested in seeing what a candidate for a public office has done in the past can quickly locate that individual and see their PUBLIC voting record. It does not track WHO they voted for in discreet elections, just the committee votes for public laws and policies which are always public record.
Visitors to the site should be able to locate these candidates by text search for names as well as using Maps to locate their own districts and relevant choices and bills.
Wherever possible the site should also feature the full text of all bills referenced or being voted on. I'd consider also a membership space for these public servants where they could, within limitations express why they aligned for or against a bill. We know that too often a bill's name doesn't express the potential pros or cons in the details. I grant that just because a bill has a lovely sounding name, the devil is in the details and it may be an awful bill that hurts large groups of people.
I'm eager to put more time into developing and publicizing this effort but will need sponsors to help us focus our time on initial development and hopefully soon the legal foundation work to create a 501c3 or similar educational non-profit entity.
Overall the goal is a well-informed public where it's easy to make better political choices and to know the reality of our political candidates and legal outcomes. I truly and deeply hope I am able to collect enough interest to make this happen and I believe we need this as quickly as possible. I'm very interested in more ideas on how to make this happen so if you wish to participate or just have ideas or skills to share please follow up with us here.