A voting advice system based on social media, using subscriptions and filtering, can be implemented in a matter of months. Such a system would revolutionize the election process, making money irrelevant to elections. And they already exist in Europe.
Contents
Imagine…
- You have an app on your portable device that gives you voting recommendations.
- Those recommendations come only from people and organizations you trust,.
- They come for every candidate and measure in your upcoming ballot — and only for those choices.
- Using that app, you subscribe for advice from organizations like Greenpeace, which has 5 million members.
- Using a WordPress plugin, or APIs, you or your organization can recommend for or against a ballot measure in Arizona, or a city council member in Peoria. And you can do so, secure in the knowledge that you are not spamming several million followers in order to reach a few hundred.
So:
- The app gives you trusted advice you can use to vote intelligently.
- The recommendation system gives you a voice that lets you share your thoughts and analysis with other voters.
Is it hard?
Actually, it is not particularly hard. All of the tools we need already exist. It’s just a matter of putting them together properly. This article on Organizing a Voting Advice System outlines at least one way to get it done, using targeted social media.
Has it Been Done?
It’s not hard to find precedents, either. Since my original proposal in 2005, such systems have already been created in Europe. In fact, this Wikipedia article on Voting Advice Applications (VAAs) says that, as of 2007, out of 22 European countries, 15 had at least one VAA.
Bottom Line
- As the app and recommendation system become more widely used, advertising becomes less and less relevant until finally, advertising becomes entirely irrelevant.
- When advertising becomes irrelevant, campaign contributions become irrelevant.
- When campaign contributions become irrelevant, lobbyists lose their power.
- When lobbyists lose their power, government for the good of the people is restored.
Copyright © 2017, TreeLight PenWorks
