Beyond Democracy?

We established a republic over 200 years ago, which made affairs of the state a "public matter."  Our Constitution outlined a representative form of government in which the "public" could elect those to represent us in government affairs.  Unfortunately the "public" at the time only included a very small percent of our population which were predominately white male landowners.  Whereas we rid our country of aristocratic ties, we in fact created an oligarchy who would have a "voice" in our republic. 

Over the course of our history as a young nation many people fought for a more democratic voice in who can select our representatives and how our voice is carried forth.  This has been a long and hard struggle, and some may argue that our government is more of a plutocracy than a democracy.   Whether it's from voter suppression, or the enormous amount of money being poured into the pockets of our elected officials from well funded special interest groups, the average person's voice in our nation seems to be getting muted.

With the tools we have at our disposal in such an advanced and wealthy country why hasn't there been a new apparatus built to realize the vision of our country we were taught as children? 

The Occupy Movement set out, among other things, to test a consensus process where everyone's voice was included.  It sparked a larger conversation about how to better participate in our democracy, even exploring the idea of whether representative democracy is ready for an overhaul or possibly outdated.  The big hiccup in direct democracy is that it REQUIRES the participation of the people to work.  And with only small percentages of people with the passion and time to be involved the real pulse of the people is simply not translated into our government.

Enter St. Pete Polls

Since 2011, St. Pete Polls has been polling on various community related issues that scientifically captures that pulse and converts it into real data with percentages and breakdowns of demographics.   And they have proven their system. 

Using the St. Petersburg Pier as an example, they illustrated the real temperature of the community.  Yet the City leaders ignored it and decided they knew what the people wanted.  Our elected officials were mistaken. 

Not only did they get it wrong, but our elected officials cost residents vast amounts of  tax money and time that could have better been spent on more important issues such as the foreclosure crisis in our neighborhoods, jobs and transportation issues.

So the question arises, can we find a way to use something like this in how we govern ourselves? 

There is a new prototype for an all-inclusive interactive voting platform that is being tested right now on the pier issue called Vote St. Pete.  It builds upon the engine used in St. Pete Polls, which is a phone based outbound system, and suggests that we can promote an inbound flow of participation turning the poll into a vote. 

The typical process for voicing your concerns to an elected official on an issue they will be voting on is sporadic input from citizens in such ways as email, letters, or at a public hearing.  How much of that gets through to the elected official is a source of public frustration.   

Vote St. Pete's concept is simple 

1.  Disseminate the subject up for debate amongst the affected people via:

• Internet (such as websites, email, and social media)
• TV (such as City TV and public access)
• Print materials (such as posters in public kiosks, flyers and inserts in public utility bills)

2.  Citizen then calls the phone number to place their vote for the answer they desire.

That's it in a nutshell!  The elected official has access to this information to know what direction the constituents are pointed in, and so does the entire population.  Imagine if this was integrated into the public record and save a trip to City Hall.

It's all inclusive:  anyone can access and use it.  It's convenient: it conforms to the behavior of the constituent to find them on the internet, TV or print media and allows them to simply call in their vote on their own time.  It's interactive: it allows you to participate in the decision making process.  You can even see real time results as the votes come in by visiting the website.

And there are safeguards being developed to ensure the resistance to abuse.  The phone software being used tracks who calls and verifies the user.  That user can only have one vote for that phone.  So if they call a vote in a second time, that vote simple updates; it does not add.  Which allows people to change their minds while the vote is active.  And the system cross references phone records with voter data bases and white pages.  And all data is privacy protected.  Users will eventually be able to register their numbers to ensure their votes can be verified.

Solved

One of the biggest hurdles of exploring participatory democracy, the actual participation from all cross sections of our community, is solved.  For any demographic gaps in the inbound sample, outbound calls can be placed to fill in those gaps and provide a complete statistically significant sample.  For instance, if a vote being made lacks the sufficient data on a certain age group, political party, area of town or ethnicity this data can be supplemented to make sure that all demographics are heard from and the overall response identified.

What this essentially creates is a way to tap into the pulse of the community regardless of the level of participation.  And to do it scientifically.  This goes perhaps beyond democracy itself.

With the question on everyone's mind last Tuesday night on how we were going to find consensus upon the defeat of the Lens design, the new platform was launched at the Stop the Lens watch party.

Call (727) 944-1044 and visit VoteStPete.org to give this new system a try.  While you are giving it a test drive, you are also paving the way forward for the future of the St. Petersburg Pier.

Disclosure:  Author is one of the creators of the Vote St. Pete platform.