Politicians often vote against their voters’ interests. How can the public track what they’re voting for and let them know when they go wrong?
In this blog you’ll learn about:
– A new app that lets you track your elected official’s votes and bills they are about to vote on
– How to be alerted when an issue you care about is going to be voted on
– How to advocate for yourself and easily contact your elected official
Background
Why would some politicians deny assistance to people trying to cope with the Coronavirus? Who voted against the Heroes Bill? What else have they voted against in the past? How does a voter easily contact their elected official to tell them know what really matters to voters?
Solution
FastDemocracy ® is new app that makes it easy to follow legislation in Congress and all fifty states. It empowers both political newcomers and professionals to be more informed and effective in advocating for policy change. No more passing bills in the middle of the night for wealthy donors so voters don’t find out about it till it’s too late.
Fast Democracy continuously collects data from Congress and State Legislators. This information is merged with news and tweets to create a database. Users can track specific bills or legislators and even get alerts when as issue they care about is being legislated. Fast Democracy is available as both as a free and paid premium version.
Use case
DemLabs tested the FastDemocracy app to see who voted for and against the Heroes Bill. The app is easy to use and quickly finds the information you’re looking for. I liked how it explains the legislative process and the best way to advocate for your cause. Here’s an example:
“If you want to know the details, you can find them on your legislator websites. Basically, a bill is introduced, then first and second read (i.e. briefly introduced on the House or Senate floor) and then referred to committees.
A public hearing is the public discussion on the bill in the committee – often anyone can come and testify! That means you! If you can’t make it in person, you can also submit written testimony by contacting the committee chair. After that, in an executive session, committee members vote on the bills and make amendments. Before the public hearing or in the interim between the public hearing and executive session (usually about a week) is the best time to call committee members and make your voice heard ahead of the vote.”
Take away
Some politicians rely on their voters being too busy to monitor what bills they are passing. Fast Democracy reveals what politicians are really up to and lets voters tell their elected officials what they should be voting for. Politicians are paid to represent their voters interest. Right?
Deepak
Co-Founder, DemLabs
