Get Democracy Seeks To Crowdfund Legislative Tracking

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A new app called “Get Democracy,” plans to crowdfund legislative tracking with a new Kickstarter project. The app team which is based out of Stamford Connecticut launched a Kickstarter today to support the creation of a mobile app that would allow constituents to vote on legislation in the same way that their elected representatives do.

The application creators think their app will lend more transparency to the legislative process. In practice, the app will ask users to vote on the same bills as their elected officials. The app then notifies users when the elected officials they are tracking vote and if they voted with or against them. The application also tracks votes on issues over time to show users the percentage of times their elected officials voted with or against their constituents.

The app replicates some of the existing voter technology efforts within civic tech – work done by the Sunlight Foundation springs to mind. What’s also interesting is what is left out of the application – most specifically, any follow-up between constituents and their representatives. CivSource reached app creator Jason Cohen by phone, and he told us that there are plans to build out a follow-up function.

The mobile interface includes a simple thumbs up/thumbs down view and will allow users to search through congress people. Issue alerts are also available for voters interested in a specific subject matter. The campaign is asking for $50,000 and has raised just under $3,000 since launch.

Learn more here.