Mandate Democracy® Foundation
501(c)(3) · EIN 83-2825932 CFC #23056 · Est. 2019
Section 1 — The Initiative

Empower an informed electorate.

The Mandate Democracy® initiative changes the way citizens interact with their elected officials. Referendum voting and Democracy Citizenship Community Centers™ deliver education and empowerment directly to We the People.

What the initiative delivers

  • Referendum voting on policies & budgets: the questions that actually govern daily life
  • Universal online suffrage — One Person, ALL PERSONS, One Vote
  • Counted-as-Cast: only the voter sees their votes, so each vote can be personally verified

Wherein the People themselves decide directly all matters within their reach and competence.

— Thomas Jefferson
Public support

Supermajorities back these reforms.

61% believe "significant changes are needed in the fundamental design and structure of American government" Pew
67% support "a democratic system where citizens, not elected officials, vote directly on major national issues to decide what becomes law" Pew
Capabilities

An end-to-end system of governance.

Operational Network

National infrastructure, organized by congressional district

Fact-Based Options & Information

Independent, national subject-matter experts

Enhanced Voter Participation

Integrated registration, accessible over the Internet

Multi-Disciplinary Academic Research

Platforms for tailored studies and analysis

Focused Citizen Education

Cut through the noise: basic information, clear choices

Technology Enabled

Web-based online voting: cyber-secure, verifiable, locked

Mandated Referenda Options

Tax & spend, policy & issue choices

Politically Welcomed

A platform plank for candidates & officials

Citizen Initiative

No partisan, ideological, or corporate agendas

Coalition Network

Caltech alumni, universities, public-interest groups

The Case

Our governance has collapsed.

The government has seized up and shut down. Decades of deterioration have left a perpetual state of worsening gridlock and factionalism. We are a frustrated People with unmet needs and aspirations.

On this there is unanimous agreement: we shouldn't tolerate the dysfunction. We can surmount an obsolete, corrupted two-party stranglehold.

Put sovereignty back where it belongs: in the hands of the People. With an online ballot box, We the People can overcome the party debacle, a modern embodiment of Abraham Lincoln's government of, by, and for the People. Mandate Democracy®.

Just listen to the Left, to the Right, to the Founding Fathers. We were warned.

Portrait of Abraham Lincoln
Of, by, and for the People1863
Exhibit A

The Founding Fathers warned us.

George Washington

The alternate domination of one faction over another… is itself a frightful despotism… sooner or later bringing the ruins of Public Liberty.

— George Washington, First President
John Adams

There is nothing that I dread so much as a division of our republic into two great parties… to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.

— John Adams, Second President
Thomas Jefferson

If I could not go to Heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all.

— Thomas Jefferson, Third President
James Madison

The people are the only legitimate fountain of power… the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power…

— James Madison, Fourth President
Alexander Hamilton

Let every man beware of an obstinate adherence to party… to decide not a particular interest, but the very existence of the nation…

— Alexander Hamilton, First Treasury Secretary
Exhibit B

Left, Right, and the press agree.

Congress and the political parties have decayed to the point of uselessness.

— David Brooks, New York Times

Could it be that both parties are doomed? Like two punch-drunk fighters leaning on each other in the 12th round.

— Jonah Goldberg, National Review, AEI

…the hyper-partisan two-party duopoly [that] has kept Washington too divided, too dysfunctional and too directionless for too long.

— Joe Scarborough, "Morning Joe"

Something is permanently broken in our politics.

— Andrea Mitchell, political journalist

The American people bear the price of a Washington that is totally dysfunctional.

— Leon Panetta, fmr. White House Chief of Staff

…an utterly broken political system. It is shattered. Are we fated in perpetuity to a cycle of revenge politics of self-interest, where the American people are not represented?

— Steve Schmidt, Republican campaign strategist
Next

The warning was ignored. The remedy is built.

See how secure online referendum voting works, and what it takes to turn the People's voice into mandates their representatives answer to.

How It Works   Why It's Needed