Tools & Methods of MajorityVoteRules.Org

What follows is a summary of the different resources and methods MajorityVoteRules.org uses to both educate voters as well as promote our candidate(s). This is the foundation on which our organization is built, and should be a central element of democracy in America.

Fact-Checking Resources

• MajorityVoteRules.org, with the help of websites like PolitiFact, a 2009 Pulitzer Prize winner for its work in sorting out the truth in politics, will set the record straight about a variety of issues. In particular, we will fact-check the positions and campaign advertisements of John Boccieri (D-incumbent) and Jim Renacci (R), the two major-party candidates for Ohio’s 16th Congressional District for the Nov. 3, 2010 election. We plan to expand our fact-checking into other congressional districts in the future.
• MajorityVoteRules.org will do a sizeable amount of its own fact-checking. We will utilize independent fact-checking and research sources such as FactCheck.org, snopes.com and OpenSecrets.org to help correct the record of some commonly discussed topics. We will also do our own research, using independently gathered data to support our conclusions.
• You, the voter, can assist in the process. Become a member of MajorityVoteRules.org, and help us decide what issues to fact-check. Our organization is very much like the democracy we seek in American government, so the input of our members will be vital in shaping what the content of the website is.

Polling

MajorityVoteRules.org, with the help of funds from our members, will conduct professional polling of voters within particular congressional districts, beginning with Ohio’s 16th Congressional District for the Nov. 3, 2010 election. We have partnered with SurveyUSA, a professional polling firm that was one of the highest performing pollsters during the 2008 Presidential primaries. We will be asking a whole range of questions relating to specific issues or bills currently being discussed in Congress, to asking voters for their views on government and the political process in general. In every case, we are looking to find the majority opinion of the voters.

As with the Fact-Checking, members of MajorityVoteRules.org will have a large say in the type of questions we ask the voters. In most cases, we will poll our members to see if they agree to use their membership dues to fund a certain poll. And if there is a poll that members would like to see conducted but the funds are not available, the members can decide if they want to increase their dues to fund this particular poll.

Methods

The purpose of MajorityVoteRules.org is two-fold — we are seeking to increase voter’s effectiveness in the election and legislative process by helping them become more educated on the issues that their representatives in government are voting on, while at the same time advocating a form of representative government that should already signify American democracy, but isn’t.

The first part of our purpose — education — is where the fact-checking comes in. Voters are presented with more information now than at any time in history, but trying to get at what the truth can be difficult. The noise created by candidates and the major political parties, as well as either biased or lazy reporting by most traditional media sources, makes understanding the issues difficult, even for those who follow politics closely. Using trusted, non-partisan resources, we will attempt to tackle the issues that seem to be drawing the most confusion or distortion and spell out clear conclusions as to the veracity of different claims.

The key element in our second purpose — advocating a new form of representative government — is polling. While some people are somewhat skeptical of polls, the truth is that public opinion polls, when conducted properly, are very accurate. Frankly, we believe it is the only true way to gauge the public’s sentiment on any given issue. Currently, congressional representatives cite letters and phone calls to their offices as evidence of how their constituents feel about a certain issue.

But there are two problems with this. One, it may unfairly give weight to those voters who either have the time, energy or means to make contact with their representatives. And there is no way to accurately determine whether a small group of voters is giving off the impression they represent a larger majority of voters. The second problem in relying on this evidence to support a particular stance on an issue is that voters have no idea if their representative is being truthful about what they are hearing from their constituents. If a congressional representative wants to vote a certain way, he/she can just claim that their constituents wanted them to vote that way, and there is no way to know for sure. Polling solves this problem.

Our Purpose

The underlying premise of MajorityVoteRules.Org (MVR.Org) is that our government representatives are no longer free to cast their votes based on the majority opinion of their constituents due to the allegiance they owe to their political parties and the corporations who spend billions of dollars sponsoring their campaigns.

This unhealthy allegiance has led to a continuing shift of wealth and power from our majority middle class to the minority upper class as well as substantial declines in areas that include our national economy, our national security, our national health, our national educational opportunities, and our global environment.

It is the mission of MVR.Org to remove the corrupting effects of the party and corporate-funded allegiance by providing a platform of member-generated campaign funding and a core block of reliable voters which will, in turn, allow candidates to remain completely independent and pledge full allegiance to their constituents.

Now is the time for all good independent voters to come to the aid of their democracy. Now is the time when we must act or risk losing one of the last opportunities to make the necessary political reforms. Over $5 billion was spent during the 2008 campaign season, and that was before the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, making it even easier for corporations to fund political causes and campaigns.

Please take the time to browse our website and then make the commitment to join our organization. Together, we can give voters a voice — for a change.

How We Make it Work: Creating an Education-Majority Rules Dynamic

The underlying premise of our entire organization is that government representatives should cast their votes based on the majority opinion of their constituents, gathered by scientific polling, without exception. That is what we are advocating. But in order for the will of the American people to be as powerful as it should be, voters need to be properly informed on the issues they are advocating for. Too often, in our opinion, voters are inadvertently voting against their own best interest, or even worse, against what they actually want, because their knowledge of an issue has been shaped by misinformation. It is a fact that political statements and advertising are not regulated at all by the major media, leaving it to the voters to try to sort the truth from the distortions and lies. So while we will continue to push for our politicians to accurately represent the majority opinion of their constituents, we will also do our best to provide these same voters with the most truthful information available so that they are able to make the most informed political decisions.

Why Trust MajorityVoteRules.org?

MajorityVoteRules.org is made up of human beings; so to say that we have no bias would be a lie. But we can say that we are only pushing two agendas — the truth and the majority opinion of voters. Since our philosophy of government is that representatives should vote according to the will of the majority of voters they represent, what we, or even the candidate(s) we support, think about a given issue is secondary to the opinion of the voters. Primarily, issues currently or soon to be discussed in Congress will shape the topics we cover, as will the democratic input of our members. Our poll questions will be phrased in a professional and non-influential way — any reputable polling company would insist on it. We will disclose the complete results of every poll we conduct so that you can verify its legitimacy.

In addition to our website, we plan to distribute our fact-check and polling results to as many outside media outlets as possible. We currently have a commitment from the Akron Beacon Journal, the largest newspaper in Ohio’s 16th Congressional District, to run our polling results, and we hope to get similar commitments from other media outlets as well. If you are affiliated with a political blog, not matter how small; please consider sharing our work on your site.