The App That Scores Your Politicians Like a Baseball Card

About this episode

Ramon Perez discusses the Digital Democracy Project and the importance of real-time voting on legislation.

What would it look like if everyday Americans could weigh in on actual legislation, not just every few years at the ballot box, but in real time, on every bill being debated in Washington or their state capitol? Ramon Perez is a Georgia Tech-educated engineer who changed course after 9/11, became a military intelligence officer, deployed to four combat zones, and lost a friend to a sniper in Fallujah. That experience shaped his understanding of what democracy means and what it costs when it starts to fail. After January 6th and the protests in Portland, Ramon saw the same pattern he'd watched abroad: when people stop believing the system works for them, they start looking for alternatives. His answer was Digital Democracy Project, a nonprofit using blockchain-based mobile voting software to let verified U.S. citizens vote on real legislation and see exactly how their representatives voted on the same bills. The result is a scorecard, like a baseball card, that shows every legislator's alignment with the people who elected them. We get into the structural reasons democracy feels broken (gerrymandering, one-party districts, politicians who write the rules they compete under), why…

People in this episode

Hosts: Ian Primmer, Jared Mayzak

Guest: Ramon Perez

Topics covered

• digital democracy
• voting technology
• political engagement
• legislation
• military experience
• democracy
• AI and fusion energy

Keywords

• gerrymandering
• blockchain
• mobile voting
• legislators
• public opinion
• democracy
• AI
• fusion energy

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Digital Democracy Project

Places: Georgia Tech, Washington, Portland, Fallujah

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