PAPA'S OPERATIONAL ELEMENTS - Background Notes

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Everyone with internet access will be able to visit the PAPA website, read active bills, and review generalized Advisory Voting Metrics and generalized Accountability Scorecards.    
But anyone who Registers to become a Verified and Registered (VAR) Participant will also be able to read his or her legislators' and other points of view on active bills, and use the PAPA application to submit Advisory Votes to his or her legislators.  And those constituents that register AND submit Advisory Votes can additionally view detailed constituent Advisory Voting Metrics, and view detailed legislator Accountability Scorecards for those bills on which the constituent ‘voted’.  

With the exception of permitting an individual's representative and senators to access an Advisory Voter's identity to support improved communications, individual Advisory Voters remain private.   

STRONG REQUIREMENTS 

PAPA will have stronger eligibility requirements for Advisory Voters to advise their legislators than presently required by some states for voters to elect these officials into office.  

  
But to be clear: 

• Advisory Votes placed through the Political Advisory Panel of America are NOT used to ELECT any individual into office.  
• However Accountability Scorecards, which are based on Advisory Votes, can help REMOVE elected individuals from office during general elections if legislators do not satisfactorily represent their constituents.  

PAPA will simply strengthen its targeted processes for constituents to influence and evaluate their elected officials.  

This PAPA website is for informational purposes only. However, after the working web-based Political Advisory Panel application is completed, this website will morph to offer the following activities in which individuals can participate. Registered visitors can participate in all activities. Non-registered visitors will have limited access.  

PAPA will enable participants to:  

1. Read each bill that is active in Congress. 
2. Read their legislators' (and other) positions on each new bill. 
3. Register to cast Advisory Votes to advise their legislators how to vote on any bill. 
4. Learn how many other Advisory Voters in their area share or oppose their advice.  
5. Learn how their legislators vote for current bills. 
6. Read why their legislators voted the way they did. 
7. Easily discover if their legislators' votes are supporting them and other constituents – or somebody else!  

PAPA will also:

1. Have no political party affiliation.
2. Conduct itself in a non-bias manner. 
3. Simply collect input from verified voting-eligible citizens in a secure fashion while preserving the privacy of the Advisory Voter.  

The end result of participating in Advisory Voting through PAPA will be:  

1. Better educated voters.   
2. Improved legislator-constituent communications.
3. More transparency. 
4. And the full list of benefits discussed earlier.

Communications by way of Advisory Voting and Accountability Scorecards will lead to more constituent input and better representation.  This result is expected as more legislators act in more of a fiduciary capacity for their constituents, thus minimizing influence on our legislators from entities promising money and power in return for favors.  

The ‘Active Bills’ area of the PAPA website will be open to both the public and Verified and Registered (VAR) Participants of the Advisory Panel.  It is an opportunity for citizens to become educated on the business of Congress. 

This area of the PAPA website will present or provide links to:   

1. The text of active bills and resolutions before Congress or waiting for the President's signature. 
2. An indication of where each bill or resolution is in the legislative process. 
3. Interim votes (if available) by elected members of Congress on current bills and resolutions. 

The ‘Points of View’ area of the PAPA website will present Verified and Registered (VAR) Participants with data and/or links providing perspectives on active bills and resolutions – information in the form of early voting positions of their elected legislators, and to a lesser extent, in the form of points of view from other sources. Representatives and Senators are expected to post their opinions on each bill in the free space provided on the PAPA website, or at least post a link to their own website to provide this or similar input.  

The default for elected officials in this ‘space’ will read “Representative/Senator _____ has chosen not to participate in informing constituents on this matter through the Political Advisory Panel of America”.   

Opinions from other sources will be optional, but these entities must purchase space to post their perspectives on the PAPA website.