PAPA’s OPERATIONAL ELEMENTS - Registration

Register for Greater Participation

On the first visit to the Political Advisory Panel of America website, the first order of business could be to Register. While not required to browse the site, registered voters can run the PAPA application and participate in more of what the site has to offer. A participant remains registered until one or more of the documents used for registration expire.

The 'Registration' area of the PAPA website will be used to assist individuals to register to become ‘Verified and Registered (VAR) Participants’ on the Panel. VAR Participants will gain access to the PAPA application and non-public areas of the website such as:

‘Points of View’ (scroll to the middle of this page),
‘Advisory Voting’
Detailed 'Advisory Voting Metrics'
Detailed 'Accountability Scorecards’

During the registration process, individuals will submit data to verify their following information:

Identity
Citizenship
Eligibility to vote in U.S. general elections
Location of residence (to confirm their federal representative and senators)
Expiration date on each document used in the registration process.

The submitted data will be verified for authenticity and consistency. Once an individual successfully ‘passes’ registration, they are identified on the PAPA application as a ‘Verified and Registered’ (VAR) Participant of the Advisory Panel and able to access the PAPA application and participate in all functions of the Panel. Anytime the PAPA website detects one or more documents used in the registration process are approaching expiration, the VAR Participant is notified to re-register with his or her new documentation to maintain access as a VAR Participant.

The verification and registration processes for PAPA are analogous to all U.S. citizens of proper age and residency having the right to vote in U.S. general elections, BUT only those who properly register to vote and complete a polling location process or early voting process are actually permitted to vote.

The accompanying graphic is a generalized workflow for a portion of a 'live' PAPA website and application. It demonstrates how registration has an impact on a constituent's experience with the PAPA application (note red boxes).

Enticing Greater Participation Through Limitations

More From Less: It is expected that more participation in Advisory Voting will result if the general public is restricted from accessing detailed reports and some functionality. These limits should encourage registration and participation as an Advisory Voter in order to access the FULL BENEFITS from PAPA, with the ultimate goal of boosting constituent participation in executing their civic role.

Limiting access to portions of the PAPA website has two primary intents:

1. Encourage more citizens to register and to submit Advisory Votes instead of advising legislators via traditional methods. Encouragement is by way of withholding ‘rewards’ (i.e.: access to detailed reports) until registration and participation are completed. By registering and fully engaging in the legislative process through PAPA, voters can reap the full benefits from using the Political Advisory Panel that are not available through other means of advising legislators, among them:

Aggregating, strengthening, and documenting the impact of constituent advice - thus minimizing influence from special interest groups.
Creating a more transparent legislative process.
Gaining access to detailed constituent Advisory Voting Metrics and detailed legislator Accountability Scorecards for their elected officials – helping to make elected officials more accountable to their constituents.

2. Provide security and validation that Advisory Votes are submitted only by U.S. citizens eligible to vote, and to assure only one Advisory Vote is being submitted per individual, per bill, and only to each of their elected officials.