“My pledge: As your Representative in Congress, I will vote exactly as you, the citizens in my district, direct me to vote through your participation on this website, or by secure telephone connection to my office in Washington: no ifs, ands, or buts.”
Daniel Rosen, Stateline, Nevada
Candidate for Congress 2006
We the people of the Second Congressional District,
in order to secure our sovereignty over the official actions of our Representative in Washington, D.C., have joined together in Nevada Vote Direct.
Nevada Vote Direct is a citizen initiative for eliminating political corruption and waste, and for making government responsive to the people. Its polls are open all day every day to registered voters in Nevada’s Second Congressional District. When elected, Mr. Rosen will vote in Congress exactly as directed by the majority of voters in his district. Nevada Vote Direct is owned and controlled by its members.
Our congressional campaign is in Nevada’s Second Congressional District, including Reno, Minden, Gardnerville, Fallon, Ely, Winnemucca, Elko, Tonapah, Battle Mountain, Baker, parts of Lake Tahoe, and most of the rest of the state, excluding all but a small part of the Las Vegas metropolitan area.
Our candidate for Congress, Mr. Daniel Rosen, is not a career politician. He has no favors to exchange for campaign funding. He earns our trust by limiting and publicly disclosing contributions to his campaign, and by forever relinquishing any paid lobby position in the future. He cannot promise special interest federal (pork) spending, because his votes in Congress will be controlled by the citizens through their votes at Nevada Vote Direct. He is committed to his constituents, not a career.
Elections are usually decided on the basis of a limited number of distracting hot-button issues that are hyped by politicians. After the election, politicians forget all but their big-moneyed special interest supporters. There are no votes during the term that can instruct the representative in the will of the people. But now, a new technology is available for you to vote continually on the issues that concern you, and especially when specific legislation is pending in Congress. This technology is provided free of charge to all registered voters in Nevada’s Second District, here at Nevada Vote Direct. Using this technology, Nevada will demonstrate to the nation that there IS a way to eliminate political corruption and make government responsive to the people.
History in Nevada
Together, we are making history with this powerful innovation in our community’s political life. Using new digital technology at this site, and secured telephone voting, we will direct our Representative in Congress to vote as WE want him to vote. For we believe that this is the essence - not just the letter, but the spirit - of real political representation in a democracy.
To this end, we will give our Representative constant direction by voting on this website with regard to legislation pending in Congress. Our technology permits us to do this, and in our present circumstances we feel compelled to take advantage of it.
The representative democracy we relied on in the past has been hollowed out from within by unscrupulous politicians and lobbyists.
Our politicians claim to represent us, but when they cast their votes they remember only the people who paid for their election.
They pander with contempt, telling us what they think we want to hear; they campaign on personality and bogus claims of character. No one knows what they stand for, because for the most part they stand only for what is politically expedient at the moment. We have been forced often to vote for the prettiest face or the most pleasant smile, meekly hoping for the best.
The meek shall inherit the Earth. Yes, but what will be left of it when the politicians and special interests have finished with it?
And so, now, at Nevada Vote Direct we vote on the issues themselves, and the polls are always open, every day, all day. But we don’t vote just for the sake of voting. For our future Representative (Daniel Rosen, of Stateline, Nevada) has pledged to be bound by our decisions without recourse or waiver - “no ifs, ands or buts.”
In short, we create Nevada Vote Direct in order to attain mastery over our own fate as free people. Individually, we vote whenever a particular issue concerns us personally. But we give ourselves the right to decide on the full range of issues, without restriction or limitation. And we declare that, for us, the days of special interest political corruption are over. We the people of the Second Congressional District are not for sale to the highest bidder. We, the people, will decide.
An electronic direct democracy sounds like science fiction. But that’s always the way when the future all of a sudden turns into the present. Nevada Vote Direct is not just a promise for a better tomorrow. NVD is a present reality - up and running today, and open for business, NOW.
We propose to vote here at Nevada Vote Direct in order to determine how our Representative casts his vote in Congress, but we have to put our trusted candidate in that position before this great vision of responsive government may be realized. We have a long way to go over the course of next year. But we have already taken the most important first step (in fact, an enormous leap): we have succeeded in putting the technology in place.
And we are already employing this technology as a vital instrument in the planning and administration of our campaign to get our candidate elected. For our great strenth is that we are conducting our campaign democratically. Our decisions are facilitated by decision management software installed at this site. It is the same software that we will be using after the election to vote on specific legislation before Congress. You may begin using this software to help us plan and conduct our campaign just as soon as you register as a member.
In fact, this site has been fully functional since November 19, 2005. NVD now invites citizens in the Second Congressional District to participate democratically with us in our congressional campaign. We look forward to working with YOU toward this lofty but realistic goal.
When you become a registered member of Nevada Vote Direct, you become entitled to submit Motions, and to discuss and vote on Motions. (Our Vox Populi software incorporates Robert’s Rules of Order, in which “Motions” represent directives for action that are proposed and approved by the members.) We don’t ask you to pay your dues and shut your mouth. In fact, membership is free and open to any registered voter in the district. We ask you to take charge together with us in a joint effort wherein everyone of us has an equal share in power. In this way, the entire campaign is being directed and managed democratically by our membership.
Our Decision Management System [DMS] was designed for Nevada Vote Direct by Vox Populi Systems, Stateline, Nevada. It is unique technology, and we feel privileged to be the first to demonstrate its fantastic potential as an instrument of the will of individuals in groups. We believe that our campaign for congress is epoch-making.
Our DMS is the first of its kind. It provides secure voting, anonymous when desired, using open-source software that may be evaluated by any member at any time without restrictions. There are no hidden codes.
We are inviting you to join with us as we make history together in Nevada. We have a long tradition in this state of producing free-thinking individuals. “Maverick” is still, thank heavens, a compliment in Nevada. There is no state in the Union better suited to repair the creaking eighteenth-century machinery of our political system. We are writing a new chapter in the evolving epic of democratic citizenship.
We declare that we are capable of deciding for ourselves on the main issues of the day, and we have determined that no representative shall speak for us but the one who honors our judgment, “no ifs ands or buts.” Daniel Rosen is that man, and we intend to put him in the House of Representatives.
