What does it mean to be a validated user?
Why do elected officials use Icount?
Where do you get the information for Icount?
Why do non-voters have a voice at icount?
Does icount advocate direct, instead of representational, democracy?
A: Being an Icount Validated User means that you are who you say you are, making all communications between Validated Users and elected officials meaningful. Icount takes standard user information such as full name and mailing address, and through a proprietary validation system, confirms the user is the person they claim to be, and assigns them their specific legislative district.
A: Citizens, voters and non-voters voice their opinions and can connect with their elected officials and candidate. Elected officials at the city, county, state and national levels use icount to connect with their constituents.
A: Icount filters out the noise, making communication through the site meaningful because elected officials know where all messages and voter sentiment is coming from. Politicians have a desire to connect with their constituency, and until Icount, have not had an easy way to accomplish this.
Additionally, Icount can provide aggregated voter information, including a one stop shop for:
Accurate information about a politicians constituency
Analysis that is easy to read and understand
Provides a channel to communicate directly to a politicians constituency
A: Most of the information is submitted by users, whether they are citizens, elected officials or groups. Icount also makes use of public records to collect information that is relevant, such as pending legislation and current elected officials.
A: Anyone with a browser. Icount has a wide variety of users across all ages, income, and education levels. We will continue to reach out to all residents across the country to increase the interaction between constituents and elected officials.
A: Elected officials want to represent their constituents. This includes people who live in their districts but are not voters.
A: No. At icount, we provide a platform for citizens to connect with their representatives and express their opinions and preferences. Elected officials will then have that information available to them as a representation of their specific constituents. It is up to the representative to then do what they feel is right for their district.
A: icount's vision is to build a platform that facilitates communication between elected officials and their constituents. As more information and online channels have been opened it has become more noisy for elected officials and users. icount wants to create one place where users can know they are connected with their elected officials and elected officials want a place where they can be able to filter out those who are not their constituents.
icounts political agenda is to simplify the experience of participating in the political process.
A: Icount represents a better way to communicate about political issues. By immediately connecting users to their elected officials from the local, to state, to national level, users can communicate to politicians with the click of a mouse, making it easier than ever. It provides multiples tools including polls, direct messages and groups that connect citizens to their political representatives.
Icount validates its users. Icount filters out the noise by validating its users, both citizens, elected officials and groups. By ensuring every user is validated and is who they say they are, it makes each activity on the site more meaningful. Politicians pay attention to polls, messages and conversations from their validated constituency, which is how Icount users voices are heard.
All of this leads to the benefit of a website that reduces the noise and increasing the quality of political dialogue.
