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Learning to Love the Proxy

The Straight-Up system gives every voter the option of ceding their proxy to their First Delegate (F-Del for short.)  Remember:

1. 1. 1. You get to choose your F-Del, who represents you and your Circle, which is a group of 6 to 12 voters. 
      2. You get to pick what Circle you belong in and who your Circle mates are. (But you must belong to a Circle to vote directly on legislation.)
      3. Most importantly, once you join a Circle, you can participate as little or as much as you want. 

Here’s how it works:

The Revocable Proxy

When you Claim Your Seat and join a Circle, you will have access to your own personal Voter Page.  It will have all the functions you’ll need to operate within your your DcL. (Don’t worry, if you’re not the kind of person that likes to do things online, your F-Del can do things for you). 

The Voter Page

On your voter page, for every bill that is before congress, you will have the ability to vote on it. Don’t worry about keeping track of all those bills! Agenda setting is a part of the Straight-Up system, and it’ll be clear which bills require your focus at any given time.

Take a look at that voter page: there is a lot going on here!  But in a short time you’ll find that this interface is way easier to use than many of the interfaces you are familiar with. In this treatment, we are just focussing on ‘Your Vote’ and we’ve put a box around it to make that clear.

Your Vote

So, notice that you have four voting options.  

The first two are ‘Yea’ and ‘Nay.’ Those don’t require much explanation.  The third is ‘Present.’ You might be wondering what the heck that means.

Members of a DcL can do everything a ‘legacy’ House Rep can do…

We need to provide that you, as a voter-legislator, have all the powers that inhere to being a legislator under the legacy system which we are replacing. So, if a House Rep can vote ‘present,’ then so can you. 

If you were wandering around the floor of the US House of Representatives, you might notice that there are a bunch of little gizmos here and there that look like this:

 

Don’t be fooled by the humble-looking interface. The voting system received a high-tech redesign in 2018. But it is interesting, isn’t it, that all the sturm und drang around issues of public importance can be reduced to such a simple decision point?

In any case, here’s how it goes: when that OPEN button is lit, there is a vote in progress. There are display screens at the front of the house reminding lawmakers what bill is being voted on, along with a running tally of the votes so far, and the amount of time left for voting.  All the House Reps have a card that they insert into the slot enabling them to register a vote. 

You’ll notice two buttons, “PRES” for ‘present’ and “OPEN” which is actually just a light that goes on when voting is open and goes off then voting closes.  

What it means to vote ‘present’…

Voting ‘present’ is a way of saying, “It’s not that I skipped the vote altogether, it’s just that I don’t wish to vote one way or the other.” A ‘present’ vote does not count towards the total number of votes when calculating a majority, so it is, in essence, the same as casting a vote for and a vote against the same bill (you may need to stroke your chin a bit and ponder that).  

Where is the OPEN light?

First of all, instead of an ‘OPEN’ light, we have a column next to each bill that denotes whether it is scheduled for a vote and a countdown timer, ticking off the days, minutes, and seconds till the close of voting for that bill (if it is on the schedule.)  So, DcL voters can do something that legislators can’t do, namely vote on a bill before it is scheduled for a final vote on the floor of The House.  

You can think of this as a running straw poll, gauging how voters feel about a bill right from the start of the process, and allowing them to change their minds as the bill is revised and amended.  It also provides an organic process for agenda setting–the bills with the most votes are the ones voters are paying the most attention to. And here is the beauty of the ‘present’ option.  If you think a bill addresses an important issue, but you don’t know how you feel about this particular strategy to address it, you can vote ‘present’ which will bring that bill, and that issue, to the fore so more voters will pay attention to it. 

Our voting interface has an extra button…

Notice that in our system, there is an extra choice, “Proxy” which is checked by default.  This enables your F-Del to change your vote to one of the other three options.  An F-Del can change each vote that they control in this way individually.  This means they can tailor the votes they cast based on their understanding of what that individual voter would want. 

If you cede your proxy, your F-Del casts it based on your priorities…

Your F-Del  should have a pretty clear idea of what you want because you have spoken to them about how you feel about the issues. Of course, an F-Del may want to touch base with a voter they represent to discuss a specific bill–but there are rules. These rules were laid down by the voter themselves, instructing the F-Del as to when and how they should be contacted, and for what reasons.  

We say that the Straight-Up system is ‘voter-centric’…

To be clear, you control the information and the interaction that comes your way, you control what your F-Del can and cannot do for you, and you can participate as much or as little as you want. But none of these choices affect your right, or your ability in practice, to vote directly on every bill. 

Let that sink in!  It is a radical shift in mindset.

The practicality of the proxy…

Obviously, not every voter who has a stake in lawmaking can be an expert on every bill.  And we need to accommodate the reality that not every voter has the time or the inclination to propel themselves into massive acts of civic engagement.  That’s why your vote is always checked ‘proxy’ by default. That means if you do nothing, your F-Del can cast your vote for you, based on the priorities you have previously conveyed to them. When this happens, the ‘proxy’ box remains checked, and a check also appears in the option that was selected.

Your Vote

With the Proxy Box checked, your F-Del can change your vote…

What if the bill changes, and your F-Del knows that you will not like the change? As long as they still have your authority to decide on your behalf, they can change your vote however they want.

Your Vote

But remember, this is a revocable proxy… 

At any time, right up to the close of voting, you can go on your Voter Page and change your vote.  When you do that, the check in the ‘proxy’ box disappears. Now, your F-Del no longer has control over your vote.  You may want to do this even when your F-Del has cast your vote in a way that suits you, because it prevents them from changing it in the future in a way that doesn’t!

Your Vote

Of course, you can change your mind and recheck the proxy box, putting control of the vote back in the hands of your F-Del.

Your Vote

And here’s the beauty part…

Your F-Del doesn’t have to check another option. They can take all the ‘proxy’ votes they have, and cede them to their delegate, who we call a Second Delegate, or Sec-Del for short.  This delegate is part of a small group of 6 to 12 F-Dels. And, just as an F-Del is a member of a Circle who serves as delegate for the entire Circle, a Sec-Del is a member of that group, which we call a First Link, and serves as its delegate to the next rank in the system, the Second Link.  

So, notice how, up until now, we’ve written ‘F-Del’ below ‘Proxy’?  When your F-Del goes to their voter page, they will have the option of ceding all their Proxies to their Sec-Del and now, on your voter page, Your Vote appears like this: 

Your Vote

Now, your Sec-Del has your proxy. They can have anywhere from zero to 144 proxy votes. To the extent the voters they represent have chosen to cede their proxies in this way, they have empowered their Sec-Del to negotiate on their behalf in a Second Link meeting. This allows them to say to other delegates, “I will support your voters on [a bill or an issue] if you’ll support me on [another bill or issue].  This kind of horse trading is a normal part of a group coming to a decision, and as long as the voters themselves are doing it–not House Reps in the proverbial ‘smoke filled room’–then there is nothing wrong with it.

Proxies gather power as we move forward through the ranks of delegation…

Your Sec-Del could choose to cede their proxies to their delegate, who is a Member of the District Assembly (who we call a MoDA). A MoDA can have up to 1728 proxies (although that can change if your DcL votes to change the group sizes.) 

Your Vote

 

And there is a delegate that is ‘forward’ of the MoDa, who we call a Head of Legislative Caucus (or HoLC).  There will only be ten of those (again, unless your DcL votes to change that) and so each will represent about one tenth of the participating voters in the DcL, and could conceivably have that many proxies, but only if every single voter left the proxy box checked on their voter page!  

Your Vote

Remember, your proxy is still revocable…

Even then, at any moment, you can still go to your voter page, and take back control of your vote. 

Your Vote

So, that’s it! You can control your own vote and no one gets to tell you you can’t!  That includes being able to cede your proxy to someone who has your back when, for whatever reason, you don’t wish to cast a vote yourself. That includes being able to take your proxy back when, for whatever reason, you no longer wish to entrust someone else with your voting decision. 

Some people get confused…

People, for some reason, think there is something hinky about this kind of proxy voting.  The truth is, though, proxy voting is an essential part of the legislative process, and, if anything, it is the ‘legacy’ system of proxy voting which is ‘hinky.’  One person holds the proxies of half a million voters for two years. Nearly half of those voters may not have even wanted that person to represent them at all.  There is no possibility for such a voter to take back their proxy and cast a vote as they see fit on their own account.  What is worse, some voters have more influence than others on how a House Rep votes on a bill–through lobbying, campaign funding, and privileged access. In a real way, the old system is a system that gives such people more than one vote, meaning that most voters get less than one vote. 

Learn to Love the Proxy!

By ceding your proxy, you can:

• • Stay connected to the lawmaking process, even when life drags you off in some other direction,
  • Have someone who knows you personally voting in your best interest
  • Empower your delegates to leverage your votes to achieve your legislative objectives.

And, by taking back your proxy, you can:

• • Get involved immediately on the issues that are most important to you,
  • Get the information you want when you need it,
  • Vote directly, bill by bill, on federal legislation

To sum up, the Straight-Up system ensures the following: participate as little or as much as you want, and still retain your vote on every piece of legislation.