Electric Vote is an open source platform for democratic decision-making based on the principles of direct and representative democracy. Users can either vote directly in polls or flexibly cast their votes to other users who best represent their opinions.
Problems and Purpose
The problems that Electric Vote is designed to address are when users want to directly participate in a decision but cannot (e.g. because their vote is delegated to a representative), or want to delegate their vote to representatives (e.g. because they don't know the matter well enough or don't have time to engage in a decision), or want to split their vote onto multiple representatives or change their delegation settings at any point in time. Electric vote combines the concepts of direct and representative democracy in order to tackle such problems. For every choice, electric vote allows users to vote directly or to delegate a vote onto (multiple) representatives.
Origins and Development
Know how and why this tool/technique was developed? Help us complete this section!
How it Works
Everyone can participate as the platform is open-source and free. Users simply engage in the following steps:
- Create a group and invite members (e.g. using an invitation link);
- Create a poll (e.g. a problem description) and choices (e.g. possible solutions);
- Vote directly or choose representatives
- Close poll and share results
Interactions with other group members are possible in the comment section.
The evolution of a poll is shown in a live chart.
Analysis and Lessons Learned
Want to contribute an analysis of this tool/technique? Help us complete this section!
See Also
References
https://github.com/aschethor/electric.vote
External Links
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_democracy