Track the legislature like never before

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When the 35 Senators and 65 House members in the Colorado General Assembly start work next month, there will be ample coverage of high-profile issues like physician-assisted suicide and full-strength beer at grocery stores.

But voters who want to go beyond the hyped issues may make use of the new voter participation tool digitdemos.com. Launched in time for the 2015 session by former state senator Ron Tupa, digitdemos aims to restore citizen voices in government. A free membership lets you choose up to 25 bills to track through the process, providing an abbreviated summary with links to more detailed documents. The twist? Users also get the satisfaction of voting yes or no on each proposed law.

“If democracy is to work at all correctly, the public has to know what is being introduced and passed on their behalf,” Tupa says. “We’re hearing about some of these issues, but the legislature will introduce 500, maybe 600 bills. Lawmakers are very busy in the 120- day session. They pass as many laws here at the state level as they do in Washington. But even if you follow the news daily, you might only hear about a fraction of them.”

For a small fee, digitdemos staff will keep users apprised of developments as they happen, all session long. Those undaunted by information overload can use the tool to keep tabs on as many as 100 bills.

Tupa doesn’t just want betterinformed voters to fire or re-hire legislators every other November. He wants legislators to hear from constituents directly on as many issues up for a vote as possible.

“I created digitdemos so that the public could weigh in while the legislature is in session,” he says. “If you get onto the site and you choose some bills, you’ll see that you can vote in real time, even before legislators vote on bills. That way it’s as if you’re down at the capitol testifying in person.”

Tupa represented Boulder in the legislature for 14 years before leaving office in 2008 due to term limits. He points out that while legislators on both sides of the aisle support his project, party leadership might not like the idea of the public weighing in more frequently during the session.

“The truth is, when they get a controversial bill through the legislature in three days, it means that they didn’t want to hear from a whole lot of people,” he says.

The site provides contact information so that users can easily reach out directly to legislators.

Digitdemos won’t send petitions on their behalf or publish externally the legislator’s scorecard that compares each users’ positions on bills with how their representatives actually voted during the session.

Tupa does plan to publish aggregate data about voter-legislator alignment. He can match how hundreds and, he hopes, soon thousands of site members vote, with the decisions made by elected officials on a district-by-district basis. Users must confirm their identity once digitdemos checks registration status with public data available through the Secretary of State’s database. You don’t have to be a registered voter to use the tool, but you do have to prove you’re a real person. One voter, one account.

But Tupa insists that user privacy is paramount.

“We don’t sell anybody’s personal information, we don’t accept advertising, we don’t take money from any third parties,” he says. 

The business model is subscriptionbased. Tupa says he expects members will be happy with the free version and, after tracking 25 bills, won’t mind paying a few dollars a month for expanded access. The website, legal advisers, video production, Tupa’s time and the addition of staff during the session all cost money. But faced with coverage coming from just a small pool of reporters covering the statehouse and few obvious entry points for direct democracy, most Coloradans tune out of the legislative process.

Asked about the financial gamble he is making, Tupa replies, “I have to do it. I’m all in for citizen participation. I’m not throwing in the towel. I’m not waving the white flag. I believe digitdemos will be a powerful tool all Coloradans can use to hold legislators accountable… If they use it.”

Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com