The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, and consists of two chambers: the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. Both senators and representatives are chosen through direct election, though vacancies in the Senate may be filled by a gubernatorial appointment. Congress has 535 voting members: 435 representatives and 100 senators. In addition, the House of Representatives currently has six non-voting members, bringing the total membership of the US Congress to 541 or fewer in the case of vacancies.
Patrick Joseph Tiberi is an American politician who served as the U.S. Representative for Ohio's 12th congressional district from 2001 to 2018. His district included communities north and east of Columbus. He is a member of the Republican Party, and previously served in the Ohio House of Representatives from 1993 to 2000. He briefly served as Chair of the new Republican Main Street Congressional Caucus from September 7, 2017.
David Eugene Price is an American politician serving as the U.S. Representative for North Carolina's 4th congressional district since 1997, previously holding the position from 1987 to 1995. A member of the Democratic Party, he represents a district covering much of the heart of the Triangle, including all of Orange County and parts of Wake and Durham counties. It includes most of Raleigh, the wealthier parts of Durham, and all of Cary and Chapel Hill. He is dean of North Carolina's congressional delegation.
Elections in the United States are held for government officials at the federal, state, and local levels. At the federal level, the nation's head of state, the president, is elected indirectly by the people of each state, through an Electoral College. Today, these electors almost always vote with the popular vote of their state. All members of the federal legislature, the Congress, are directly elected by the people of each state. There are many elected offices at state level, each state having at least an elective governor and legislature. There are also elected offices at the local level, in counties, cities, towns, townships, boroughs, and villages; as well as for special districts and school districts which may transcend county and municipal boundaries. According to a study by political scientist Jennifer Lawless, there were 519,682 elected officials in the United States as of 2012.
In the United States, Election Day is the annual day set by law for the general elections of federal public officials. It is statutorily set as "the Tuesday next after the first Monday in the month of November" or "the first Tuesday after November 1". The earliest possible date is November 2, and the latest possible date is November 8.
Town hall meetings, also referred to as town halls or town hall forums, are a way for local and national politicians to meet with their constituents, either to hear from them on topics of interest or to discuss specific upcoming legislation or regulation. During periods of active political debate, town halls can be a locus for protest and more active debate.
Reddit is an American social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website. Registered members submit content to the site such as links, text posts, and images, which are then voted up or down by other members. Posts are organized by subject into user-created boards called "subreddits", which cover a variety of topics like news, science, movies, video games, music, books, fitness, food, and image-sharing. Submissions with more up-votes appear towards the top of their subreddit and, if they receive enough up-votes, ultimately on the site's front page. Despite strict rules prohibiting harassment, Reddit's administrators spend considerable resources on moderating the site.
mySociety is an e-democracy project of the UK-based registered charity named UK Citizens Online Democracy. It began as a UK-focused organisation with the aim of making online democracy tools for UK citizens. However, as those tools were open source, the code could be and soon was redeployed in other countries.
Robert Joseph Wittman is an American politician serving as the U.S. Representative for Virginia's 1st congressional district, serving since a special election in 2007. The district stretches from the fringes of the Washington suburbs to the Hampton Roads area. He is a member of the Republican Party.
GOOOH stands for "Get Out of Our House." It is a non-partisan plan to replace the members of the United States House of Representatives with what it views as 'true citizen representatives.'
Jodey Cook Arrington is the U.S. Representative for Texas's 19th congressional district. The district includes a large slice of West Texas, centered around Lubbock and Abilene. He is a member of the Republican Party.
Darin McKay LaHood is an American politician from Peoria, Illinois, who is the United States Representative for Illinois's 18th congressional district. Before being elected to Congress, he was a member of the Illinois Senate representing the seven-county 37th legislative district.
NGP VAN, Inc. is a privately owned voter database and web hosting service provider used by the American Democratic Party, Democratic campaigns, and other non-profit organizations authorized by the Democratic Party. The platform or service is used by political and social campaigns for fundraising, campaign finance compliance, field organizing, and digital organizing. NGP VAN, Inc. was formerly known as Voter Activation Network, Inc. and changed its name to NGP VAN, Inc. in January 2011. The company was founded in 2001 and is based in Washington, District of Columbia, with an additional location in Somerville, Massachusetts.
Government crowdsourcing is a form of crowdsourcing employed by governments to better leverage the collective knowledge and experience of their people by tapping into their ability to see connections, understand issues, and coordinate action. It has tended to take the form of public feedback, project development, or petitions in the past, but has grown to include public drafting of bills and constitutions, among other things. This form of public involvement in the governing process differs from older systems of popular action, from town halls to referenda, in that it is primarily conducted online or through a similar IT medium.
The OpenGov Foundation is a non-partisan, non-profit organization that bridges the gap between citizens and government with modern technology, data and design thinking. The organization conducts user-centered research inside legislatures like the United States Congress, develops software for those who serve in government, and helps governments create policies and rules that support openness and effective engagement with the public.
Civic technology, or civic tech, enhances the relationship between the people and government with software for communications, decision-making, service delivery, and political process. It includes information and communications technology supporting government with software built by community-led teams of volunteers, nonprofits, consultants, and private companies as well as embedded tech teams working within government.
Gwendolyn Graham is an American lawyer and politician who served as the U.S. Representative for Florida's 2nd congressional district from 2015 to 2017. She is the daughter of Bob Graham, the former United States Senator and Governor of Florida. A Democrat, she was a candidate in the Florida 2018 gubernatorial election.
Garret Neal Graves is the United States Representative from Louisiana's 6th congressional district. In a runoff election on December 6, 2014, Graves, a Republican, defeated the Democratic candidate, Edwin Edwards.
Civic technology companies are platforms, products, and services that facilitate civic engagement. Civic technology encompasses any type of technology that enables greater participation in government affairs, or "assists government in delivering citizen services and strengthening ties with the public". The phrase can essentially be used to describe any company that is concerned with improving the quality, access, and efficiency of government services within the political system through technological means.
Justice Democrats is an American progressive political action committee founded on January 23, 2017, by Kyle Kulinski of Secular Talk, Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks, and Saikat Chakrabarti and Zack Exley, former leaders from the 2016 Bernie Sanders presidential campaign. Kulinski and Uygur are no longer affiliated with the group but remain active supporters. Alexandra Rojas became executive director of the organization in May 2018. The organization formed as a result of the 2016 United States presidential election and has a stated goal of reforming the Democratic Party by running "a unified campaign to replace every corporate-backed member of Congress" and rebuilding the Democratic Party "from scratch" starting in the 2018 congressional midterm elections. Justice Democrats state their goals are "to elect a new type of Democratic party majority in Congress" that would "create a thriving economy and democracy that works for the people, not big money interests".
