This evening, during the Operation Hope Zoom call, Cenk mentioned that he would like to see an app developed that allows people to easily track a politician’s voting history. He noted that while similar attempts have been made in the past, none have remained updated or functioned reliably. He may have shared additional thoughts as well, and once the video of the call is posted I’ll review it to make sure we capture the full range of purposes and goals.
As a first set of project management steps, we’ll need to define our goals, establish deadlines, and outline the core features we want the app to deliver. Starting with those foundations will give us a clear direction to move forward, and once these are drafted, we can refine them together as a group.
Before getting to that stage, though, I’d like to see if there’s interest in forming a team to take this on. I can commit a few hours each week to the project, but it’s not something I can carry alone.
All right so as Cenk stated in the zoom call on the 10th, our goal is to create an app that will effectively deliver to the American people what the voting record of their congress person is.
To get this working I suggest build a php based webui that can be called down to an app format later. Really at that point we can just import the HTML pages into the app and the heavy lifting can be done on the server side. This will also make it easier port out to Android and IOS or whatever other platforms may come in the future. We like future proofing apps so we dont’ have to do extra work in the future. But that’s just my suggestion for how to go forward.
No matter how we proceed, one thing we will need is a database with the desired information.
What we will need first before we start on any coding is a set of databases and SQL queries that we can use to import the exact information we want to display. Not only for the final product but for testing purposes in the interim.
Can I get any volunteers to put together Excel or CVS spreadsheets with the following information?
Name of congressperson
Congress Persons title (IE State Rep or Senator)
Which State and/or district they represent
The date range they have been in their position
Their contact information
I’m also open to suggestions on how to handle people congress people who have served in both chambers.
After this we will need to create more spreadsheets for each of these members that include
Topic voted on (Just do your best at this point we’ll decide on overall categories later and change if needed) Examples could be Abortion, LGBTQ+ Rights, etc.. but both of those may be separated into a category like sexual health later. I’m not saying they will but you get the idea.. try to make it more detailed now and we can do categories later.
Date they voted
link to video or other multemedia
quote of any statement they made regarding this particular vote
In my mind, if we could get someone to just focus on their specific Senator or Representative and just do one at a time, things would work rather quickly
One thing we might be able to use is this GitHub repository
If we want to just use this repository, a lot of the information we need doesn’t even need to go into our database, but the downside would be we are then relying on an outside service that may or may not always be available and we won’t have control over it’s accuracy.
Me and a couple others are working on this. We created a channel on the TYT discord, where I’m adding anyone who wants to help with this so we can have a group discussion that’s easier to message back and forth on. Here’s the link assuming you’re on discord.
Hi all, Full Stack Software Engineer here. I heard Cenk mention this on yesterdays show - I had this exact idea years ago, and am interested in helping out! I’ve cross posted on the discord as well. Not sure how to pitch in, but looking forward to it. Please let me know if I can help in any way.
The app is a great idea! Sorry to barge in here, but how do i share or send a video in? I got the chance to ask my rep debbie dingell about hr3493. I cant figure out how to share the video though. Can anyone help me out?