American Democracy Is Broken
Our current system creates politicians that ignore voters. They make excuses to explain why they couldn’t do what they promised to you. But, when it comes to spending billions to fund forever wars our children fight, bail out big banks that cheat the average American out of their money, or give tech companies every allowance they’ve ever wanted, it’s suddenly miraculously easy.
Why? Both parties are funded by billionaires and big money interests. They’re not listening to us. That’s the real problem. We all know it.
Making it Easy to Fight Back
By joining our community, you’ll get the tools you need to make your politicians listen—Republican or Democrat. VoteDown does this by giving you the power to donate
against politicians during their time in office and then letting them know how upset you are in the one language they respect - money.
They do something you don’t like?
With a click, you can send them a message with some real teeth. Then, go back to enjoying life, knowing you’re doing your part to change the system. No need to stress. The only people who will need to stress will be the politicians who don't listen to your voice.
Signing-up is free. We don’t charge a subscription. And, every cent of the actual donation goes directly to opposing your candidate (note: we charge a separate payment processing fee to cover our costs, but make that very clear up front, so you can see).
Donate Against Politicians
Ever notice how much politicians beg for your donations? That’s because your money is extremely important.
The problem is that, right now, when you give to a campaign, you’re writing a blank check. Politicians don’t have to deliver. They take your sucker money and laugh their way to the bank.
Your representatives don’t treat special interests that way. Special interest money is given with an understanding of performance. In fact, if your politician crosses the Big Money machine, Big Money spends all that they can to replace the politician with someone who will listen to them. That is why your politician listens and obeys their Big Money masters.
We are giving
you that same control. The truth is your money needs to come with strings attached. You need to have the same power as a Big Money lobby. By using VoteDown, each time your politician crosses you, you can donate against them. Together, we can send a message. The days of taking us for granted are over.
Our Philosophy & Why We Need Your Help
At VoteDown, we're dedicated to empowering you to shape policy decisions. We're passionate about strengthening our democracy, joining hands with you, and together giving a voice to each of us. We don't advocate for positions (other than empowering citizens). We help YOU to advocate for YOUR positions.
As a non-profit organization VoteDown.org’s mission is to make elected representatives work for you. But, we can’t do it alone. With each new person that joins our community, we make it known that enough is enough. Using our technology, you and your community can have a direct, clear, effective channel to change the political will of your representatives, restoring the basic promise of democracy.
Our community, working together, can overcome the power of Big Money
VoteDown provides tools for outraged and disappointed voters, like you, to donate against Congresspeople and Senators. When they act against your interests, you will have a more powerful weapon than letters, emails, or protests (which all just get ignored). VoteDown makes sure they know why you are upset, backed with the one thing they cannot ignore - donations against their re-election.
Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
When you donate against a politician, you are not just trying to replace them.
Far more importantly, we are communicating to them the issues that you are upset about and letting them know the price to cross you. As we see with Big Money, the fear of those donations against them, combined with aggressive communication, can change their behavior and start to make them act in your best interests. We don't really want to replace them. We just want them
to do their job.
How Does It Work?
It’s a sad reality that money is more important than what’s right or wrong. The Supreme Court has said that money equals speech. It's truly tragic, but for now, it’s where we are. What's even worse is that the average American has no voice and is not speaking. The only ones speaking are the PACs and SuperPACs.
But, today, by joining our community, you’re sending a clear message. By using VoteDown, you’re making sure your donations push your politicians to work for you. Our platform pools together you and your community’s donations and lets politicians know when they act out, they’re on their way to losing their job. VoteDown wants you to have the same advantages of a big money lobby.
Every dollar that you donate against a politician immediately gets communicated to the politician. We then hold the money and, 90 days before the election, we give all of that money to whoever the leading opponent is. The challenger can now have the resources to bring a new voice to the race.
Can't I Just Donate To Their Opponent?
Sure you can,
sometimes. Here is the big secret that politicians don't want you to know. When we are in the height of an election season, you have the option to donate against them. They know this,
so they don't do anything to upset you during election season.
But, right after the election, they know that they can work against your interests and there is nothing you can do for almost 2 years. They are betting on the fact that you are busy, and over the coming years, other things will come up, and you will forget about how angry you were.
VoteDown ensures that your outrage is registered right when it happens and the politician can't ignore it. We make
every season into election season so they can never ignore you.
History
Our founders have spent their lives watching American Democracy become less and less responsive to average voters. In our youth, we believed in the power of protests, letter writing, polls, and surveys to help shape the political landscape. But, over the years, it became more and more clear that there was only one thing that the politicians respected:
Money
They only listen to their Big Money donors, regardless of what their actual voters want. Policy after policy that would help Americans—which are favored by strong majorities on both sides —simply are not even discussed. The deep-pocketed donors don't want them, and their campaign contributions keep politicians obedient.
We believe with your help we can change that dynamic. By enabling small dollar donations against a politician, you can have an effective voice against these harmful policies . Small dollar donors, when working together, have been shown to be far more powerful than even the biggest Dark Money group.
The existing Big Money players want you to believe that you can't make a difference. That their million dollar checks will be the only things that matter. That you should just be quiet and accept that this is how the system works.
We reject that completely.
With VoteDown, we believe that, together, we are FAR more powerful than even the biggest lobbying group. We can empower citizens by making sure their donations are used to push policies they want and that by bringing together voters just like you, we all can show our collective power.
At VoteDown, we don’t play political favorites. We are not on one side of the “aisle” or the other. We don’t have a specific political issue. We believe that Big Money shouldn’t have control over our politicians—
you should. Congress should respect the will of the voters.
It’s that simple. Our society is better when our government speaks to our needs and reflects our interests. To the team at VoteDown, this is more important than any other issue. It means that we can have honest genuine conversations about how we want to live our lives.
It seems so simple. Congress should respect the will of the voters. But study after study shows, sadly, that is not the case in this country. Our ills are not because of the ‘other party'. It’s not because your neighbor votes differently than you do. The root cause of so many of our problems is the unchecked power of Big Money. With VoteDown, and you as a part of our community, we will change that.
What We Need
We are in the process of building a platform that will transform American Democracy. We are set up as a non-profit, with a simple goal of empowering the average citizen. We are targeting to launch directly after this year's election season, with the goal to drive influence in the 2025-2026 Congress.
To do so, we need to build a number of computer systems and software, engage with lawyers (legal fees) to ensure that we are keeping on the right side of the law, and run marketing programs when we launch to spread the word about the powerful new tool that we are bringing to the average citizen.
We are fully
donor-funded, so we rely on your passion and generosity to both support us, and help
spread the word to your friends, family and social media contacts. Together, we are FAR more powerful than Big Money.
If you can assist us to get this service kick-started, we can make an impactful, lasting difference on how this country operates and finally give a voice back to the people of the country.
