Tell us a little bit about yourself and why voting and understanding elections are so important to you.

Well, I mean, similar to Shu, I, I just kinda saw that, um, the systems aren't working, technology offers potential to do things differently.

Um, I was motivated also by, you know, the COVID and just seeing how, uh, broken the system was in terms of being divisive.

And, um, it always bothered me as being a business person.

My background is I p- pioneered a work from home business called Book Minders 35 years ago, um, identifying that com- personal computers would change the way people work.

And, um, the company's actually been so successful they retired me.

[laughs] If there's ever a case for women running government, you should see the all-women management team at Book Minders.

And so if it was discussed at some point, I think it was probably low on the priority list because they were really trying to do so many things that were, I, I use the word revolutionary, right? That, that hadn't been done before.

And

because of that, it means that the people that represent us aren't really accountable for what they do.

And when you don't have accountability, then it allows people to kind of do what they do and, you know, not really think about the consequences for everyday people like you and me.

And my background is I have an engineering degree.

I worked in early in my career in the field of factory automation.

I stumbled upon an idea back in the late 80s when personal computers were coming out.

I was trying to help my father with his business, and he had lost his bookkeeper.

No,

And they understand it and they can see the vision.

First, you know, it's only U.S. House districts.

It's only gerrymandered U.S. House districts.

Our understanding is that...

You want to find a vote where a district where the winner has probably 70 to 80 percent has been winning with that.

That way, if we split that vote in half, the opposition party still doesn't have a chance.

We want to go into a place where the voters have been buried, but they really don't have a chance to put up a candidate to win.

So since you say that, what is the governance like with this? Because if we're making sure that or if we're saying that it's free and fair, what's the governance to make sure that it's free and fair?

And I just wonder how that nominating process would work in that situation, because technically and legally, they could potentially do that.

The part of the system that I think is really innovative, it's kind of a surreal moment for me, is that I've been putting together this idea, thinking that that would be legal to do within a party structure, complete.

And I went to my election attorney with this idea and he said, you know, I don't know if you've ever heard these things called like the Democratic House Re-election Fund or the Republican Senate Re-election Fund.

So I thought my prize money for the person would be that fund.

And so I go into my attorney and I present this idea.

He'd been running for a House seat and he actually lost and he finally was paying attention to what he was doing.

And he goes, Tom, that's illegal.

How does like a Main Street candidate compete financially in a general election like that?

80s almost everybody worked at westinghouse it no longer exists but

but i stumbled on this idea of um um I had older sisters and I had a father at a small business and personal computers were coming into the forefront.

And I, I think at this point, pretty much the first remote first business model, I got the business book monitors.

I started, uh, started employing people to work from home and was really never designed to employ full-time staff that worked in the office.

And here we are 35 years later, still that, and you know, when the COVID hit, we were pretty much ideally positioned, but I scaled a outsourced bookkeeping business, even though I'd wanted counting course in my life and got a C in it.

But, uh, And what's interesting about this company is that it employs like 95% women.

We have an all-woman management team and it works fantastically.

So you're fine, Tom.

Talk to me a little bit about kind of how that works.

Sure.

And just to help with step zero, we envision that the Super PAC will actually come in and market to the district and say, this is a district that has been chosen to You know, we feel like the representation is not accurate here.

If you want to get involved in this as a candidate, here's what you do.

Download the app, set up your campaign in the app.

If you're a local person that wants to be involved in the process and wants to be on the local committee, here's what you do to apply, to learn how to run the contest, how to make it.

And we would see doing that like three months in advance of, our people's primary that we're going to run in that district.

Well, you know, Super fact, some people,

So it's your belief that that's contrary to what the goal was with representative democracy?

Absolutely.

I mean, I think we've perverted it beyond recognition.

The idea that people that don't live in our district tell us who to vote for.

or put money into the vote for.

And I think we've just come to accept that we're going to get a text message from somebody from somewhere in the country that's hoping to connect with us and get $5 or $10 out of us, and that's how elections work.

But that's not the way they were supposed to work.

Like, do you think that it's secure enough? How do we make sure that, you know, Elon Musk or some tech bro doesn't try to take money to then infiltrate the app and mess with the digital results.

What does that look like right now? Well,

so what you do is you go, you'll go in and the first thing you'll say, pick a district and you'll see that there's seven issues.

And what we envision is that the local committees will put seven issues on the ballot that they see coming before Congress.

And in our little model there, we have two global, three national, two local.

And the two global, I think, are Iran and borders and, you know, there's trade issues.

But the idea is that, you know, in a red district, you're going to have mostly conservative candidates, but you're giving them flexibility to take positions all over the map on, you know, whether they take moderate right or, you know, yes, no positions.

But in that field, now the constituents can go and say, hey, wow, 100 candidates, that's too much.

Yeah, I mean,

My d- my dad had a die casting plant, so I'm very well aware of Westinghouse, yeah.

Yeah, they did a lot of radar.

[laughs] Um, but they, um...

And I, I worked for a small company.

Um, and early in my career I stumbled on an idea of, uh, using, um, you know, the, basically the dawn of the personal computer age as, uh, the women wanted flexibility, especially those that were raising kids.

Uh, because of my sister, and I stumbled on this accounting solution where I became a pioneer in, uh, outsourced bookkeeping using first person, I think, to have a company that started from scratch, always having home-- You know, that was our, our baseline was a home-based worker, and here we are 35 years later.

We really don't have, like, a staffed office.

Okay

How do you ensure local control without opening doors for bias or influence?

Well, it's really because the people are the people who are choosing.

I think, you know, the way this system works now is that, you know, political leaders get in the back room with rich people and they decide who they're going to back.

In an uncompetitive district, if a Democrat or Republican is backed for the House and they have, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars behind them, it's hard for them to get knocked down.

We assure that by our party leaders really have no... no power.

They're really just administering a contest.

You know, it's a thankless job.

What kind of technology stack or platform power America meets, America means street party? How does it keep money out of house while scaling civil engagement? And also, how did you start building grassroots support for something so fundamentally different from traditional political system?

It's going to be really

gerrymandered.

There's so many of them to pick from.

But we want really a place where the winner is probably winning with like 70 to 80 percent of the vote.

So if we split like the conservative or liberal vote in half, the other party still doesn't have a chance.

So from that standpoint, There's an incentive for the gerrymandered folks to participate, to move the candidate selected to be pink or be blue.

But they actually have a voice because they can match up on the issues to get into the contest.

Okay, you've got your typical vanilla politician versus you get to actually pick something that represents you.

Yes.

The, that, um, you know, what happened was that I was trying to, I'm kind of retired and, uh, was sitting, you know, during the COVID trying to figure out, you know, what's gonna happen to my business.

And, uh, I still own, you know, a substantial company and was very scared about that.

So I of course applied for PPP loans.

And I made a promise that if I got funding that would help save my business, maybe save my life, that I would do something.

But I knew I didn't wanna run for office 'cause I felt like people that run for office just become part of this bad system.

And, um, and I knew that if we, I came with an idea that required laws to be changed, this is an uphill battle.

Okay.

What made you to decide to step into this arena?

Well, I think the other people that get involved in government and politics are people who have been successful business people who become part of the system.

And I think as a result of that, it corrupts them.

And I thought about it for a heartbeat.

And then I was there like, no, I really kind of saw that it would probably change me in a way I wouldn't like.

So I tried to think about it from a founder's perspective, like what would happen if if we were starting this company today or country today would we choose the system that we have and with the technology and the systems available i don't think so i mean i think we've inherited the system that's based on you know constraints that we had many many decades ago and we now have things that are at our disposal that would allow us to create you know what I would describe as an American Idol for Congress.

And this is really kind of the genesis of the idea.

Can you walk us through that process, how it would work, you know, in simple terms so everybody can understand?

So what do you think? Does that make sense?

Well, yes and no.

I mean, I think the problem, you're solving the wrong end of the problem.

Like, make it simpler.

Right now it's hard because they're liars, and you have to filter through, and you can't really tone it down.

So, you know, the idea of having a quiz, we actually, as part of our app, the local committee identifies seven issues that would come before Congress.

And to enter the contest, the potential nominees have to answer those questions, take positions on seven issues, specific positions.

So how do they play into your framework?