Democracy Simplified

Understanding policy shouldn't require a law degree. Track, understand, and vote on policies that affect your community.

-

Active Policies

-

Citizen Votes

-

Officials Tracked

-

Avg Alignment

Recent Congress Bills

Policy Forum

Showing 0 policies

Loading all policies...

Live Congress Bills

Loading...

Location not set

0 Votes
0 Comments
0 Following

Political Profile

Not Set
Not Set
-

Political Interests

Healthcare Education Environment Economy

About Me

No bio provided.

Your Election Districts

Your federal, state, and local election districts will appear here automatically when you add or update your address in your profile.

Voting Activity

0 For
0 Against
0 Neutral

Recent Activity

Voted For on Healthcare Reform Act

2 hours ago

Commented on Infrastructure Bill

1 day ago

Representatives

Loading location...

Loading your representatives...

My Voting History

Live Congressional Bills Recent bills (past month) with full text available

Colorado State Bills Recent state legislation from Colorado

Denver City Bills Recent local legislation from Denver City Council

About By The People

Our mission, core objectives, and everything you can do with this app.

Objectives
  • Make public policy understandable for everyone with clear, accessible language.
  • Centralize key federal, state, and local legislation in one place.
  • Help residents discover, track, and discuss policies that affect their lives.
  • Enable civic participation with lightweight voting and feedback tools.
  • Bridge source transparency with direct links back to official documents.
Principles
  • Clarity over jargon: plain-English summaries and key points.
  • Transparency: show sources, status, and latest actions.
  • Inclusivity: support multiple jurisdictions and topics.
  • Privacy: no unnecessary data collection; user controls for profile.
  • Extensibility: modular services for import, AI, and analytics.
Features
Unified Policy Forum

Browse a single, searchable feed of policies across levels:

  • Federal (Congress.gov), State (e.g., LegiScan), and Local (e.g., Legistar) bills.
  • Topic, status, and level filters with sort options.
  • Badges for level, category, and topics.
AI Bill Summaries

Concise, plain-English overviews prioritized on every card:

  • Prefers AI-generated summaries; falls back to official summaries or descriptions.
  • Batch summarize utilities and per-item summarization endpoints.
  • Optional full-text ingestion for richer summaries.
Bill Details & Sources
  • Links back to official sources (e.g., Congress.gov, city portals).
  • Status tracker and latest action context where available.
  • Enhanced key points when provided by the data service.
Community Voting
  • Lightweight up/down/neutral voting components.
  • Aggregated counts to indicate community sentiment.
  • Personal voting history in "My Votes".
Comments & Discussion
  • Per-policy comment threads with basic moderation hooks.
  • Optional civic profiles for context (party, ideology, bio).
Representatives
  • Directory of officials with party and contact details.
  • Designed to support future outreach workflows.
Technology & Data
  • Frontend: vanilla JS + Bootstrap in public/ with modular renderers in public/app.js.
  • APIs & Services: Node/Express routes in routes/ and integrations in services/.
  • Data: Mongo-backed Policy model; imports from Congress.gov, LegiScan, and Legistar.
  • AI: Summarization service with batch and per-item endpoints.
Get Involved

We welcome feedback and contributions: feature ideas, data sources, or UI/UX improvements.

  • Open issues or PRs on the repository.
  • Share suggestions directly in the app via comments.