Civic tech founder and software engineer, Robert Freeman, quit his consulting career on December 24th and is now traveling the country by train for the VoteMatrix project. Using a throwback to campaigns of old, this "whistle-stop tour" is a quest to put an end to partisan politics. Robert departed from the Sacramento Amtrak station on New Year's eve at midnight and has traveled through the snow-laden northern U.S. with stops including: Portland, Seattle; Glacier National Park; Fargo; Minneapolis; Milwaukee; Toledo; and Chicago. He is now making stops on the East Coast from Boston to DC to Louisiana before turning back west and heading through Colorado on his way to California, completing the tour in 38 days.
People across the nation have spotted Robert carrying his bright silver attaché case with "Help VoteMatrix Save Democracy" displayed on its side. When people stop to ask how they can help. His answer, "get the word out to anyone who can afford over $1,000 to invest in this project and share the idea with your friends and followers on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube."
The VoteMatrix app will provide voters with complete, simple, and accurate data to make informed choices each election. Voters need only define their beliefs on each issue and then information sources they trust. When it comes time to vote, citizens will see how each politician and measure match their beliefs. This is possible in-part by his unique strategy to open political research to the public. His term for this is, "crowd-sourced political analysis". Each voter picks and chooses from this set of trusted analysts and only sees data from those selected. This allows VoteMatrix to maintain an all-partisan and open platform.
Robert's bold goals continue into his plan to fund the company. Instead of traditional VC or Angel funds, he has set up a Founding 1,000 program so that middle-class individuals can combine resources to fund the project and own part of the company. Corporations and organizations cannot apply for shares and investors are capped at 10 shares each, with one vote in the company regardless of the number of shares purchased. Eventually, he hopes to offer shares to every citizen who wants one. The $1 million funding goal is needed to complete and release the app in-time for the 2020 election cycle.
The VoteMatrix technology plan and investor information are available online at http://VoteMatrix.com
Detailed Schedule for the whistle-stop tour is available at http://VoteMatrix.com/2019-whistle-stop
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