Government accountability begins with knowing that the participants are real. Checks and Balances Committee establishes the verification and trust layer. Rate My Representatives is the connected application being built to apply that trusted participation to representatives and public records.
Rate My Representatives is a connected project. Credential integration is planned and is not yet operational.
Bots, duplicate accounts, fabricated profiles, and manufactured participation can distort what communities appear to believe. Community-attested proof of human cannot guarantee that a sample represents an entire population, but it can make participation substantially harder to manufacture.
Proof of human answers: Did this participation come from a real person with a current credential?
It does not automatically answer: Does this sample represent everyone in the community? Is every statement true? Does the participant legally reside in the jurisdiction? Has the representative committed wrongdoing?
Those questions require separate evidence, methodology, rules, and fair process.
The verification and trust layer
The connected public-accountability application
Checks and Balances verifies the participants. Rate My Representatives applies that trusted participation to the people exercising public power.
A real person appears face-to-face and matches the credential photo under the applicable local process.
The attestation expires every 45 days and must pass the applicable community-renewal process.
Rate My Representatives connects the accountability record to a defined representative, office, jurisdiction, authority, and term.
Relevant public documents, decisions, votes, statements, promises, spending records, attendance information, and other properly sourced material can be organized around the representative profile.
Opinions may be expressed as opinions. Factual claims and material allegations require visible evidence and status labels.
A representative should be able to answer, correct, explain, or challenge a material claim through a defined process.
The application may distinguish participation from current verified users from unauthenticated online activity. It must still disclose sample size and methodology.
The public record should show whether the issue was answered, corrected, disputed, ignored, repeated, or resolved.
Visual flow: Verified participant → current credential → representative record → sourced evidence → official response → authenticated public assessment → documented outcome → next review cycle
A credible accountability system must examine both government conduct and the claims made about it. Verification establishes who is participating. It does not transform every statement into a proven fact.