First the People's will (priorities) need to be know, beyond a doubt. This can only be measured by a direct count of registered voters' support for a stated priority, not polls based on population sampling. Second, the People must organize to participate in the decision-making dialog. This could be accomplished by creating networks of registered voters, who review the accounting & follow the flow of the taxpayer dollars. Further, network voters could monitor the agenda items of public meeting and flag any concerns.
Networks are just groups of registered voters than are comforable enough, with each other, to discuss tax dollars and agenda items up for a decision. By publishing, the opinions of networks and the names of the voters that support the opinions, regarding tax dollars and policy, local media or publishers would be informing the whole population of the current status of public opinion and facts. Giving all, a simular basis or picture to reason with.
Local individuals or media can combine the results from the different networks to form precinct and tax district tallies of the People's, current, priorities. By comparing the results of the networks with election turnout and votes cast for individual races or initiatives, insight into the effectiveness of our current electeds can be quantified. Finall, proven consensus should be enough to override our elected representatives on the grounds of the People being the ultimate authority in our American Republic.
That said, we are still bound to the Constitutions of the United States and Wyoming. However, unlike State Statutes, the Constitutions are of a length that registered voters could choose to review and discuss. Allowing for speedy resolutions to any constitutional challenges of the People's authority.
As stated above a network is a group of voters comfortable with each other. Given a stated priority that is supported by the voters of a network, given that the priority and voters names that support the priority is published, then what? How do people grow community support for a publish priority? Several option exist, first watch for spontanuous interest to be demonstrated. Second a person could reach out to other network contacts and request the network's voters consider and weigh in on the priority. Finally, a person could reach out to friends to, ask them, to support the priority then in turn request that those friend reach out to their friends, and so-on until a consenus is reached.
As an example of a priority opinion statement:
Wyoming's voters will provide, timely, consensus feedback for the Governor, (WY US & WY) House & Senate Legislators, and local Electeds including those representing precincts, tax districts, and judicial districts.
| State | County | Precinct | Lname | Fname | Mnames | Network Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wyoming | Sheridan | 2-2 | Roberts | Noll | nrc |
The basic breakdown of the voting population.
Which percentage of consesuses is the most important?
The percentage of candidate or intiative votes vs. estimated population?
The percentage of candidate or intiative votes vs. number of registered voters?
The percentage of candidate or intiative votes vs. number of ballots cast?
The percentage of candidate or intiative votes vs. number of registered voters because it is a finite measure that can be verified rather than using an estimated value. Whereas, the percentage of candidate or intiative votes vs. number of ballots cast only measures active voters. In theory, if three people show up to vote, the two that agree decides the election. Not requiring a minimum of majority participation in an election allows for election manipulation by the encouragement of small ballot cast population. However, that is still the lowest fiasible bar to aim for. Majority agreement of registered voters is were democracy and representation truly begins.
Realities of Wyoming's Registered Voter List
Verifing it and ensuring voter awareness.
As of July 2024, the estimated population of Wyoming was 587,618 .
From Wyoming's Election Division Wyoming's Voter Registration and Voter Turnout Statistics are provided.
| Election | Voting Age Population | # of Registered Voters | % of Voting Age Population Registered to Vote | Voter Turnout | Turnout of Voting Age Population | Turnout of the Population Registered to Vote |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary | 454,508 | 226,062 | 54% | 122,718 | 27.0% | 54.285% |
| Gereral | 454,508 | 256,251 | 56% | 271,123 | 59.7% | 105.80% |
| Year | Month | Day | Total | Election |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 01 | 01 | 217,353 | |
| 2024 | 02 | 01 | 217,769 | |
| 2024 | 03 | 01 | 218,244 | |
| 2024 | 04 | 01 | 218,815 | |
| 2024 | 05 | 01 | 219,476 | |
| 2024 | 06 | 01 | 220,863 | |
| 2024 | 07 | 01 | 221,571 | |
| 2024 | 08 | 01 | 223,703 | |
| 2024 | 08 | 20 | 226,062 | Primary |
| 2024 | 09 | 01 | 232,222 | |
| 2024 | 10 | 01 | 236,290 | |
| 2024 | 11 | 01 | 250,660 | |
| 2024 | 11 | 05 | 256,251 | General |
| 2024 | 12 | 01 | 296,960 | |
| 2025 | 01 | 01 | 296,703 | |
| 2025 | 02 | 01 | 293,617 | |
| 2025 | 03 | 01 | 275,073 | |
| 2025 | 04 | 01 | 274,929 | |
| 2025 | 05 | 01 | 274,867 | |
| 2025 | 06 | 01 | 274,846 |
| County | Republican | Democratic | Non-Partisan | Total_Ballots |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Albany | 4,453 | 1,616 | 248 | 6,317 |
| Big_Horn | 2,489 | 105 | 50 | 2,644 |
| Campbell | 7,190 | 183 | 105 | 7,478 |
| Carbon | 2,589 | 333 | 134 | 3,056 |
| Converse | 3,451 | 108 | 38 | 3,597 |
| Crook | 1,833 | 49 | 9 | 1,891 |
| Fremont | 8,185 | 902 | 197 | 9,284 |
| Goshen | 3,236 | 164 | 27 | 3,427 |
| Hot_Springs | 1,593 | 105 | 50 | 1,748 |
| Johnson | 3,116 | 80 | 26 | 3,222 |
| Laramie | 15,625 | 2,454 | 475 | 18,554 |
| Lincoln | 4,492 | 154 | 52 | 4,698 |
| Natrona | 13,513 | 1,045 | 412 | 14,970 |
| Niobrara | 899 | 15 | 0 | 914 |
| Park | 8,536 | 318 | 118 | 8,972 |
| Platte | 2,596 | 192 | 55 | 2,843 |
| Sheridan | 7,233 | 622 | 76 | 7,931 |
| Sublette | 2,677 | 51 | 0 | 2,728 |
| Sweetwater | 5,440 | 925 | 132 | 6,497 |
| Teton | 2,178 | 1,226 | 101 | 3,505 |
| Uinta | 3,738 | 266 | 107 | 4,111 |
| Washakie | 2,127 | 127 | 51 | 2,305 |
| Weston | 1,949 | 49 | 28 | 2,026 |
| Total | 109,138 | 11,089 | 2,491 | 122,718 |
| County | Total_Ballots |
|---|---|
| Albany | 17,993 |
| Big_Horn | 5,788 |
| Campbell | 18,450 |
| Carbon | 6,446 |
| Converse | 6,780 |
| Crook | 4,368 |
| Fremont | 17,396 |
| Goshen | 6,214 |
| Hot_Springs | 2,643 |
| Johnson | 4,955 |
| Laramie | 43,607 |
| Lincoln | 10,940 |
| Natrona | 34,206 |
| Niobrara | 1,244 |
| Park | 16,876 |
| Platte | 4,805 |
| Sheridan | 16,577 |
| Sublette | 4,972 |
| Sweetwater | 16,819 |
| Teton | 13,424 |
| Uinta | 9,170 |
| Washakie | 3,917 |
| Weston | 3,533 |
| Total | 271,123 |
| State | County | Precinct |
|---|---|---|
| Wy | Sheridan | 2-2 |
The goal is to publish consensus priorities for all precincts of Wyoming.
How to accomplish this goal.
The actual publishing is easy. In essence, a stated priority along with the voters' names that support it. Additionally the percentage of supporters and total registered voters for the precinct would be given. Web browser forms, socal media, emails, text messaging, and in-person collaboration can all be used to maximize awareness and collect the needed information. A weekly, published, update could be provide to track the progress of the precinct's voters efforts. Ultimately, this would be about the voters of a precinct self organizing enough to make the possibiltiy of a concensus possible. In this context a consenus in a majority agreement of registered voters in a precinct. Furthermore, concensuses can be ranked by the precentage of agreement, the higher the degree of concennus, the higher the priority.
| State | County | Precinct |
|---|---|---|
| Wy | Sheridan | 2-2 |
In the spirit of "Following the Money", the public should have, the timeliest, access to the data necessary for the auditing of the taxpayers' financials. With the necessary data, individuals or groups could operate independent database for the pupose of inspecting and analysing the transactional records of the taxpayers's dollars. Two examaples, for the timeliest of data, would be all daily income collected and invoice recieved. One of the goals, for the independent database maintainers could be to provide the public with the ability to follow, how the money moves through the differnent account: funds, departments, and programs. For example, how the property tax for Sheridan County School District #2's recreation mill levy, approximately half a million dollars, is distributed.
By better understanding the data and the software that collects, maintains, and analyses the data, the public will be more informed.
A example of how such data could be presented to the public is at Converse County's OpenGov Website, Question: How was Converse County's data prepared for OpenGov?