How it Works
The Liberty Straw Poll Processes
Overview
Our purpose is to raise awareness and funding for liberty minded political candidates through the use of straw polls within the online community.
Our straw polls are centered around an internet broadcast where select candidates each get an equal turn to speak in order to compete for straw poll votes from those who made a donation to our sponsor PAC in exchange for a straw poll voting ticket. Voting takes place online and will conclude after all the candidates had their turn to speak, then the results are published. The winner(s) of the straw poll will then receive the value of the straw poll ticket revenue in campaign support. The broadcast will be available from any one of our media partners.
Candidate Process
Liberty Straw Poll employs a simple acceptance process by which candidates may apply for an opening in a Straw Poll event. If the basic qualifications for participation are met the candidate will then be considered by a Liberty Straw Poll review team which operates independently from the rest of the Liberty Straw Poll team and has exclusive authority to chose those seven candidates who: a) best represent the adherence to the principles of liberty, and b) show the most promise to win their race.
The Voting Process
The center point of a Liberty Straw Poll is the straw poll event itself where participating voters have an opportunity to listen to the candidates speak via online broadcasts or other means and then can voice their opinions with the casting of a straw poll vote for the candidate they most support.
To vote in the straw poll one must a) meet the necessary legal qualification to donate to the sponsor PAC for that event. b) Donate the necessary minimal amount to the PAC in return for a voting ticket. That's it! The receipt of your donation will include a unique voting key which should be kept private, the key will ensure that your vote is counted and can be verified by both you and Liberty Straw Poll post-election. Individuals can purchase as many tickets as they wish, but PAC donations are limited to $5000 annually. Tickets may be purchased until a "final call" which should be announced on the Liberty Straw Poll broadcast just prior to the poll.
Voting will begin at a time to specified by the Liberty Straw Poll organizers, but no later then after all candidates have had their opportunity to speak on the Liberty Straw Poll broadcast. To cast a vote, one must visit the special voting page specified on the ticket purchase receipt. On this voting page the voter will enter the unique voting key, an e-mail address, and their vote selection.
After submitting the vote, the voter will receive an e-mail showing the vote and a unique receipt key number which can later be used to verify the vote if any questions arise. A backup copy of the e-mail will also be sent to a 3rd party mail server that cannot be tampered with.
The polls will remain open for a pre-defined length of time as show in the events schedule, the only exception being an extension for technical difficulty. In the event that technical problems require leaving the polls open longer then scheduled the Liberty Straw Poll's leadership team will determine the length of extension necessary with oversight by Liberty Straw Poll's ethics team.
Once the polls close the results will be tabulated and reported via broadcast and on the Liberty Straw Poll's website. Additionally, a table of all unique voting keys along with their vote and the time the vote was recorded will be made available from a link on the website, this will allow each individual voter to verify that their vote was reported correctly for the final tabulation. The total number of votes cast will later be cross referenced with the number of tickets sold as determined by the money raised by the PAC to verify the final tabulation has the correct number of votes.
Donation Process
Liberty Straw Poll tickets are acquired via donation to the PAC sponsoring the event. Funds available to the Liberty Straw Poll include all donations to the sponsor PAC minus any "convenience fees" for using a 3rd party payment processor such as for using a credit card.
When a winner of the straw poll is determined, the PAC will write a check to the winning candidate based on the pre-established award structure for that straw poll vote. The maximum legal amount of this check is $5,000, all additional funds will be used to support the winning candidate(s) with advertising within their district as outlined in the pre-established award structure for that event.
There are no fees collected by the Liberty Straw Poll in any way and PACs that operate with no internal costs will be used wherever possible such that expenses will be limited to 3rd party services for ad space, air time, printing and the like. Every effort will be made to minimize overhead and maximize the return to be awarded to winning candidates.
Ethics Team
To help assure a fair process, the Liberty Straw Poll has established an independent ethics team which has full and constant access to all data internal to the Liberty Straw Poll but has no decision making authority to sustain neutrality. The ethics team can both highlight potential problems before they arise to the Liberty Straw Poll or to anyone if a problem is found. You can contact the ethics team at ethics.libertystrawpoll@gmail.com.
Dispute Resolution
If you have concerns about the veracity of your vote or the overall outcome notify the candidate who is potentially being affected. If a candidate's campaign wishes to inquire about an issue then a full investigation will take place under the watch of the independent Liberty Straw Poll ethics team. In the unlikely event that the straw poll voting could not take place or if there is a dispute the following mitigation process will be followed:
+ Effected candidates can negotiate a desired resolution that will be honored.
+ The Liberty Straw Poll team will seek to suggest a resolution.
+ The Liberty Straw Poll team will create a nine person independent investigation team under the watch of the ethics team to determine the facts and merits of the issue. If the investigation team reaches greater then a two-thirds super majority agreement to a resolution, it will be honored. Seven of nine is the needed majority.
+ The Liberty Straw Poll will reschedule a new event with the same participates as possible.
All PAC expenses are reported to the FEC, if you have an issue or concern about the sponsor PAC then report it to the FEC and notify the Liberty Straw Poll ethics team leader at ethics.libertystrawpoll@gmail.com. If these criteria do not suit your concerns or if you have any other question please contact us at libertystrawpoll@gmail.com before participation in the process, it is our objective to make it open, fair and fun!