Enter your address and find out everyone who represents you in U.S. government • Hacker News Board

Re: Enter your address and find out everyone who represents you in U.S. government

#31

Post by grzm » Fri, Dec 30, 2016, 9:13 AM UTC

jzwinck wrote: post #29

I'm one of the millions of Americans living overseas. Who represents us?

Depends on where you're registered to vote:

https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/abroad/legal-m...

Re: Enter your address and find out everyone who represents you in U.S. government

#32

Post by grzm » Fri, Dec 30, 2016, 9:16 AM UTC

chanandler_bong wrote: post #30

As a US citizen living abroad, I have no representatives. This, as I am getting ready to file my US income taxes for which I receive no benefits or representation.

The taxes you owe take this into account, don't they? You have benefits of being a US citizen regardless of where you live. Some may value this more than others. Weighing your options, you may want to consider changing your citizenship.

Re: Enter your address and find out everyone who represents you in U.S. government

#33

Post by masonic » Fri, Dec 30, 2016, 9:19 AM UTC

chanandler_bong wrote: post #30

As a US citizen living abroad, I have no representatives. This, as I am getting ready to file my US income taxes for which I receive no benefits or representation.

If you consider citizenship to be "no benefit" (you can still vote, collect Social Security, etc. overseas), you could always renounce your citizenship.

Re: Enter your address and find out everyone who represents you in U.S. government

#34

Post by fnj » Fri, Dec 30, 2016, 9:20 AM UTC

A technical tour de force, but the premise is flawed. "I" have no representatives. "We" have representatives as a group. The mob who rules by force of numbers; all strictly democratically acting.

Right off the top, the president, VP, both senators, federal and state representative, governor, and lieutenant governor; every one of them is 100% useless to me personally, because not a single one of them shares even one tiny insignificant view that is important to me. Sure, hey, that's the breaks, but let's not pretend they represent me.

Re: Enter your address and find out everyone who represents you in U.S. government

#35

Post by mushmouth » Fri, Dec 30, 2016, 9:23 AM UTC

This would be really useful for other countries. since some of the info is hard to find.

Re: Enter your address and find out everyone who represents you in U.S. government

#36

Post by Flimm » Fri, Dec 30, 2016, 9:24 AM UTC

masonic wrote: post #33

chanandler_bong wrote: post #30

As a US citizen living abroad, I have no representatives. This, as I am getting ready to file my US income taxes for which I receive no benefits or representation.

If you consider citizenship to be "no benefit" (you can still vote, collect Social Security, etc. overseas), you could always renounce your citizenship.

Being stateless is a pretty terrible option.

Re: Enter your address and find out everyone who represents you in U.S. government

#37

Post by igorigor » Fri, Dec 30, 2016, 9:30 AM UTC

fnj wrote: post #34

A technical tour de force, but the premise is flawed. "I" have no representatives. "We" have representatives as a group. The mob who rules by force of numbers; all strictly democratically acting. Right off the top, the president, VP, both senators, federal and state representative, governor, and lieutenant governor; every one of them is 100% useless to me personally, because not a single one of them shares even one t…

I can go to my local Rep's office or write a letter and will get a response that can get the ball rolling. Attitudes like yours creates cynicism and dwindles trust in local governments. Try going to your city council meeting, for once.

Re: Enter your address and find out everyone who represents you in U.S. government

#38

Post by dajohnson89 » Fri, Dec 30, 2016, 9:35 AM UTC

epoch_100 wrote: post #7

coreyp_1 wrote: post #2

Why does it ask for your address? Just entering your zip code is sufficient to obtain a list. Are they harvesting the address data for some reason?

A sysadmin of Politiwatch here (non-profit that made the site). We're not harvesting your data. In fact, we nuke it right after we serve the request. We're super privacy conscious. Regardless, we ask for the address as well as zip because in many areas, a ZIP is not sufficient to gather detailed data, as an official may represent one part of a ZIP code and not another. Politiwatch, the non-profit that made WhoAreMyRe…

> If you're still feeling paranoid (and rightly so), enter your neighbor's address.

Thanks for that idea. A simple yet effective solution that I hadn't thought of before.

Re: Enter your address and find out everyone who represents you in U.S. government

#39

Post by jonknee » Fri, Dec 30, 2016, 9:36 AM UTC

Really useful, love the idea. There may be some data troubles though, I looked up myself and found that the Twitter link for Senator Maria Cantwell goes to a porn account, not her actual profile. Yikes!

Re: Enter your address and find out everyone who represents you in U.S. government

#40

Post by grzm » Fri, Dec 30, 2016, 9:37 AM UTC

dajohnson89 wrote: post #38

epoch_100 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A sysadmin of Politiwatch here (non-profit that made the site). We're not harvesting your data. In fact, we nuke it right after we serve the request. We're super privacy conscious. Regardless, we ask for the address as well as zip because in many areas, a ZIP is not sufficient to gather detailed data, as an official may represent one part of a ZIP code and not another. Politiwatch, the non-profit that made WhoAreMyRe…

> If you're still feeling paranoid (and rightly so), enter your neighbor's address. Thanks for that idea. A simple yet effective solution that I hadn't thought of before.

Keep in mind you may be on the border of a district. Your neighbor and you may not be in the same district. Likely won't make a difference, but it may. Maybe check multiple neighbors.