Mission First
The mission of AmericaThinks is to help every American voter be seen for who they are and heard for what they believe.
AmericaThinks is the ideal of representative democracy writ large. Never before has this even been a possibility. Today, for the first time, the dream of public opinion polling for everyone is possible.
Our first priority is to work diligently to get every registered voter to participate with AmericaThinks. Why? Because our representative democracy functions best when every voice is heard. President Lincoln underlined this fact well when he said, “Public opinion is everything. With it nothing can fail. Without it nothing can succeed. “
How do we accomplish this mission? Smartphones are the key. Data from the 2020 elections show that out of 252 million voting-age people, 168 million are registered voters. In 2021, 85% of voting-age American adults reported that they owned a smartphone. That means over 214 million voting-age people own a smartphone. We have more smartphones than registered voters in America!
In only a few short years, almost everyone of voting age will have a smartphone. The percentage of voting age adults that own a smartphone has grown 4% from 2019 to 2021. Why is this important? In short, smartphones make election-grade public opinion polling possible.
At AmericaThinks we strive for excellence in polling to support our mission. To show that voter opinions are genuine and trustworthy, we will audit polling results as well as publish the raw polling data in such a way that others can audit the results. We will publish participant characteristics for all district, state, and national results. This will allow the comparison of participants to benchmark census and voting data. As AmericaThinks grows in popularity, we will occasionally use sample-based polling tools and stratified random sampling within the sample frame to proof and test the full population results.
AmericaThinks is not offering a small change to the status quo nor is it an attempt at yet another polling organization. Since it is our mission that every American voter be seen for who they are and heard for what they believe, we will always publish every response from every registered voter that offers their opinion. Everyone will know exactly what registered voters in every district are thinking – in real-time.
This is a belief in the American people. This is confidence that the collective wisdom of the people should always be considered by their representatives. This is an opportunity to make people feel like they can make a difference in their lives and the lives of their community. This is an effort to ensure that the voices of the “reasonable middle” are heard – not just the loudest voices of the extremes.
Will it be hard? Yes. Will it be worth it? Yes.
Mission First.