BREAKING
HEAR ME OUT

The Bill of Rights

A Citizens' Initiative for Fiscally Verified Democracy · Est. This Morning
Hear me out. Until you pay for your own cell phone bill, you are not allowed to vote. Pay the bill, get the rights. It is the simplest idea in the history of governance and nobody has tried it.
Article I — The Framework

Five Simple Planks

Drafted over one weekend by two people who were, at the time, arguing about a $14 line item.

§ 1

The account shall be in your legal name.

Not your mother's name. Not "the family plan." Not your ex's, which you are still on because neither of you wants to make the call. Democracy begins where the autopay ends.

Kyle, you are thirty-four.
§ 2

Six consecutive months of on-time payment.

A single late fee shall void eligibility for one full election cycle. Prorated charges are disqualifying. Partial payments are disqualifying. Paying early is suspicious and shall be reviewed.

There is no appeals process. There is a phone tree.
§ 3

The citizen must be able to locate their own router.

Physically. On request. County clerks shall be empowered to ask "where is it" and to reject any answer containing the phrase "somewhere in the basement, I think."

This plank was added because it was funny, and nobody removed it.
§ 4

Sunset provision.

Should a citizen cease paying their own bill in later life, eligibility lapses. The reasoning: if you cannot manage a wireless account, you cannot manage a republic. The reasoning is bad. We noticed immediately. We kept it in anyway, because the moment you write it down you can see exactly what it is.

Yes, this plank disenfranchises your grandmother. That is the point of the plank. Keep reading.
§ 5

Enforcement.

Verification at the point of ballot issuance. Estimated cost: $2.4 billion annually, plus a call center. Estimated fraud prevented: we did not check. Estimated citizens removed from the rolls: most of them, including us.

Especially us.
Article II — The Research

The Science Is Settled

We founded an institute. It has a logo and one intern.

THE INSTITUTE FOR FISCAL CITIZENSHIP
WORKING PAPER NO. 14 · NOT PEER REVIEWED · NOT REVIEWED
Autopay Enrollment as a Proxy for Deliberative Capacity: Toward a Unified Theory of the Adult

Abstract. We examine whether the ability to maintain an uninterrupted wireless account predicts sound democratic judgment. It does not. We publish anyway, because the finding is inconvenient and we have already printed the letterhead.

Using a sample of 1,200 respondents recruited entirely from one group chat, we regressed self-reported civic competence against months of continuous service. The relationship was not significant. It was not close to significant. Our lead author described the scatterplot as "a bag of rice."

We note that every eligibility rule ever proposed — literacy tests, property requirements, poll taxes, and now this — arrives with a chart that looks exactly like ours. The chart is never the reason for the rule. The rule comes first. The chart is decoration.

Conclusion. There is no measurable trait that separates people who deserve a vote from people who do not, which is precisely why the vote is not something anyone has to deserve.

r = .0002 MONTHS OF UNINTERRUPTED SERVICE CIVIC COMPETENCE
FIG. 3 — Civic competence plotted against months of uninterrupted wireless service (n=1,200). No relationship was observed. The dashed line is included because reviewers expect a line.
Dr. Marguerite VaneSenior Fellow. Has never seen her own bill. It goes to an assistant.
Prof. Alan ThreadgillChair of Methods. Disqualified himself in 2019 and continues to vote.
BekahIntern. Made the chart. Made the logo. Runs the institute.
Article III — Implementation

Choose Your Democracy Plan

If citizenship is going to be billed monthly, it may as well be bundled.

BASIC

$0/mo
  • 1 vote every 4 years
  • Presidential elections only
  • Local races locked
  • Ballot may buffer
  • Customer service via mail

UNLIMITED

$129/mo
  • Vote as often as you like*
  • All elections, all districts
  • Concierge redistricting
  • Early access to results
  • Cancel anytime (you cannot)
*Speeds may be reduced after 2 ballots per cycle. Activation fee $35 per household member. Voting is not a right under this agreement; it is a service, and services can be discontinued in your area. Coverage not available in all precincts. By casting a ballot you agree to binding arbitration. Taxes, fees, and the entire concept of representative government are extra. If any of this sounded reasonable for even one sentence, that is the whole reason this website exists.
Paid for by a Committee That Does Not Exist

JESSE — WE ARE 3 SIGNATURES SHORT.

00:00:00

Every hour you wait, another adult on their parents' family plan gets closer to a ballot. We cannot do this without you. We also cannot do this with you. We cannot do this.

These buttons do nothing. Unlike the real ones, which do a great deal.
Article IV — The People

Testimonials

Unsolicited, unverified, and in two cases legally disputed.

"I unsubscribed and they added me twice. Then they added my dog. My dog is now a monthly donor and, under §1, more eligible to vote than I am."

— R. Delacroix, verified supporter

"Finally, a movement that recognizes what I have been saying at Thanksgiving for eleven years. My family has stopped inviting me. This is what persecution looks like."

— Anonymous, by request of his family

"I'm 81. I've voted in fifteen presidential elections, buried a husband, and raised four children who cannot operate a thermostat. My grandson pays my phone bill as a kindness. Under this proposal that kindness costs me my vote. Think about that for one full second."

— Eleanor W., who is winning this argument

"I qualified. I read the whole site, I took the quiz, and I qualified. Then I read my results again."

— T. Osei, who did not qualify

"As a small business owner, I pay six phone bills. By this logic I should get six votes. I have been asking about this for weeks and nobody will answer me."

— D. Kowalczyk, asking a fair question

"You people are going to get quoted out of context on the news and you know it."

— our lawyer
Article V — Objections

Frequently Raised Objections

All of them correct.

But my grandmother —

Yes. Your grandmother. Who raised children through a recession, who has voted in every election since before you were assigned a social security number, and who now has her phone on her son's plan because it saves everyone $30 a month.

Under our proposal she loses her vote over $30 a month. When you say the rule out loud with a real person's name attached to it, the rule falls apart in about four seconds. That is true of every rule like this that has ever been proposed.

Isn't this just a poll tax with extra steps?

It is a poll tax with fewer steps, honestly. A poll tax at least had the decency to be about money openly. Ours pretends to be about maturity, which is how these things are usually sold.

The Twenty-Fourth Amendment exists. We looked it up halfway through building this website and had a quiet moment.

What about people who can't afford a phone at all?

Excellent question, and one that reveals the whole machine. Any test based on paying for a thing is a test of whether you have money. Any test of maturity is a test of who is writing the test.

Every proposal to shrink the electorate arrives dressed as common sense. Ours is wearing a very silly hat so you can see it coming.

Are you serious?

No. This is satire. The proposal is deliberately absurd and we do not want a single person removed from the voter rolls — not eighteen-year-olds, not eighty-year-olds, not you.

We are serious about exactly one thing, and it is at the bottom of the page.

You know this will get screenshotted without context.

It will. Which is why the punchline is baked into every section instead of hidden at the end, and why the quiz disqualifies literally everyone who takes it, including its authors, including you.

There is no way to read this site for thirty seconds and come away thinking we want fewer people voting.

Article VI — Coverage

As Seen On

Outlets that do not exist, saying things we made up.

The Beltway Ledger
"A proposal so clean it took our editorial board a full page to explain why it's monstrous."
NIGHTWATCH 9
"Coming up at eleven: is your grandmother too confused to vote? We asked her. She said no, firmly."
Two Guys Yelling
"Honestly? Hear them out. (Ep. 412, 3 hrs)"
The Quarterly Review
"The chart is a bag of rice. We are told this was intentional."
Article VII — Verification

Am I Eligible?

Six questions. Answer honestly. There is no way to fail, and there is no way to pass.

QUESTION 1 OF 6
DISQUALIFIED
So were we. So is everyone.

Six questions, twelve possible answers, twelve disqualifications. We built it that way on purpose — because that is what happens to every rule invented to decide who deserves a vote. Point it at anyone long enough and it takes them too.

There is no version of this test that a free country survives.

So here is the only thing on this website that isn't a joke:

Register to Vote →
VOTE.GOV · THIS LINK IS REAL · TAKES ABOUT TWO MINUTES
Article VIII — The Store

Merch

Not for sale. Screenshot freely.

NO BILL NO BALLOT

The Cap

$0.00 — unavailable
I PAID MY OWN BILL ASK ME ABOUT IT

The Tee

$0.00 — unavailable
HEAR ME OUT

The Yard Sign

$0.00 — unavailable
REGISTER TO VOTE THAT'S THE WHOLE BIT

The Tote

$0.00 — the actual point