Special interests are playing games with democracy.

They have used their campaign contributions to twist the machinery of elections and self-
government.

They have weakened the power of the people to govern themselves.

I agree! Special interests have corrupted lawmakers with their campaign contributions.

Just look at lobbyists' demands for special interest legislation.

The laws lobbyists get lawmakers to pass are not the laws the people want lawmakers to pass.

But voters can learn how to beat special interests at their own game — right here on this website!

All voters have to do is play an exciting game of electoral strategy right here. It shows them how to run winning candidates without special interest campaign contributions.

They can make sure everyone gets their fair share by forming voting blocs and electoral coalitions controlled by voters. They can unite voters, instead of let special interests divide them by starting name-calling fights.

These mean-spirited 'word wars' make everybody mad at everybody else — while special interests rake in the dough!

I've heard about this Citizens' Winning Hands^® Game! It shows voters how to use the tools on this website to build voting blocs and coalitions with political parties online.

They can join forces to set common agendas and nominate common slates of candidates, using unique agenda-setting, political organizing and consensus-building tools.

They can learn how to run and elect candidates in elections who will enact the legislation voters want – instead of the laws special interests want!

They can forge electoral bases so large that their candidates will beat special interest-backed candidates!

What is so amazing about this game is that it shows voters how to team up to turn real world elections upside down, so that voters run them from the bottom up, instead of special interests running them from the top down.

It's right up my alley because it's played with two decks of cards that have legislative priorities written on them.

But you don’t have to be a card shark to win!

However, you can count on my help in dealing yourself a winning hand, because I'm a patriotic shark and we all need to work together to protect democracy from special interests.

I'll be on your side to lend a hand to any voters who want to learn how to wrest control of government from special interests.

You can play the game right here on this website, once it is fully developed.

You can strategize with other voters to sharpen your electioneering and coalition building skills in simulated election districts modeled after U.S. Congressional election districts.

You can become an expert in building winning voting blocs and coalitions in the real world, and electing lawmakers who will enact your legislative priorities!

The game can be played by any number of competitors playing the role of voters in a simulated election district.

They can select the district they wish to play in from a list provided on the Election District Database. The list provides demographic information about the voters in the district, their legislative preferences, and voting patterns in previous elections.

The players compete to develop strategies for setting legislative agendas and building winning voting blocs and coalitions of voting blocs to elect a candidate for public office to represent the election district and enact their agendas.

The player whose voting bloc casts the highest number of votes for its candidate is the winner.

Players who merge their blocs into coalitions of voting blocs are more likely to win.

That's because they will probably be able to cast a higher number of votes for their candidate than single blocs.

But they will have to negotiate common agendas in order to build coalitions.

This will require consensus-building skills, shrewd hunches about what makes the voters in their electoral district tick, and the ability to overcome obstacles and losses they incur as they take their turns.

Unexpected things will happen as the players move around the game board and choose cards to set their legislative agendas.

They will have to develop effective strategies for managing events they control, as well as events they do not control. For these events will affect their legislative agendas and the numerical strength of their voting blocs.

Each player's agenda will reflect their own personal legislative priorities as well as the priorities and prior voting patterns of voters residing in the election district, per the information provided all players in the Election District Database.

Players can add votes to their voting blocs, and lose votes, at any time. This can occur at the outset of the game, when players deal themselves their first hand.

And it can occur during the game when players land on favorable or unfavorable spaces that affect their political fortunes, and change the options in their hand and the number of votes in their voting bloc.

For example, players can chose combinations of legislative options that are complementary rather than contradictory, as information contained in the Election District Database.

Complementary combinations of options that attract votes have the advantage of adding bonus votes to their voting blocs.

In contrast, players can also lose votes if they choose combinations of options that are contradictory, according to information in the database about district voters' political stances which shows such combinations have caused net losses of votes in prior elections.

For example, a player's voting bloc can not have one legislative option in its legislative agenda calling for term limits, which restrict the number of terms an elected official may serve in a particular elective office, and simultaneously have another option in their agenda opposing term limits.

On the other hand, players can be accorded bonus votes if they combine complementary options into desirable legislative agendas that district voters are likely to embrace.

Learning how to create balanced legislative agendas and voting blocs that will appeal to a large number of voters is a critical skill that voters can use in managing and increasing the voting strength of their own voting blocs and coalitions in real world elections.

These skills will help them defeat divisive candidates backed by special interests that try to polarize voters and contrive "culture wars" that pit people against each other in order to get elected.

Acquiring these skills will enable voters to put an end to the legislative stalemates that elected representatives create when they are put getting elected ahead of enacting the legislation that their constituents need and want.

To initiate a game, at least two prospective players must choose the same election district from the Election District Database.

The information contained in the database will be changing all the time, so players can choose the same district to overcome its changing challenges. list provides information about each district that is available to all players. It includes information regarding voters' legislative preferences, prior voting patterns and trends.

This information will change from time to time, based on real-world data, and motivate players to return to the district to play another game in that district.

The goal of the game is to enable voters to have fun while they learn how to use the revolutionary 21st century democracy-building tools of the Interactive Voter Choice System.

These tools, which are accessible on this reinventdemocracy.net website, enable voters everywhere to build real world voting blocs and electoral coalitions that can run and elect candidates without special interest funding.

The primary skill voters need to accomplish this feat is the ability to forge consensus about legislative priorities with large numbers of their fellow voters.

Once they develop their consensus-building skills, they can overcome divisive influences and start uniting the electorate around common legislative agendas and slates of candidates.

No more unnecessary partisan bickering and legislative stalemates! Once voters figure out how to set a common agenda and build voting blocs and electoral coalitions with broad cross-sections of voters of all persuasions, they are on the road to re-inventing democracy!

They can build winning electoral alliances with political parties and advocacy groups of their choice — without the interference of special interests.

They can bridge the partisan divides that are paralyzing the country, by creating common agendas and winning slates of candidates that can get elected without special interest money.

They can cut special interests down to size just by dealing themselves their own winning hands . . .