# Reimagining Civic Participation: The Digital Democracy Project Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-policyviz-podcast-1096919/reimagining-civic-participation-the-digital-democracy-project Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-policyviz-podcast-1096919/reimagining-civic-participation-the-digital-democracy-project.md Podcast: [The PolicyViz Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-policyviz-podcast-1096919) Published: 2026-05-20T04:10:00+00:00 Episode link: https://zencastr.com/z/PQ3SzuqG Audio file: https://redirect.zencastr.com/r/episode/6a0724458725bd2bf789e814/size/52870774/audio-files/5a0b59c06ebaa2000f259f8d/f990935b-ad3f-425d-baca-ba6984f55fcc.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-policyviz-podcast-1096919/episodes/reimagining-civic-participation-the-digital-democracy-project Duration seconds: 2134 ## Resource I talk with Ramon Perez, Executive Director of the Digital Democracy Project this week. DDP is a nonpartisan nonprofit using secure mobile voting technology to give citizens a real-time voice in legislation. Ramon explains how the platform lets verified, registered voters weigh in on bills being debated in Congress and their state house—and then scores legislators on how closely their votes match what their districts wanted. We dig into how AI, including a RAG-powered chatbot called VoteBot, helps everyday citizens parse thousands of pages of complex legislative text. We also discuss digital security, participatory budgeting, and Ramon's ambitious goal of expanding the platform to all 50 state legislatures by 2027. Keywords: digital democracy, mobile voting, civic tech, legislative transparency, AI in government, Ramon Perez, Digital Democracy Project, VoteBot, participatory budgeting, voter engagement, legislator accountability, PolicyViz podcast, civic engagement, govtech Subscribe to the PolicyViz Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Become a patron of the PolicyViz Podcast [https://patreon.com/policyviz] for as little as a buck a month Follow Ramon Perez and the Digital Democracy Project at digitaldemocracyproject.org and download the Votes (VOATZ) app to participate. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Substack, Twitter, Website, YouTube Email: jon@policyviz.com ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-policyviz-podcast-1096919/episodes/reimagining-civic-participation-the-digital-democracy-project/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-policyviz-podcast-1096919/reimagining-civic-participation-the-digital-democracy-project.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.