TomJoseph

And so without further ado, why don't you let us know who do we have today? We have Mr. Tom Joseph, an innovator, business owner, and social activist. As the founder of Bookminders, he developed a transformative approach to outsource bookkeeping and pioneered a remote first employment model that prioritizes flexibility and work-life balance. As an activist and media producer, he launched Wilson's Fountain and America's Main Street Party. introducing a new method for nominating members of Congress with a track record of leveraging technology for societal well-being. He applies a business-oriented approach to election reform. There you go. So, ladies and gentlemen, why don't you give a nice round of applause. Hold on, let me fix your camera right there to make sure that we get it. A nice visual of you. There we go. There you go. There you go. That's HD right there. Full HD, right? Yes, sir. And so, first of all, I want to thank you for coming to the show. And, you know, one thing that we generally say when we have guests is, you know, how was your day? How was it, one, getting to the show and all of that. Good old stuff? No, great day. Had a great night last night. And be glad to be back in the city of Brotherhood Love. That's right. City of brotherly love, insistently affection. Before we get into any of the technical stuff and the interview and we get to the business, one of the questions I like to ask guests, and I'm very new here, but for me, what is your favorite cheesesteak in the city? Let's give a round of applause to that first. I got to know. I'm I love a good cheesesteak. And I have my picks. And I'll get them to him one day. But I need to know, what's your favorite cheesesteak in the city? I kind of prefer the Jersey kind of cheesesteak. Uh-oh. I think I got a record scratch. I didn't put the record scratch. It's OK. Wow. I went to the Jersey Shore a lot. So that's probably my cheesesteak. I'm telling you, man. I'll give my picks one day on the show, but do you have a favorite in Jersey, or you just prefer the Jersey style? Jersey style. Okay. All right. Good enough, but you enjoy cheesesteaks, so you get a pass. We love that. We appreciate that. Again, right quick, and I want to say this. You walked in with some accolades that I didn't mention in the intro. You just showed us when you walked into the studio. Amazing work. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's top workplaces. And you want to know who number one is? That is your company, Bookminders, founded in 1991, certified public accountants and consultants. How does it feel to be number one for small businesses? It feels very good. I mean, I started Bookminders with the intent of creating a very different workplace, providing opportunities for women that wanted to raise their kids and work. And to be acknowledged like this, this is based on employee surveys. This is a computer came up with these rankings. And so very honored that, you know, what I designed basically worked. We created a great workplace. Yeah. So, I mean, it says here, right, it says develop, he developed a transformative approach to outsourced bookkeeping and pioneered a remote first employment model that prioritizes flexibility and work-life balance. Let's talk a little bit about that. You know, what made you consider or take that particular approach to your business? You know, this was really an accident. I was working in factory automation. I was just trying to help my father out. You know, really back in, so really when I came up with the ideas in the mid-80s when personal computers came out, and there really weren't a lot of opportunities for women that wanted to have decent employment and raise their kids. And this is something that's inspired by having an older sister. So I, the other thing, you know, I lost my job and I had this idea and I just kind of worked it real slow. And over 35 years, you know, it matured and I think grew into something great. Wow. Amazing work. Yeah. So remote first, like you pioneered the remote first employment model. well before it became like a global trend. And even during a pandemic, you were already, that was already the mindset for you. What, uh, inspired that and how does it, how does it compare to having people in office, like the trade-offs, the pros, the cons? You know, I, we, I really didn't worry about that. I really worried about, um, creating this, this work environment and, um, targeting a type of business that really wasn't getting the, um, hands-on care. Back then, accountants would only work with small businesses on a monthly basis. We converted that into a weekly service and really took the pressure off the business owners having to track cash and figure out which bills to pay. We'd just meet with them once a week, say, here's what you pay, here's what people owe you, here's where your cash is, and see you next week. I love that. So what were some of the biggest cultural and operational hurdles you faced early on? It's interesting. The challenges that we faced there are some of the challenges I'm facing in this new initiative, but people, you know, data security, people not trusting us taking data off sites, just a different model, like getting people to wrap their head around a different way for us to work. And, you know, it doesn't seem very innovative now, but back in 1991 and the 90s, this is a pretty big change. Yeah. You know, real quick, let me jump in here real quick. I have two questions because it falls in line with what you said, because You talked about trust, right? And on this platform, we talked a lot about AI. How is that incorporated? Do you incorporate AI in your business now? And how often do you find it being a challenge with just the idea of trust also? You know, I think some form of AI has been in accounting for a while. Like the packages are smart about knowing and recognizing previous transactions and automating that, doing automatic reconciliation. So from that standpoint, it is. Frankly, I haven't been that involved in book minders for about a decade. I mean, I'm a very capable management team. I still own the company. We have a fantastic CEO, Jessica Menkes, and she's dealing with those problems now. They freed me up to work on Wilson's Fountain and this new initiative. So you also talked about, you know, it's been kind of challenging at times. I want to go back to the 20, right? When we talk about COVID, right? what type of challenges did you have during that time, you know, with the things that you do in your organization? Um, well with book monitors, we found that the conversion during the COVID was pretty simple because our, our service was already about, um, almost completely virtual. We would visit our clients once a week for a very short period. So once we kind of worked out those, um, those issues, we, um, we were smooth sailing. So we really did not, the transition of the COVID was not very difficult for us. Okay. Uh, again, salute to the CEO bookminder. She allowed you to step away. So Wilson's fountain, let's talk about that. Like what is the core mission of Wilton's Wilson's fountain? How does your role as a media producer tie into your broader goals with social activism? Sure. Um, Getting back to the COVID, what happened was I needed to apply for PPP money, you know, as a lot of people do, just give myself some insurance to get through. And at that point, I made a promise that, you know, if I physically and financially survived the COVID, that I wanted to do something about the partisanship that existed here. And it always bothered me about gerrymandered districts and how unfair elections were. So my initial effort was actually to launch a political party in California. I began to realize it was really just inventing the same thing. You know, it would rely on rich people funding our campaigns. And we would basically, you know, not do anything. And one day I made a joke. I said that we do a better job selecting our next American Idol than we do our next representative. Wow. How about that? Yeah, they give round of applause. How about that? Absolutely. But it made me think that maybe we could do this. So we create an app and a portal and a way to, isolate these candidates from money and elevate them through a multi-round competition and have the people choose their representative instead of party machinery. I absolutely love that. Now, the one question I would have is with how fast technology turns over and with having AI, you mentioned about security and data. Do you have any reservations about going in and what is your approach to making sure that data is safe and is protected from potential breaches when it comes to this type of, you know, selection of, you know, potential candidates? Well, I mean, the same techniques we use at Bookmark to protect money, you know, and I think as much as hackers want votes, I think hackers want money more. And our systems, you know, people generally figured out how to protect them and do that. So, but what, I was pleased to find out that there is a lot of progress to be made in secure mobile voting. There's actually three different platforms out there. We're looking at a platform called Votes that uses blockchain technology, It's actually been used in the military. They're already using this for folks that are on submarines or in war zones where they can't get a paper ballot out. So this is an approved working mobile technology. It's only used in a very small fraction in the U.S., but the province of Ontario actually has adopted Votes, this technology, for all city elections in the whole province of Ontario for all voting. Now you use. That's incredible. Yeah, that's amazing. And as soon as you mentioned blockchain, I mean, because you're talking to people who's very versed with NFTs, right? And so that's kind of like where we came out of and we still own them and things of that nature. So we understand the decentralized aspect of the blockchain and it makes so much sense now that you mentioned that, right? So why do you think people don't know about the particular technology that you're referring to and how it can, you know, be beneficial when it comes to. Well, this is the first time I've been on the show. I mean, I have to get, we just came out with a demo of the app. I mean, it's still a long ways away. There are restrictions in terms of like, so Wilson's Fountain is this initiative where we define how our entire political committees can be repurposed, how to use a super PAC, a political party, local committees, and candidate committees in very different ways to control our representatives. The party is restricted in terms of, like I can only put a certain amount of money in. The federal election law only allows an individual to put $ 5, 000 a year into a party. So I have to get the word out to have people be aware of it. And it's a very new thing. I mean, this is something that, even when you talk to people, they have a hard time wrapping their head around a fair process for choosing anonymity. Yeah. Yeah. So let's, let's, let's talk, let's, let's dig deeper into that. And for those who are unaware of it, like, you know, we'd like to walk people. I think what's great about our platform and that we always talk about is we demystify the conversation when it comes to politics, right? Even the idea of what a super PAC is, gerrymandering. A lot of people feel, especially some of our audience have said that, When it comes to the political conversation, especially around or on platforms like legacy news or traditional news, they feel like they're being talked at and not talked to. Right. And a lot of that could be or is, you know, different terminologies or just the idea that you already understand what these are. policies or the subject matter is. So I just want to walk people through kind of the idea of what you guys do. But what do you think the role could be or the pathway could be to actually be able to choose fair right? Candidates can do it fairly and your voting be fair. What does that actually look like? Well, you know, getting back to the American Idol analogy, it's a moneyless platform. So we actually, there's a demo on mainstreetparty.org. If you can see, you know, we figure that if a contest is free and equal, there'll be a lot of people wanting to run. So in our model, there's a hundred folks in that. And you're thinking, oh my gosh, how would I go through a hundred candidates? Well, We were going to require that the folks before they run, they have to take positions on seven issues as determined by a local committee. I like that. I like that. And then what you do is that as, Charles, you'd go in and say, hey, I'm starting to answer these questions. It'll start reducing things. Now that's down to 60. Now it's down to 40. And you say, hey, do I want to go look at them? You go to the For You page. You can do it. Or you can just endorse them all. We're using a thing called approval voting in these early rounds. It allows you to vote for everybody you approve for. So if you say, hey, I'd be satisfied if I got any of these 20 people to move on to the next round. Americans are lazy. This has to be easier than Wordle. So, you know, you got to put it in so that they can just hit the button and see who's in the top 20, go top 10, top four, have what we're calling like a virtual town hall, add new content. We want to make it compelling so that people participate and we get engagement. That is the problem. Elections today aren't compelling. I mean, at the House level. We're looking at the House. Yeah, we talk a lot about, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I got you. We talk a lot about civics here. And what you're saying is amazing. I mean, we need to do some type of event, a town hall where you guys can talk about this, especially in the Philadelphia area. We are actually... going to have, I think it was just confirmed that we're going to have a commissioner here. And how he's running the kind of voting process and offering, and kudos to him because he has been doing an amazing job with access and giving access to the community and finding different polling locations and making it fair and paying some of the members and the people who are getting these jobs, which is something that's I am 100% for is to offer solutions and resources to some of the people who need that. But I think you guys have to be have to be in a conversation in some type of way, because I think that is probably the only way that we. Can be fit. I agree with you wholeheartedly. As I'm thinking of this, you know, I think a lot as I talk, right? Right, the more you think about it. Yeah, it's just amazing. Because here are a few things that it says to me very immediately. Number one, it gets rid of the two-party system. Which they have a problem with. That to me is one of the biggest detriments to our democracy is having a two-party system. And then people have been so disenfranchised that over the last 10, 15 years, all I've heard is, I'll vote for the lesser of two evils. I don't want to vote for evil either way. So I'd rather, like this type of platform says to me, we get rid of the two-party system. The second thing it does, it takes money out of the picture. Because again, if you can get billionaires to back you with the amount of money that they have access to and amount of resources, it's almost like if you say things enough time, people, what's the saying, Charles? You say a lie enough times, it becomes the truth. And that to me, and don't get me started on the current administration. But what I'm saying is it gets rid of the need to have money in the politics. Now, My question is, a lot of times when I'm looking at a candidate, right, and you said you had, you know, they would get seven questions and they would have to have positions on those seven questions. And the one thing that that does for me is it takes out the potential of people just being charismatic. Right. If you've got some people who can just talk and talk and talk and they're very charismatic and they can sell water to a well, I get to hear your position. I get to know where you stand. And if we are in alignment on more than we are opposed, right? So for me, one of the things I always preach was breeding these homegrown, you know what I mean, candidates and having them represent you. This to me signals a shift in where we should be going in American politics. And we take out the money, the super PACs, the oligarchs, and we actually... get people that represent the people. Now, my question for you is obviously eyeballs and participation is the key, but what are the obstacles do you have in front of you that we maybe can help clear up for you? Sure. Cause I'm all for this. I love this idea. So, you know, kind of where we are now, we, um, I work with college students, Philadelphia, actually build this. There's a guys from Penn temple, Drexel, Haverford, uh, Swarthmore. And right. Um, anyway, uh, You know, Wilson, James Wilson is the founding father. He added the words and equal to the free election clause. And what had been at that time a free election clause from the English Bill of Rights, he looked at that and said, you know what? It's not good enough that anybody can run. In fact, that wasn't really anybody. But that it has to be equal. It has to be fair. Otherwise, you know, money and influence will push people away from the center of the curve. So I believe that every district has a bell curve. And right now we're not getting... the person at the center of the bell curve. It's not purple. In a gerrymandered red district, it's pink. In a gerrymandered blue district, it's probably baby blue. We have Navy and Ruby representing us, and they're at odds. And I think there's the idea of them, not only the candidates taking these positions, but as the voters weigh in on who, it's going to let the representatives know how the district really feels on these issues. So that, to me, is the most valuable thing. The other thing is that, you know, the whole concept is that there is video content that will be provided. So charisma is part of it. I mean, if they all agree on the same issues, how do you you want the most dynamic person? We're creating a system where you don't need to have advertising to get convey that. So all that content will be within the app, within the portal. You know, if you don't need advertising, you don't need money. And so. You know, the winner of this contest would go up against an incumbent Republican or Democrat and try to take them out. Yeah, I love that. Now, for me, because I want to be able to clip this later and put it out, walk us through the complete process comprehensively from beginning to end so we can clip this and kind of help people understand exactly what it is that you're trying to accomplish and they understand it and they can see the vision. First, you know, it's only U.S. House districts. It's only districts. gerrymandered U.S. House districts. Our understanding is that you want to find a vote where a district where the winner has probably 70 to 80 percent has been winning with that. That way, if we split that vote in half, the opposition party still doesn't have a chance. We want to go into a place where the voters have been buried, but they really don't have a chance to put up a candidate to win. This gives them voice to say that, hey, instead of now getting in a red district, getting somebody who's a very staunch Republican, they could get a pink independent candidate, which would be a win for them in that district. The same thing in the other. So our approach would be to identify five or 10 blue and red districts on each side. Always go after an equal number. We're looking for a super PAC that actually pay for the media campaigns. They would come in. I know this is a super PAC. I had a hard time wrapping my head around using a super PAC. But to me, this is a super PAC for the common good because what they're doing is they're going to support whoever the district picks. It's a super PAC that's not behind a party or a cause. They're behind the voice of the people. So in advance of the contest, they would start doing public service announcements and say, hey, if you want to run for Congress, download the app. Build your campaign. If you want to be a part of the local committee, Here's what you do. We need a local committee to act like an HR department. Do the background checks. Isn't it ridiculous that we get candidates halfway down the road, we find out that they didn't actually serve in a branch of the military, but they said they did. I mean, this happens over and over again. So there should be vetting done, not to eliminate them, but to make sure that the truth is there when they enter the contest. So in the first rounds, we would like to run this in parallel with the public primary so that the people can see the difference. And in the first round, they would, you know, in advance of this, they would also need to do financial disclosures and get 100 people to endorse them before they get in. So coming into the contest, if we have 100 candidates and 100 people endorse them, you get 10,000 people already participating in the contest. Go to that top, you know, they're going to be racing to make the top 20, a lot more people. We get 20, 30,000 by the first round. But the goal is that by the final round, that if we can get as many or more people participating in this in the public primary, Art Canada comes out as not a spoiler, but a paper. Real quick, because I want to, and you can jump in, but I want you to, because again, I like for people to kind of have an understanding. Can you explain to the people what a super PAC is so they can understand that? The root of all evil. But, you know, in some respects, the super PACs are doing they're like NIL money. I mean, that money was always around. It was just under the scenes. The Super PAC has kind of brought it into the surface. So Super PAC is somebody that can, as an organization, can spend, you know, can basically take money from anyone and spend it on anything. The only thing they can't do is coordinate with the candidates. So that was one of the things we had to architect is to make sure that as this played out, the Super PAC is not in a coordination role, that they are Completely separate. So we see them running the media campaign for the winner in the general election. But during the nominating process, they're there as like, like I said, doing public service announcements, reminding the public they're not going to be behind the kids. They participate. Download the app. Here are the leaders, you know, helping get an audience for the contest. Yeah. So, yeah, I like the fact that the super PAC isn't allocated towards one specific. It's nonpartisan. Exactly. The super PAC for the common good. I can get behind that. That is something that I can most certainly get behind because, like you said, you level the playing field for everybody. So currently, where are you with the app? And I'm going to just say this now. At some point, I believe this is where America should be. 100%. I think it should come with every cellular device. This app should already come installed. Okay. So again, I love the endorsement. No, we talk, we hear a lot of rhetoric, especially with the midterms coming up about free and fair elections. However, you have the powers that be gerrymandering district districts from Texas all the way to Ohio and beyond. And for me, in the middle of an election cycle, you start to, that's like never been done before. But for this to be happening, and again, I always thought there were rules in place. You just couldn't do certain stuff. Everybody told me this is illegal. And I keep hearing, everything this man is doing is illegal, and I don't see a cuff in sight. So the loophole is about not spending money. So it turns out that if the people who are interested in running for office don't spend money. The political party can do whatever it wants. We can create an alternate primary system. So our political party, America's mainstream party is really a tech company building an app, which is non ideological. It's just technology. Free and fair. And it's a free and equal app. And then we'll publish this out to the local committees who will run the contest, but there'll be checks and balances. So we'd be able to go and say, Hey, yeah, they executed that contest within the rules. That's a, The winner is out. Then the super PAC knows they can back them. That's good. So since you say that, what is the governance like with this? Because if we're making sure that or if we're saying that it's free and fair, you know, what's the governance to make sure that it's free and fair? Well, the governance is designed so that, you know, you think about people that run political parties have a lot of power. But think about the people who run Olympic committees. They have thankless jobs. We want to make this a thankless job. But still, a lot of people are engaged civically in voting and they believe it. But to me, that's the structure. And again, we are in the infancy of this idea. We have a prototype. I've built this on a shoestring with college students. I took the prototype. We brought it to this firm that works with bookminders that stood up this demo. We were able to do something with AI that probably would have cost $ 60, 000, $ 70, 000. Of course, three or four years ago, we did it for $ 15, 000. And it could do it within the party, which has like almost no money. Wilson's Fountain is something I privately fund. It's the research. It allows me to go out and get the interns. But to develop the app, that will have to be done within funding of the party. Right now, we have a demo. We're not going to be ready for the midterms. I mean, the 2028 primary season is only 16 months or 18 months away. So you think about that. We still have a development challenge. Okay. Okay. So I personally definitely want to I'll get the website because I want to check it out personally to kind of look at it. But at what point, as far as like Charles was asking, as far as governance of the app. Right. We already talked about security. Will this be a publicly owned app to keep it fair? If we're talking about blockchain. Exactly. If we're talking about making sure nobody has the power to go in and influence, will the people own the app or is it privately owned? That's why it's inside a political party. The only money that can come into a political party are donations from individuals that fit certain... As our current structure, it's $ 5, 000. Nobody's going to have control over it. Right now, I do, but... I'm trying to publish a free and equal app. So I think as time goes on, as we raise money, there'll be a formal board. I think the Super PAC will have a board. The local committees will have boards. But here's the thing. But will we get into the territory of it being privately owned by one person or will it at some point become an IPO? No, no, no, no. It can't. Okay. Because the party owns it. For the IPO, it would have to become private. You know what I mean? So I've set this up that it's all public domain. So everything that's in the app belongs to the public. In fact, we want to license it to be used in other applications, eventually things beyond just gerrymandered districts. And I've talked to people just like you in other countries lately. Yeah, they could use this too. So we want to become the source for open source code that would be for these nominating contests That can be used by, you know, if the parties want to use them. They won't because they like the money system. But if somebody, a party did want to come in or local districts want to use it to whittle the field down to figure out who is really the best candidate, they could use this. But it's going to take a while to get to that point. Yeah, because I already see. Party's feeling like, oh, no, because it's taking away a lot of the power that we already have. So I don't I don't think I want to engage in that. No, they hate it. Yeah, of course. Absolute power corrupts. And I think, you know, ultimately, as long as we stay in the realm of transparency, that's right. we can continue down that road of moving towards free and fair elections. And then a lot of times, another thing that I love about this, and I'll keep going back to this because, it's a lot of times that we see these campaign ads and they just is they just tell you exactly what it is that you they think you want to hear but with those seven initial you know questions that they'll be asked and points of view will it escalate as they move up in the rank like you you start out with a hundred All right. The hundred get the initial seven. Then the top 40 get these questions. The top 20 get these questions. The top 10. And like, does it those does those questions change as they progress? And do they get progressively harder? Because that's what I want to see. A lot of times people don't ask, especially legacy media. They don't ask the hard questions. I see this evolving. I mean, not a straw man right now. We just have the seven questions and more content gets added in when we get to the final four. But we can do this a number of ways. I see this evolving over time. Bookminders, you know, same thing. I mean, the core of what Bookminders is about is there, but the way the system works over 30 years has changed a lot. So there'll be refinement. You know, right now we're looking like when we're at the final four, do we use ranked choice voting? Do we use pick two? Do we use start? You know, different things. I want the public to be part of that. Right now, academics make those decisions. So we want to treat this like, You know, the market is customers. I mean, if voters were actually treated like customers, this country would be a way better place. I love that you said that because, again, it's always the academic. And everyone, especially some of our listeners, feel that you're not always talking to the academic. You know, it's people who kind of shy away from school or not as well-read or versed when it comes to some of the topic or subject matter. So they're not the academic. So That's the people who we like to talk to, the people who are not the academic who pontificates on political structure and political policy. We don't do that here, right? And so I love that idea. I would love to see when you talk about the board, there needs to be some just the basic citizens that need to be on there that's fair and partial. Absolutely. It's hard to have somebody from a political standpoint to be fair and partial because you're always... you're partial, right? You're leaning towards the side. You're going to be biased, right? And so to see that, and I would love to be, I would love more information and to be more in part, part of this and engage more about some of the stuff that you're doing. So make sure you stay connected to We Talk Weekly. That time went super fast. That was crazy. That was super fast. I love the stuff that you're doing. If it's anything that you would want those who would like to know more about the things that you're doing or you want people to know. What would that be? You're talking to a worldwide audience right now. Yeah, and I appreciate you giving oxygen to this idea because a lot of people are not. See, of course. I think the thing that we're looking for now is traction for people to go to MainStreetParty.org. There's a page called A Brand New Way. You can learn about the process. There's a one-minute video that kind of describes it, and then you can also click on a button and get to the demo and actually see how this would play out. And it actually goes through a process where if you haven't verified your device, it's a faux process, but say, hey, this is time where you're going to actually turn your device into a mobile ballot box, basically. And then when you go to endorse or vote, it will come up and say, hey, present your face. No, it's not really doing this. We have the public to understand how the security is going to work. And it's going to know that, hey, at the time you vote, it wants to see your face or your fingerprint to know that you're holding the device to make it go in. So these are just getting people to to learn about this process. Because what we have now, I mean, it's so, we're so ingrained in the system. And I think we're just, you know, caught up in our news cycles without thinking about something different. Yeah. And in some ways, the way we vote do feel a little, you know. Prehistoric. Archaic. Yeah. Yeah. And if I was a young person today, I'd be like, why? I can do Venmo. I can do all these things. That's right. Even the IRS, you got to do that MeID thing. It verifies you. No, to drive the apps, the Ubers, the Lyfts, you have to do the same exact thing. So just one last question. And I feel like this is important because people like to feel part of the process. And I think a lot of what's happening now, as Charles said, a lot of candidates just speak at the people as opposed to feeling like we can relate to them. It's like, they don't really care about it. They just want the job so they can go in and get the money. With this platform, I really feel like people would really feel empowered. Like their vote counted, it mattered. And the question I have is, Are on the app, are people like getting the opportunity to engage outside of just looking at the videos from the candidates? You know, this is very early stage. And what we built was built on a shoestring. And there's ways for them to go beyond the seven questions and, you know, add more content to it. And even on the seven questions, they could go in and say, hey, I took this position, but I want to add my nuance to that position. So, I mean, there is going to be opportunities. I think as time goes on, just like all software, it will build in functionality and capability. Yeah, we need to help get this done. I think this is incredible. And then we get rid of, also get rid of the electoral college. Yes. We have another discussion. Put term limits on everything, right? Like put term limits on every position in the government, period. We'll have another show. I've come full circle on both those issues. But, you know, I think that the reason the founders didn't put term limits in is elections are free and equal and somebody's bad, they're going to get voted out. This whole idea that it would be, you know, somebody said, hey, I'm going to run for reelection and it's going to be set up that I'm going to win because, you know, I did the party's bidding for the last two years. They're going to give me a bunch of money. I'm going to go into a primary. And once I win the primary, the general election is uncompetitive. And the most passionate people turn out for the primary. So that's going to be people on the far right and the far left. Yeah. And it's money. Again, you can put yourself in front of eyeballs All day, every day. It's no different than music. Some songs, I still, to this day, I hear and I'm like, I don't understand that. How is that a good record? But if you play it 9,000 times, it becomes an earworm. And now you feel it and you love it. So I get it. And I just think this is cutting edge innovation when it comes to how we handle fair or how we can progress towards an absolutely fair and free election. Because Everybody in the United States, my daughters had mobile devices at 9 and 10. I'm sorry, 9 and 11. So at that point, they're familiar with how to use the technology. Why don't we make our voting and our government part of the technology so that we can have every vote meaningfully count? And that to me is the most exciting part to me. If we can adopt this and find a way to use this across every voting opportunity and have it free and fair. And we talking face and fingerprint. I mean, I don't see, you know, how can you corrupt that if you holding it and it's live and you have to vote with yourself live in the fingerprint, I don't see how, you know, you can beat that unless somebody, I mean, we not going to have people across the country putting, you know, doing stuff crazy enough that, but I just think this right here is exactly what, the type of rhetoric and the type of innovation that I can get behind that makes me excited for my kids to vote in the future. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. One, I want to thank you for coming to the show. I think what you're doing, I love it. It's very innovative and I know I'll stand behind it. Speaking for me, I'll stand behind it a hundred percent. I think that it's necessary. I would love to introduce you to someone who we constantly have on the show when We talk about voting as Kadita Kerner. She's the CEO and president of the New Pennsylvania Project. And she always talks about voting in partial elections and making sure that people's voices are heard and people have the ability to vote and how to do it in the right and appropriate way. And she talks a lot about gerrymandering, too, and the issues as it relates to that. And so I think that would definitely benefit or just the conversation you have in the conversation with that or your organization have a conversation with that would definitely benefit. But before I let you leave, why don't you let everyone know one, how they can get in contact with you. And if it's one thing you would like them to know, um, yeah. So on you. Thanks a lot, Charles. Yes. Um, well, first off, like I said, mainstreetparty.org is the one website. The, the, a lot of the research was done in Wilson's fountain. That's Wilson's fountain.us. Um, and that's where I work with college students. Shout out to, um, Gabe Wright and Tulio Tagliafera, they actually did the research to figure out the legality of this. But the key is that this is election reform with no new laws. And the problem that we've had is that we're trying to get permission to change the election system from the people who don't want to change it. And even Alaska, where they got ranked choice voting, they're pushing to get it repealed. And that would be a shame if that happened. The fact that they're pushing already says something. how major and how big this thing is. And so, so just real quick before I let you go, how do you, so is that, do you need like, uh, some type of like legislation to push? What, what is it that you would need to kind of push this thing along? Money. Okay. I mean, uh, but for any whole systems, I'm not going to be afraid. Yeah. But, um, but you, you have to know that anybody that would donate to this, they're not donating to another terrible political app. They're helping to create an asset for the country that will continually be able to leverage. Fantastic. One more time. How can I get in contact with you and all that stuff? Oh, um, you could Tom at Wilson's fountain.us or T S Joseph at main street party.org. Um, I'm on LinkedIn. Um, but, uh, yeah, contact the party and, um, Would love to see it gain traction. I really appreciate you having me on the show. Absolutely. Absolutely. How did you hear about us? Through Podmatch. Oh, yeah. Fantastic. Fantastic.