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How It Works

WhyTho runs on a simple weekly cycle. Here's the full picture.

01

Find your representative

Search by name, state, or office. Every US elected federal official and most state legislators have a profile. Profiles are auto-generated from public data — they exist whether or not the politician has joined.

We track 537 federal officials (535 Congress + President + VP), all 50 governors, and state legislators across 10 priority states — with more being added.

02

Submit or upvote a question

Ask anything that's relevant to their public duties. Be specific and civil. The community votes on questions — upvoting the ones they also want answered.

Each week you can submit up to 5 questions and vote freely. Questions reset each week, but questions you've asked are always in the archive.

03

Questions qualify at 10+ votes

When a question reaches 10 net upvotes, it becomes a "qualifying question" — one that the politician is publicly expected to answer before the week ends.

The qualifying threshold filters out noise. Only questions with real community support count toward a politician's response rate.

04

Politicians can respond

Verified officials can log in and answer qualifying questions directly. Answers appear on their profile and are labeled as either a direct response or a team statement.

If a politician's staff finds a public statement or interview where the question was addressed, they can link it as a source. AI summaries of public record are also shown — clearly labeled as NOT a statement from the politician.

05

Monday reset — scores are locked in

Every Monday at midnight Eastern, the week ends. The count of qualifying questions vs. answered questions is permanently recorded on each politician's profile.

Scores are immutable once locked. A politician cannot go back and answer archived questions to improve their historical rate.

06

Silence is always visible

A politician's lifetime response rate is displayed on their profile — publicly, permanently. It rises when they engage and falls when they go silent.

This is the core mechanic: non-response is never hidden. Every week that passes without an answer is another week of silence on the record.

Politician Verification Tiers

T0

Unclaimed

Auto-generated from public data. No one has claimed this profile yet.

T1

Self-Claimed

Someone has created an account and claimed this profile.

T2

Verified ✓

Identity confirmed via government email, FEC records, social verification, or Stripe Identity.

T3

Fully Verified ✓✓

Tier 2 + physical letter or vouching by a trusted official.