Voters Strike Back Through Congressional Job Rating Portal

Citizens Put Elected Leaders On Notice

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Jun 25, 2010, 07:40 ET

NEW YORK, June 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Mounting voter frustration is evident at the ballot box as incumbents are turned out of office and anti-establishment candidates win election. Had defeated politicians kept track of their job approval ratings at CongressRatings.com, they would have known exactly what their constituents thought of them.

Launched by Marc Beharry and a diverse group of citizens in September 2006, CongressRatings.com has recorded more than 35,000 votes for members of the House and Senate as well as for current and former US presidents and world leaders. That list includes Barack Obama, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, North Korea's Kim Jong-il and many others. Users choose one to ten stars per politician with those votes instantly added and tabulated to form that politician's overall score, or "Job Approval Rating." The site records visitor usage by IP address and cookie to limit votes to one per person.

"Sex scandals and all of the usual mayhem taking place in Washington, DC was behind our decision to establish CongressRatings.com," said Beharry. "We decided to turn personal discouragement with our political system into something of lasting value by developing a useful tool to help empower our fellow Americans and amplify their words and preserve them for the historical record."

"Letters to Congress are helpful, but often go unacknowledged. By using CongressRatings.com, users can publish that letter publicly and grade their senator or local representative by awarding them a low to high rating from 1 to 10 stars. The average rating is about 3.5, underscoring widespread voter dissatisfaction with our elected leaders. This site empowers citizens, enabling them to speak out in a bid to serve notice to our leaders and help mend a broken political system. I encourage everyone to speak out and act through volunteering, donating to responsible candidates and finding other ways to help their community and country."

With mid-term elections just months away, engaged citizens can let their political leaders know right now what steps they must take to win voter approval or face the consequences at the polling booth this November.

About CongressRatings.com

CongressRatings.com was founded by Marc Beharry and a group dedicated American citizens who come from all walks of life; Stacy Ramos, Zahida Ishmael, Ian Walter, Malcolm Milligan, Keenan Donegan, Robert Boardman and James Brown. Spokesperson Marc is a techie in NYC, Stacy, who happens to be Marc's wife, is an educator/administrator for a non-profit also in NYC. Zahida, a banker, is the farthest away on the beautiful island of Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands. The rest of the group is just as diverse and they are all committed to helping an active electorate make a difference through CongressRatings.com and other means.