About Us

The Voice of New Zealand

Democrify exists
to empower New Zealanders
with an accessible and engaging platform
to understand and influence
political decisions

Goals

🎯

Grow the Movement

We aim for 500,000 verified New Zealanders to sign up and participate in direct democracy through Democrify.

💪

Become an Unstoppable Public Voice

We want Democrify to become an undeniable voice for New Zealanders—one that politicians simply cannot ignore when making public policy decisions.

🔍

Provide Easy Access to Political Information

Democrify helps Kiwis quickly find relevant political information, learn about key issues, and make their voices heard.

Background

It started with a lively debate between two friends: Was this piece of government legislation what New Zealanders really wanted? It's almost too easy to assume that your own totally well-considered and logical reasoning is shared by the wider population. Which is exactly what both of these friends were assuming in making their case - one contending how deeply unpopular the government bill was, the other maintaining that it enjoyed the support of the vast majority. But who was actually right here? How would you know? How could you know?

The answer seemed simple: "There should be an app where people can vote on legislation and see public opinion in real time." On that the two friends could whole-heartedly agree!

The concept is one of "direct democracy" - where the general public are more frequently and more deeply involved in politics than in the traditional "representative democracy", where most people simply have their voting say once every three or four years, and then wait for the next election!

So, one of those two friends—software developer Mark Abrahams—set out to build it. Like all ambitious projects, it began with the classic (and, in hindsight, naïve) thought: "How hard could it be?"

Fast forward a couple of years, and Democrify has already made major strides, providing:

  • Simplified access to legislation information - bringing disparate sets of data together into one place
  • Digestible summaries – breaking down complex legislation into easy-to-understand language
  • Regular notifications – alerting users to bill updates, new legislation, and policy changes
  • Voting on legislation – allowing New Zealanders to weigh in on individual bills
  • Political preference voting – voting on party preference, preferred prime minister, and government direction
  • Data-driven insights – comparing personal voting records with national trends and government actions
  • Voter authentication – authentication by New Zealand mobile phone (RealMe authentication application in progress - coming real soon now!)

Future

Democrify NZ is transitioning from "startup mode" to an established organisation that is a permanent fixture in the New Zealand political landscape. To ensure its credibility, neutrality, and long-term success, we are currently exploring appropriate governance structures that will serve to establish:

  • Strategic direction
  • Organisational scalability
  • Long-term sustainability
  • Accountability

If you're passionate about strengthening democracy in New Zealand, we invite you to join us and help shape the future of Democrify!