Software Functional Specification

Constituent Application

Version 1.0, March 1, 2025

1.0 Overview

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Key Definitions

1.3 Homepage

1.4 Task Section

  • 1.4.1 What Committee Members See

  • 1.4.2 Constituent Mini-Section

  • 1.4.3 Potential Nominee Mini-Section

  • 1.4.4 AMSP Mini Section 

  • 1.4.5 Task Reports

  • 1.4.6 Solving/Discarding Task Reports

  • 1.4.7 Sharing Tasks with Other Committee Members 

1.5 Polling

  • 1.5.1 What Committee Members See

  • 1.5.2 How the Poll Collects Data 

1.6 Communication 

1.7 Rules and Regulations 

  • 1.7.1 Committee Powers

  • 1.7.2 Fair Practice

  • 1.7.3 Removal of PNs

  • 1.7.4 Public Behavior 

 

2.0 Functional Specifications

2.1 Introduction

One of the core missions of AMSP is to redesign the relationship between representatives and their constituents. The party doesn’t just do this by removing the special interests that cloud this relationship, but also by acting as a voice for constituents in ways that the two major parties have been unable to in the past. 

Amplifying the voices of constituents requires a local presence within each district that is more powerful than the constituent offices traditionally used by the two major parties. As such, the local nominating committee will be an extremely important part of the AMSP’s strategy for both nominees and constituents. 

Its duties don’t just include regulation of the nomination competition, but also serving as a mediator between elected AMSP representatives and their constituents, with the goal of establishing a more transparent relationship between the two groups. The nominating committee app module acts as an aid for nominating committee board members and staff, allowing them easy access to constituents, potential nominees and elected representatives in order to best facilitate the committee’s core tasks.

 Accordingly, the three primary tasks of the local nominating committee are shown below:

  1. Constituent Intake Management: Much of the job of constituent intake is handled by the identity verification service, but the nominating committee still has a significant role in the confirmation of those constituents who are unable or unwilling to verify their identity through the identity verification service. 

  2. Nominating Competition Regulation: This includes verification of potential nominee information, upholding competition rules based on constituent reports, assessing how to incorporate local issues into the competition’s framework and moderating competition events such as the town hall and debate. 

  3. Polling: Outside of election years, the committee will be responsible for conducting polls of constituents’ views on particular issues and sharing the data with AMSP representatives. In particular, using their own intuition and requests from members of the public, their primary responsibility will be to decide which polling topics are most relevant.

The app’s goal is to simplify the jobs of staff and board members, acting as a hub of information and communication between the committee and members of the AMSP or elected representatives. It is separated into 4 sections: 

  • Home 

  • Tasks

  •  Polling 

  •  Communication. 

A detailed description is provided for each of these sections below. Each of these major sections should be accessible through four insignia at the the bottom-most section of the screen. 

2.2 Key Definitions 

It should be noted that the most senior members of the nominating committee are the unpaid board members. To help these board members, there is also a team of paid staffers who exist to aid and facilitate the completion of the nominating committee’s core tasks according to the orders and decisions of the governing board. 

Board Member- A component of the local Nominating Committee’s governing board. These committee members are unpaid and serve as a “supervising body” over the paid staff who make up the majority of the nominating committee. Decisions having to do with competition regulation, polling and irregular constituent verification situations require their approval.

Staff Member- Paid staff members make up the majority of the local nominating committees. Although they will have a role in aiding the board members in their primary tasks, their primary responsibility will be to verify the identities of those constituents who decide to Register In-Person. 

Identity Verification Service- The name for our identity verification security service which will be integrated into the app. Using this service, constituents will be able to verify their identity using only a valid form of identification and a picture of their face. Since we haven’t yet contracted a service provider, this will be the placeholder name until one is found.

Committee Member- Used to describe any member of the committee as a whole, including both board and staff members. 

2.3 Homepage

The homepage gives members of the nominating committee the opportunity to change the information on their profile as well as check competition leaderboards and candidate profiles. 

When entering the homepage, users see the AMSP logo in the middle of the screen and a drop down menu with a profile insignia which houses the committee member’s personal information. Below this is a section labeled “competition” in large font. After scrolling down past the competition label, committee members are met with two sub-sections: Leaderboard and Nominees. The committee members always begin on the “Leaderboard” sub-section, which is shown in the same manner as it is shown to nominees and constituents. 

Upon selecting the “Nominee” button, the committee members see the list of all of the nominees participating in the current competition. The list should be separated between nominees who are currently in the competition and those who have been eliminated. 

After selecting the name of a particular nominee, the committee member is taken to their profile in a separate section of the app which should not be labeled on the bottom part of the screen. It is important that this section not be shown at the bottom of the screen as it is accessible through many different parts of the app. A detailed description is provided later in the design. 

2.4 Task Section 

The task section of the app deals with all essential committee tasks outside of polling: regulation of the competition, constituent intake management and all other associated responsibilities. 

This section is also key for oversight on the part of the national AMSP as every task is visible to members of the national party. In the event that members of the nominating committee extend past the deadline for a particular task, members of the national AMSP are notified. 

The task scheme that governs this automated program is relatively simple. Every time a constituent or nominee submits a request for communication with the nominating committee, a task specific to their needs is created.

 Constituents may create tasks by submitting communication requests through the Register In-Person button in their profile page (specific to the need to register outside of the identity verification service). Nominees may create tasks by submitting requests to enter the competition accompanied with the attachment of all necessary information. 

When a task is submitted, it is either visible to the entire committee (including staff and board members), or assigned to individual staff randomly. The specific aspects of task reports will be illustrated in more detail below.  

2.4.1 What Committee Members See

Committee members are met with a menu on the top of the screen which represents the three sources of their tasks: Constituents, Nominees and AMSP. Until they have selected otherwise, the page will show a list of unsolved tasks from all three sections. This list will look different based on the role of the particular user on the committee. 

Each one of these mini-sections (as accessed through the menu on the top of the screen) shows a list of tasks. Each bubble includes the name of the person responsible for the request, the type of task, and the date and time when the task was created. 

After tapping on one of these bubbles, members are taken to a task report where they can access resources related to the task and contact those responsible for the request if necessary. Accessing and solving these task reports looks different depending on the section. Details of each section and of the task reports are provided below. 

2.4.2 Constituent Mini-Section

The constituent mini-section has two sections: intake and reports. This is the only of the three mini-sections where the tasks will be organized based on type. 

Without having clicked on any specific task section, members can see the specific label of the task section, the number of tasks that are uncompleted (shown by a red number next to the label) and a small window showing the first two or three task bubbles in their inbox. 

The intake section focuses on task reports related to requests from those constituents who have been unable to verify their identity through the identity verification service. Unless help is needed from one of the board members, this task is the responsibility of staff members via a random assignment . Their responsibility is to schedule an in-person meeting with any constituents who have selected the Register In Person option on the profile page and who have filled out the information required for a meeting to occur. 

As for reports, anytime a certain PSA or section of a potential nominee’s profile has received a significant amount of reports, it is flagged by the app and a task report visible to only board members is created and placed in this section (board members may share this task with staff members through the app, but the task remains their responsibility). This also occurs if any member of the committee (staff or board) reports a PSA or profile action through their report function. It is then the responsibility of board members to check the PSAs or profile sections to see if the complaints are valid. In the event that they are, the committee is required to take down the PSA/language, inform the nominee of their violation and disqualify them from the competition if necessary.

 It should be noted that, although staff members are allowed to view report statistics from the app and create report tasks on their own, they should not have the power to alter any information on the app. That power will remain with members of the nominating board.

2.4.3 Potential Nominee Mini-Section

In this mini-section, task reports from those constituents who intend to join the contest and become potential nominees are shown. These are visible to all members of the committee and will include all of the information that nominees are required to provide as is outlined in the Constituent/Nominee App Functional Design.

 In the event that a nominee’s information is incorrect or cannot be verified, members of the committee have the ability to prevent them from participating in the competition until the information can be verified. 

Board members can decide whether the verification process is something that they want to take part in or whether they wish to hand the responsibility off to staffers. Regardless, in order for a potential nominee to take part in the competition, a board member must have signed off on their application. 

2.4.4 AMSP Mini-Section

This section houses all task reports which have come directly from the AMSP. Most of these will deal with tasks related to the committee’s responsibility in creating the contest. This includes modifying the nominee questionnaire to fit the local issues which are specific to their district and fulfilling any other directives that the AMSP may give them throughout the process. 

These directives will be received by members of the board, but can be assigned to committee staff members if necessary. 

2.4.5 Task Reports 

When a committee member taps on a task bubble, they are taken to a full task report, which includes all of the information and links that are necessary for their completion of the task. 

When it comes to issues related to identity verification like constituent or nominee intake, task reports show the information given by constituents/nominees through the required forms and provide links to conversations which have been created in the communication section of the app (Nominating Committee Module only). 

On the other hand, when dealing with constituent reports, the task report provides a link to the reported profile section/PSA, statistics dealing with the amount of and type of reports (based on which regulation is broken) as well as a link to a conversation between the committee and the nominee. 

Finally, AMSP task reports will provide all of the relevant information and links needed to accomplish the specific directive as well as a link to a conversation between an AMSP representative and the committee. 

2.4.6 Solving/Discarding Tasks 

There are three ways in which task reports can be discarded (two for AMSP tasks), all of which are housed in a dropdown menu at the top right of the task report.

  First, if the task has been completed, members must press the “Finished Task” button. After this, they are taken to a menu in which they have the option to add any notes to the report before it is archived. 

Second, if they are not able to complete the task or require an extension, they must press the “Unfinished Task”  button. This takes them to another small menu which requires them to choose whether or not to request an extension or the destruction of the task. Although the task will disappear automatically or have its deadline extended no matter what they write, they must still provide 1-2 sentences of reasoning for the purpose of AMSP oversight. The extension that they are given will be the same amount of time as the period they were alloted before requesting the extension. 

Finally, there is the “Prank Report” button. This can be used for any task report which is very clearly an attempt to waste the time of committee members. After pressing this button, the task will be demolished and no window will pop up. Members SHOULD NOT use this button unless it is clear that the individual making the request is not serious about fulfilling it. This button will not be present for AMSP requests.

2.4.7 Sharing Tasks With Other Committee Members

Both board and staff members will have the ability to share tasks with each other. All they must do is press the “Share Task” button in the same dropdown menu that houses the functions described above. After doing this, they will be taken to a page where they can write the name of the person with whom they’d like to share the task and a message (if necessary). If a message is written, it shows up in the communication section of the app. A link to the specific communication chain is provided in the shared task. 

2.5 Polling

In non-election periods where the contest is not in progress, members of the committee are still subject to certain duties. Namely, they are to create and publish polls of their constituents on issues that are important to Congress at the time (this will be assigned to board members). 

Both the AMSP and elected members of the party have the ability to direct the committee to conduct polls on certain topics. Outside of this, the committee is also required to conduct a certain amount of polls every non-election year. Although the choice of which polls to conduct is at the discretion of the board members (outside of those required by the AMSP or the elected representative), it is suggested that they conduct polls related to those issues which were frequently included in their constituents’ top issues during the contest . 

2.5.1 What Committee Members See

At the top of the polling page is a menu (in the same style as the task page) with two options: current and past. All users who have not selected otherwise will start on the current page, which is left blank if the members have not published any polls.

 Just below this menu on the current page there will be a “new poll” button. After pressing this button, members are taken to a separate page where they can customize the questions and answers of the poll. At the top of this screen, users may select the political topic around which the poll is being conducted. Each question and answer is presented in an open ended, short answer format, with there being a space to type in the question at the top and 4 possible answers below. There should also be an option at the end of the list to add up to 2 more possible answers or to get rid of up to one possible answer through buttons labeled “add” and “subtract.” Just below this in the middle-bottom of the screen is an “add question” button, which will allow users to add up to three more questions to the poll. No matter their choice, users will also be forced to select the period during which the poll is live, selecting between one week or two weeks. 

At the bottom right corner of this screen, there is a “publish poll” button. This takes users to another screen which gives them a choice between publishing the poll immediately or scheduling a time for the poll to be published. If they choose to schedule a time, they have to enter the date and time at which the poll becomes live. Once this has been done, a small summary of the poll will appear below the “new poll” button in the current section, which gives a short summary of the poll including the question and the time when it will go live. 

2.5.2 How the Poll Collects Data

The poll collects data through a questionnaire that constituents can view through the “home” section of the app. Constituents are notified when a poll goes live and receive another notification if they haven’t completed the poll by the time that the polling period has reached its final days or hours (when it is 90% completed). 

After the polling period has finished, members are able to see the results of the poll in the past polls section. Although a task report isn't created for polls, the app immediately sends copies of the results of the poll to AMSP elected representatives from the district. 

If there are no representatives who have been elected from the AMSP, the results may be shared at the discretion of the committee. That being said, poll results must be shared with the public as soon as the results have been verified. 

The past section shows the results from all of the polls conducted in the past year. Those which are more than a year old will be publicly archived on the AMSP website. Due to the simple intake process, reports are only able to track age, location (based on closest virtual polling location) and thoughts on issues related to the polling questions. 

On the subject of age and location, each respective section shows pie charts that illustrate the proportion of voters from certain age groups or polling locations who participated in the poll and individual charts showing how people from each age group or polling location voted. 

Statistics will show the proportion of poll participants who listed these issues in their most important or listed views related to the issues as dealbreakers (with different views being separated). Pie charts detailing how each group responded will also be shown. 

2.6 Communication 

The communication section of the app will be modeled after that of the nominee module of the app. However, instead of creating conversations only through the button at the top of the screen, conversations will also be created with tasks from nominees, constituents and the AMSP as needed. As mentioned above, every time a task report is created, members will have the option to click a link in the report which will take them to a communication chain between them and the person who created the task. 

2.7 Rules and Regulations 

2.7.1 Committee Powers 

Board Members and Staff: 

  • Approve the participation of constituents who applied through the in-person intake method 

  • Verify information shared with the nominating committee from a person who seeks to participate in the competition as a potential nominee 

Board Members Alone: 

  • Remove any PSAs or profile language that is a violation of competition rules and regulations 

  • Sign off on a potential nominee’s ability to participate in the nomination contest 

  • Create and sign off on the full Issue Indicator questionnaire for the district, including any questions related to issues which are specific to the local problems of the district itself

  • Create questions for and moderate the town halls and debates which will set up the final two rounds of competition 

  • Creating and publishing a certain number of polls related to issues requested by the elected representative, the AMSP or those which pique the interest of the board members themselves 

* Board members may share the work which results from duties and powers which are given only to them with staff members. However, in relation to such duties, it must be the board members themself who signs off on the final product. The board member, thus, takes responsibility for any problems that may arise due to any failure to accomplish a duty specifically assigned to them  

2.7.2 Fair Practice

  • Neither board members nor staff members may take or give any personal contributions to or from potential nominees currently in the contest, or from anyone with personal ties to such potential nominees

  • Board members and staff must maintain absolute impartiality when regulating the competition, even if they find a potential nominee’s beliefs to be troublesome

2.7.3 Removal of PNs 

  • If there is significant enough evidence that a PN has broken the rules of the competition, they must be subject to removal from the competition.

  • Hearings related to such matters should be conducted with complete impartiality, only evidence of the rule-breaking itself should be taken into account by board members. 

  • A potential nominee can only be removed via the majority vote of the board and the approval of the AMSP.  ($50 limit we’re thinking)

  • The AMSP has the power to remove a potential nominee from the competition without board approval if there is evidence that the board was not impartial in its investigation 

  • The AMSP may also bring a particular potential nominee’s infractions before the board for a hearing if necessary 

2.7.4 Public Behavior 

  • Board and staff members may not publicly, either through writing or speech, utter any word that is considered by Merriam-Webster's dictionary to be a derogatory term. This includes all public formats (social media, news outlets, etc).