One of the most critical priority for any democracy is to improve its electoral system and start using a much better voting method.
The Informed Ballot Access Protocol is the first of the three Pildem protocols that together form the Pildem electoral reform architecture. Every electoral system must answer a prior question before the first ballot is cast: who is allowed to stand? The answer most democracies have settled on — party nominations, monetary deposits, or signature thresholds gatekept by elected officials — systematically favours insiders, established networks, and financial means over civic standing and genuine public support. The protocol replaces these mechanisms with three access channels, each calibrated to a distinct democratic value.
Gate 1 — the Incumbent Gate grants automatic ballot access to sitting officeholders seeking re-election: one slot per incumbent, no more. Gate 2 — the Prior Participant Gate allocates slots to candidates who ran for the same office in a previous cycle and whose most recent voter-assigned Informed Score was positive — making prior public approval a formal access credential for the first time in any democratic system. Gate 3 — the Citizen Support Gate is open to anyone: newcomers, independents, first-time candidates, citizens with no prior political experience. They qualify by collecting citizen signatures, with voters free to sign for as many candidates as they choose — the same multi-expression logic as Informed Score Voting itself. No party approval is required at any gate. No monetary deposit exists anywhere in the system.