What is StellaVotes?
 
StellaVotes is a politically-neutral, independent on-line community that connects concerned people across the world to influence opinions on important issues including elections and otherwise assists its members to make a difference in places that have a major impact on their lives—their roots. StellaVotes is grounded in the belief that what happens in one country can affect people across the globe.  With today’s global issues such as terrorism and climate change, we are more and more knowledgeable about our shared fates and also acutely aware that the decisions that leaders make in one country can have dramatic consequences in our daily lives regardless of how far we are removed geographically.  Now more than ever, we all must have the right to share our opinions on key issues in places all over the globe.

However, expressing opinions is not enough. The StellaVotes community members have access to services such as online global voting that provide them the freedom to cross international boundaries and the power to use this international community to magnify the impact of their opinions on real political and ethical issues.  As such, StellaVotes does not just allow its members to voice their opinions; it also constantly strives to ensure they actually can be heard by the decision-makers and mainstream media they wish to convince.

If you are wondering about the name, “stella” means star in Latin and the star has been a traditional symbol to guide and inspire the world.  Our hope is that StellaVotes will become a beacon to steer the world in the right direction and thus allow the world to grow and prosper.

Who owns StellaVotes?

StellaVotes is part of the life-enhancing network of socially responsible products and services offered by StellaRoots LLC.  StellaRoots specifically caters to the desires and needs of its members to grow and develop connections to their places. The owners of StellaRoots are people just like you who have the dream of using the power of the Internet to make a positive difference in this world.

How does StellaVotes work?

StellaVotes has a growing number of functionalities: voting on candidates or parties in featured world elections, speaking out on world issues, and supporting causes and entities that allow people to stay connected to their places.  As one example, the voting functionality is an online application that allows you to cast your votes and thus express your views in elections that impact your world regardless of whether you are legally eligible to vote in these elections. Your views will be heard even if your vote can not enter into the country’s official tally. However, we will feature not only elections, but also other major issues of global importance. With respect to all featured world issues, members also can view political art, select videos, and read commentaries from their fellow world citizens. The StellaVotes Forum will allow members to rally other members to push for candidates and causes that are important to their places. Finally, most important of all, StellaVotes will bundle the opinions expressed and forward them on regular intervals to the decision-makers and media that its members want to influence.  Thus members will choose StellaVotes because real action occurs when they take their time to express themselves intelligently and forcefully.

What is different about StellaVotes?
 
StellaVotes has fresh, independent global content. It is not owned by a major news conglomerate, special interest group and it is not affiliated with any university. Thus it allows members to express their views according to their personal style.  If the members want to scream their opinion on the next president of the United States, they can scream their opinion.  If they want to be funny, they can make some jokes or give us your best political satire about the candidates in South Africa for example.  They can even cry about situations like the continuing displacement of so many people in New Orleans if you want to!  We allow members to select the topics and we allow them to set the tone of the discussion.

Do you care about where I live or that I am liberal or conservative?
 
StellaVotes values the whole world’s opinion.  We continually strive to make the StellaVotes as user-friendly and as culturally friendly as possible. We try to break down language barriers and facilitate a truly global discussion.  Nevertheless, there are technical limits on how fast we expand to include new languages and legal and moral limits on which opinions we include. But the bottom line is that we do not discriminate against party affiliations or political beliefs.  Our content policy provides further details.
 
Is there anything else special about StellaVotes?
 
StellaVotes wants to make sure as many future voices as possible will be able to join our insightful global community. As a result, our owner StellaRoots LLC will donate at least 10% of its profits to causes supporting children’s health and education needs. To facilitate a truly global impact, StellaRoots is contracting with a BetterPlace.Org to place its donations in projects that allow a maximum amount of transparency and thus results.  As we grow, we will give you more details about our projects and allow you to join us in making the world a better place.

Why you should join StellaVotes?

Stop wasting your time by stating opinions on mindless applications on sites sponsored by the corporate giants. Join the world of intelligent, insightful people on StellaVotes and try to make a real difference in the places you love or the places that impact the places you love.   Do not just express an opinion; unleash the massive power that comes from joining with your fellow concerned members across the globe and present your views to the decision-makers. The StellaVotes and overall StellaRoots Team have the passion and desire to help make this world a better place for everyone who lives, breathes, eats and sleeps on it. Come join us by becoming an active member of StellaVotes.

We welcome and appreciate your feedback.  Please come back as many times as you like to see the global debates on important issues and elections, view videos, commentaries and political art as well as the other exciting new features we will be adding.