THE PINETREE PEOPLE

1. Welcome

The Pinetree People helps Maine residents follow legislation, compare public sentiment, communicate within their Maine House district, and see how closely elected representatives align with district-verified constituent views.

• Read plain-language legislative posts and open the official source text.
• Record one advisory position on a bill or public question.
• Compare statewide and district results after participating.
• Save and share posts for later discussion.
• Join District Community conversations, events, and bulletins.
• Review public representative information and alignment indicators.

2. Quick start

3. Accounts and sign-in

Email and password

1. Select the account-creation option.
2. Enter your email address, password, name, and Maine House district.
3. Open the verification message sent to your email.
4. Use the newest verification link, then return to the platform.

Google and Microsoft sign-in

A supported Google or Microsoft account can be used for sign-in. New federated accounts still need to complete the Pinetree People profile and select a home Maine House district before district-member features are enabled.

Guest Preview

Preview as Guest opens a temporary read-only session so a visitor can explore public legislative posts, representative information, source links, policies, and manuals before creating a regular account. Voting, District Chat, comments, verification, notifications, and other member tools remain locked.

Email verification help

Check Junk, Spam, or Promotions when the message is not visible. Settings provides controls to resend the message and refresh verification status.

4. Your Maine House district

Your home district determines where you participate, which district totals apply to your advisory vote, and which District Community room you may post in.

• You may view other district feeds and public representative information.
• Participation in another district is read-only where district restrictions apply.
• When you move, update your district information and complete district verification again when required.

Unsure of your district? The district gate includes a Find my district town lookup that checks the official Maine House “Towns in Each District” list. Towns divided among more than one House district still require you to confirm the correct district for your residence.

When joining a district, a constituent may optionally introduce a public Pinetree ID and a one-line greeting to district neighbors. If that option is left off, the district may receive only an anonymous new-member notice. Private email, legal identity information, verification documents, and individual advisory votes are not included in district-member notices.

5. Becoming a District-Verified Constituent

District verification confirms that an account belongs to a real person who resides in the selected Maine House district. It is separate from email verification and voter registration.

1. Open Settings and expand Get Verified.
2. Choose one temporary verification image: the front of a current Maine driver license/state ID, or the header and date area of a recent utility document dated or postmarked within the last 60 days.
3. For a Maine ID, do not upload the back barcode. For a utility document, show only the provider, your name, city, state, ZIP, and date; the street address may be redacted.
4. Keep account numbers, balances, payment details, usage/service details, barcodes, and QR codes outside the image or redact them.
5. An authorized owner review checks only the identity and House-district residence information needed for the request.
6. After approval, your account displays District-Verified Constituent.
7. The source image is deleted after approval, rejection, expiration, or a request for a new image.

Every accepted advisory vote appears in public sentiment totals. Votes cast while you are district verified may also count toward representative alignment on eligible posts.

6. Using the main feed

7. Reading legislative posts

Each post may include a bill number, title, date, summary, official source link, representative statement, advisory-vote block, comments, and engagement controls.

Representative video statements

Authorized publishers may attach a representative video statement by selecting Video URL or Upload video clip in the legislative post form. Video URL is recommended because the original media remains with YouTube, Vimeo, or the direct video host instead of consuming Pinetree People media storage. Supported video URLs include YouTube, Vimeo, and direct HTTPS MP4, WebM, or Ogg files, and they play inside the main feed and full-post view with provider or browser playback controls. Upload video clip remains available as a fallback for short test clips when a suitable hosted URL is not available.

Weekly U.S. House measures

The weekly Congress.gov importer reads the official Most-Viewed Bills list and keeps only U.S. House measures: H.R., H.J.Res., H.Con.Res., and H.Res.. Senate measures and amendments are skipped. If the overall Congress.gov Top 10 contains Senate items, Pinetree People imports only the House measures that actually appeared in that Top 10; it does not pad the list with lower-ranked items.

Opening the source bill

The platform requires you to open the full bill or official source before the advisory-vote buttons become available. A summary is an aid, not a replacement for the official text.

8. Advisory voting

1. Open the full legislative post.
2. Select the link to the full bill or official source text.
3. Return to The Pinetree People.
4. Choose Yes, No, TLTR — Too Long to Review, or I don’t know.
5. Confirm the final warning that the advisory vote cannot be changed.

TLTR — Too Long to Review is a distinct objection for a bill that the member is unwilling to support because its length or review burden prevents reasonable evaluation. TLTR is displayed separately in public totals, but for passage/alignment calculations it counts with No as opposition to passage. I don’t know remains a separate no-position response when you need more information.

9. Results and the Representative Gradebook

Official bill status in a full post: When a Maine LD is opened, Pinetree People checks the Maine Legislature and shows the latest available House action and/or final disposition, plus Governor action when available. A final chamber result never substitutes for an individual representative roll-call vote.

A vote cast before district verification remains part of public sentiment but does not become grade-eligible for the Constituent Grade later. The Community Grade may still include that accepted advisory vote because it measures the combined district response.

Opening the gradebook

Select View Report Card on a District Representative card or Open Representative Gradebook in the left sidebar. The Maine House gradebook lists state representatives in rows and Maine LD bill numbers in columns; federal U.S. House measures are excluded and belong only in the U.S. Representative Report Card. A bill cell shows an individual representative Yes/No/Absent roll-call position when an official substantive roll call exists, plus verified constituent and combined community alignment when enough advisory votes exist. Select a cell to see the official record and the aggregate Yes, No, TLTR, and I don’t know counts behind the comparison.

When a district-specific report card opens, Pinetree People can synchronize that representative’s public Maine House roll-call record and match substantive roll calls to LD posts already in the feed. The official representative position can therefore appear before any constituent has voted. If the House passed or enacted a bill without an individual roll call, the gradebook may show the House action but does not infer that every representative personally voted Yes. A bill with no individual representative Yes/No record remains unscored until an appropriate recorded roll call exists.

When a grade is published

A bill becomes grade-eligible only when the applicable district group has at least 10 advisory votes, forms a clear passage majority (Yes versus No + TLTR), and the representative has a recorded Yes/No vote. A public letter grade is withheld until at least 3 comparable bills exist. Bills with a tie, an I don’t know majority, too little participation, or no recorded representative Yes/No vote remain visible but are not scored.

U.S. Representative district matching and grading

The U.S. Representative sidebar card matches a Maine House district to Maine Congressional District 1 or 2. Most Maine House districts resolve automatically. When a Maine House district contains municipalities on both sides of the federal boundary, the member is asked to choose their municipality. The platform does not need a street address for this confirmation.

The federal Constituent Grade uses only advisory votes that were grade-eligible when cast by District-Verified Constituents and that can be assigned to the same U.S. congressional district. The federal Community Grade separately uses all accepted advisory votes that can be assigned to that congressional district. An unresolved border-district vote is not guessed into either federal district. In a Maine House district that crosses the ME-1 / ME-2 boundary, a member may confirm a municipality to identify the correct U.S. Representative and Community Grade group. That self-confirmation does not by itself make the assignment eligible for the federal Constituent Grade. The card provides a Request federal district verification path through Feedback & Help so an ambiguous ME-1 / ME-2 assignment can be reviewed rather than guessed.

For a U.S. House bill to become comparable, Pinetree People looks for a substantive House roll-call vote associated with the bill and the Maine U.S. Representative's recorded Aye/Nay position. Procedural votes, amendment votes, ties, I don't know majorities, and bills without a scorable representative roll call are not used to manufacture a grade. TLTR stays visible as its own response and counts with No when the federal passage majority is determined. The same minimums apply: at least 10 applicable advisory votes on a comparable bill and at least 3 comparable bills before a public letter grade appears.

10. District Community

District Community provides local spaces for Chat, Members, Events, and Bulletin information.

• Post only in your home district where posting restrictions apply.
• Use replies and reactions to keep conversations organized.
• Report abuse, threats, impersonation, private information, or unsafe content.
• Do not post identification documents, account credentials, private addresses, or confidential information.
• Ordinary chat messages and their attached media remain visible for the active 24-hour room period.

Adding a photo or video to District Chat

You may attach one media file to a chat message in any of these ways:

1. Paste an image from your clipboard into the message box.
2. Drag and drop a supported image or video onto the message box.
3. Select Attach media and choose a file, camera image, or gallery item offered by your device.

A preview appears before sending. You may remove the attachment, replace it with another file, or send it with or without message text. Upload progress is shown while the file is being added.

Ordinary chat may be muted locally. Important district or platform notices may appear separately in Bulletin or notice banners.

11. Saved bills, reactions, sharing, and representative email

Saved posts

Use the bookmark control to save a post privately. The Saved filter returns to those posts later.

Likes and dislikes

Likes and dislikes rate the usefulness of the post card. They do not change, replace, or count as an advisory vote.

Sharing a bill

Use the post-sharing control to send a direct link to a specific post. A signed-out visitor may be asked to sign in before returning to it.

Emailing your representative about a posted bill

Every legislative post includes Email my Rep immediately after the Save button. It prepares a message for the representative associated with your home district and includes a direct link to that Pinetree People bill post.

1. Open Email my Rep on the bill card.
2. Choose Use my recorded vote to start with your locked advisory position, or choose Write in my own words.
3. Review and edit the subject and message. The prepared draft identifies the bill, your district, and your recorded Yes, No, TLTR, or I don't know position.
4. For a Maine bill, select Open my email app. For a U.S. Congress bill, select Copy and open official form, then paste the draft into the U.S. House member's constituent contact form.
5. Review the recipient and all message text, complete any ZIP-code or address confirmation requested by the representative's official form, and send the message yourself.

If you have not recorded an advisory vote on the post, the own-words option remains available. Cast a vote first if you want the prepared draft to state a recorded position.

Sharing the app

The Share Pinetree People card opens your device’s sharing options or copies the public installation link. The recipient lands on a dedicated installation page rather than the main feed.

12. Notifications

• Settings contains email-verification, legislative-notification, and district-community notification controls.
• Daily legislative email digest: at most one digest per day, and nothing is sent on days without relevant legislation.
• In-app new-bill notifications: on by default; selecting a bill notification opens that exact legislative post.
• Immediate new-bill email: optional and off by default; when enabled it includes a direct Review the bill link.
• New district-member notices: constituents may turn in-app notices on or off. A member may separately opt in to showing a public Pinetree ID and short greeting.
• Private email, legal identity information, verification documents, and individual advisory votes are never included in district-member notices.
• Representatives do not receive a private constituent mailing list from the platform.

13. Official notices and sponsored content

Official notices are intended for important, limited, time-sensitive information and should be clearly labeled and targeted.

Advertisement and sponsor cards are labeled and kept separate from advisory voting, comments, representative grading, and district-verification decisions.

14. Privacy and safety

• For Maine ID verification, upload only the front and never the back barcode.
• For a qualifying utility document, upload only the minimum header/date area needed to show provider, name, city, state, ZIP, and a date within the last 60 days; redact unnecessary billing information.
• The source verification image is temporary and deleted after the review reaches an outcome or expires.
• Only limited verification and audit information is retained.
• Assume posts, comments, reactions, and public district activity may be visible to others.
• Do not publish passwords, authentication links, identification numbers, financial information, or another person’s private contact details.

Screenshots submitted through Feedback & Help should show only what is needed. Remove private information before attaching an image.

District Chat attachments are visible to signed-in room readers during the active message period. Do not upload identification documents, private addresses, account information, medical or financial records, or media you do not have permission to share.

15. Installing the app

The Pinetree People is available as a free installable web app. An app store is not required.

Android

1. Open the public installation page in Chrome.
2. Select Install Pinetree People when Chrome makes it available.
3. When a social-media app opens the link in its own browser, choose Open in Chrome first.

iPhone or iPad

1. Open the installation page in Safari.
2. Use Safari’s Share button.
3. Select Add to Home Screen.

Desktop Edge or Chrome

Use the browser’s installation option or the installation card when the browser offers it.

Open the Installation Page

16. Help and troubleshooting

Use Feedback & Help to report a problem, request assistance, suggest an improvement, report an accessibility issue, or flag unsafe content. Never include a password, private verification link, full identification document, or confidential message.

Glossary