Political.email: Holding Campaigns Accountable, One Inbox at a Time

Political.email is a civic watchdog platform providing real-time monitoring of political campaign fundraising and messaging. Users get a unique email address to subscribe to campaign communications, which are then analyzed for manipulative patterns. The platform aggregates anonymized data on campaign tactics, offering transparency without surveillance, empowering voters and researchers. Unlike honeypots, it encourages real users to interact with campaigns, creating a decentralized accountability network. It aims to enhance the relationship small donors have with political campaigns, promoting honesty and reciprocal sharing. Powered by Mailbase and Postmark's Inbound Email API, the platform filters, stores, analyzes, and optionally forwards emails. The project provides visibility into campaign behavior, giving users agency and creating pressure for ethical practices. Future plans include manipulation classifiers, campaign summaries, a searchable archive, and an API. The core objective is to increase transparency in political communications, highlighting both manipulative tactics and ethical fundraising. The developer intends to open-source the project if selected as a finalist.