Rationing & Friction
Rate limits per verified person
A quota meter bound to the user's verified identity, rather than to a device or session, that shows how many submissions remain in the current period, with a visible 'request an exemption' link for documented circumstances.
The count follows your verified identity, not this device or session. A new browser won’t reset it, and an agent submitting for you draws from the same allowance.
Need more this quarter? A change in circumstances (a move, a new dependent, a lost job) is grounds for an exemption.
The cap manages volume; it never decides a claim. It can never slow the channel that reports wrongful decisions.
Structured intake that resists volume-padding
Constrained field types and external-record links (a tax ID, a health record) carry the assessment instead of free-text narrative, with a mandatory 'this doesn't capture my situation' field that triggers human review.
Hardship assistance application
Answer what applies to you. Detail beyond the questions does not add weight.
The assessment draws only on the linked records the person can see and contest. It never draws on guesses from what they left unsaid or how they said it.
Proof of personhood without CAPTCHAs
A silent device-attestation check confirms human presence and issues a privacy-preserving, rate-limited token, with an explicit 'verify in person instead' route, in place of the visual CAPTCHA that denies service to people with disabilities.
Your device confirmed you’re a person automatically. No further step is needed.
The check confirms a person is present. It never asks the person to prove they are the right kind of person — no puzzle, no timed test, no image grid. When the automatic path fails, the route is in-person issuance, and no submission records which path minted the token.
Participatory budgeting as an alternative to rationing
A proposal-and-vote interface bound to verified-identity voting, where residents rank projects by collective priority under a published spending envelope, paired with an in-person participation channel.
E-petition threshold design
A signing counter that displays geographic spread and verification status alongside the total, treating the threshold as a dynamic, multi-signal proxy for legitimacy rather than as a single inflating number.
Keep the mobile library service running
Open for signatures until 30 Sep. This requires a verified identity.
Signatures come from across the city.
At 10,000 signatures: a published written response within 30 days. Reached. Response due 4 Aug. At 50,000 signatures: considered for chamber debate. These commitments are published before the petition opens, and each applies automatically once its threshold is reached.
The page publishes the count, the spread, and the verification together.
Sludge audits and how they backfire
An audit that classifies each cataloged friction point as remove, replace, or preserve, so a friction performing a rationing or reflective function is given a purpose-built substitute rather than just flagged for removal.
Purely exclusionary: it deters claims and protects nothing. Pre-fill from the linked record.
Excludes people with disabilities, and bots now pass it anyway. Replace it with attestation tokens.
Rations access without saying so. Replace with the published per-person allowance and exemption route.
Reflective: the pause where errors and second thoughts surface. Keep for agents too: an agent must present it to its principal, not click through it.
The test each point must pass: is this friction purely exclusionary? Remove it. Is it doing rationing work? Give the rationing a purpose-built, published mechanism. Does it make someone reflect before a consequential act? Keep it, and make agents honor it.
Appeal volume and overturn rate as early warning
An overturn-rate panel placed next to the volume chart, so capacity decisions read rising appeals and the share decided in the claimant's favor together rather than treating a volume rise on its own as abuse.
Appeals are up 32% and 61% were decided in the claimant’s favor this quarter. The overturn rate has exceeded the published 45% review threshold for two consecutive quarters. A decision-quality review of the originating process has been initiated. Tribunal capacity is sized to this demand.
Publishing the overturn rate next to appeal volume turns the tribunal into an early warning system. Appeal intake is never capped.
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