One passport, one vote
Voting power in the Republic attaches to the passport, not to wealth: one sealed passport is one vote on every proposal, and no office or token balance multiplies it. Because the passport is soulbound, votes cannot be bought by buying identities — the identity does not transfer.
How a vote is cast
Proposals live in the governance contract on the public chain. To vote, your own wallet signs the voting transaction — the Republic's servers cannot vote for you, cannot alter your vote, and cannot see it before the chain does. The tally is the contract's own arithmetic: yea, nay, and abstain, readable by any block explorer at any moment, with quorum rules enforced in code rather than in minutes of a meeting.
Votes and standing
Participation is counted: each proposal you vote on contributes 4 points to the governance signal of your trust score, up to its 20-point cap. This is deliberate constitutional design — the citizens who steer the Republic are the ones who show up, and showing up is rewarded with standing rather than payment. Abstention is a recorded position, not an absence; it counts as participation.