When I was growing up, we used to play basketball in a park that was never shoveled when it snowed. The basketball rims were never fixed. And we understood then that there was a relationship between public policy and our quality of life.

The Election Assistance Commission represents a major, unprecedented commitment from the federal government to sustained freedom and vibrant democracy. I am humbled by the prospect of being one its charter members.

What we say is that democracy means that you have the right to vote without intimidation and undue burdens. But if you stand in line for six hours, technically, today there is no document, no standard, no law that says that that's wrong.

We have no basis for having a recall of any particular type of voting equipment because there are no standards. And when we do have standards, even these standards are required to be voluntary.

We mean by 'politics' the people's business - the most important business there is.

We send a lot of money - I don't know, I think it's in billions - of money to the Saudi government. We have so much tremendous leverage as the United States of America, but we seem to choose to look away when there's other interests at play.

Any effort to destabilise any government, taking refuge in one's ideology for promoting violence, conspiring to destabilise and break the country, I feel there cannot be a bigger crime than this.

A lot of my energy is going to Code for America, Jen Pahlka's non-profit startup. We're doing a lot of great work teaching government how to apply technology and changing the culture of government.