Democracy Found is a Wisconsin-based organization that advocates “Final-Five Voting,” a form of ranked-choice voting in which voters rank from among five candidates of any party in a runoff round, to replace partisan primaries and plurality voting. ¹

Wisconsin activist businesswoman Katherine Gehl and former White House staffer Austin Ramirez established Democracy Found in 2018. ²

Background

Democracy Found is a Wisconsin-based organization that advocates for implementing what it calls “Final-Five Voting,” a trademarked term the organization uses to explain how it would allow the top five candidates to emerge from a primary ballot and compete in a ranked-choice voting general election. ¹

Democracy Found contends the partisan primary system has a greater, and negative, influence than the general election because only about 20 percent of voters vote in primaries while about two dozen Wisconsin state assembly seats are uncontested in the general election. ³

History

Businesswoman Katherine Gehl has argued for a “Politics Industry Theory,” which used the competition theory from business to diagnose the nation’s political problems. From this, Gehl came up with the “Final Five Voting” system. Gehl explained the theory in her book The Politics Industry, and in an article in the Harvard Business Review. Gehl also delivered a 17-minute TED Talk about the proposed system. ²

Then-U.S. Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) expressed support for adopting the system in a forward for Gehl’s book. ² Wisconsin state Sen. Dale Kooyenga, a Republican, and state Rep. Daniel Riemer, a Democrat, also expressed support for the new voting system in an op-ed for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. ⁴

While working in a White House post that overlapped the Obama and Trump administrations, Austin Ramirez claimed he saw lawmakers who frequently agreed on solutions but who could not reach compromises because of politics. ²

Gehl and Ramirez established Democracy Found at an event in May 2018. At the event, political donors Lynde Uihlein, a Democrat and philanthropist, and Andy Nunemaker, a tech executive and a Republican who held the only 2016 campaign fundraiser in Wisconsin for then-President Donald Trump, expressed support for the voting system. Uihlein and Nunemaker spoke to about 400 people in attendance. ⁵

Leadership

Katherine Gehl is a co-founder and, as of 2025, co-chair of Democracy Found. ⁶ Gehl is the former CEO of Gehl Foods. She founded the Institute for Political Innovation and is the author of The Politics Industry. ⁷

Austin Ramirez is a co-founder and, as of 2025, the co-chair of Democracy Found. ⁸ Ramirez worked in a one-year term as a White House Fellow in the National Economic Council that overlapped the end of the Obama administration and the beginning of the first Trump administration. Ramirez was the CEO of Husco International as of 2025. ^{7 9 8}

Sara Eskrich was the executive director of Democracy Found as of 2023. ⁶ Eskrich is a former member of the Madison, Wisconsin Common Council. She was previously a senior advisor for the Gehl-founded Institute for Political Innovation. Before that, she was the chief of staff for Gehl’s office. ¹⁰

As of 2025, Linda Katz was the executive director of Democracy Found. She is a former CEO of a manufacturing company. ⁸

1. Home Page. Democracy Found. Accessed February 18, 2023. https://democracyfound.org/
2. “About Us.” Democracy Found. Accessed February 18, 2023. https://democracyfound.org/about-us
3.  McCormack, Michele. “’Democracy Found’ group proposes Final 5 Voting to ensure a broader electorate picks candidates in Wisconsin.” We Are Green Bay CBS. August 10, 2022. Accessed February 18, 2023. https://www.wearegreenbay.com/news/local-news/democracy-found-group-proposes-final-5-voting-to-ensure-a-broader-electorate-picks-candidates-in-wisconsin/
4. Kooyenga, Dale and Riemer, Daniel. “Wisconsin should adopt innovative Final-Five Voting as one cure for political polarization.” Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. May 20, 2020. Accessed February 18, 2023. https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/solutions/2020/05/20/polarized-wisconsin-should-adopt-innovative-final-five-voting/5224984002/
5. Kirchen, Rich. “A-list attendees join Katherine Gehl call to overturn politics from the ‘rational middle.” Milwaukee Business Journal. May 15, 2018. Accessed February 18, 2023. https://democracyfound.org/about-us
6. “Advisory Council and Supporters.” Democracy Found. Accessed February 18, 2023. https://democracyfound.org/advisory-council-supporters
7. Press Release. “Co-Founders of Democracy Found to go ‘On the Issues,’ April 8.” April 6, 2021. Accessed February 18, 2023. https://www.marquette.edu/news-center/2021/cofounders-of-democracy-found-to-go-on-the-issues-april-8.php
8. “Advisory Council and Supporters.” Democracy Found. Accessed May 20, 2025. https://democracyfound.org/advisory-council-supporters.
9. “Austin Ramirez.” LinkedIn. Accessed May 20, 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/in/austinramirez/.
10. “Sara Eskrich.” LinkedIn. Accessed February 18, 2023. https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-eskrich-b0205919/