How would you fix elections?

#1
LouderVol

LouderVol

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#1
Particularly presidential elections as I am sure there are plenty of one off situations that make individual local elections a mess.

1. Get rid of the parties. Making candidates run on their own merits would be huge. You would no longer have people defending people they have issues with based on a letter.
2. Any voter purging/district redefining has to happen at least 1 year ahead of the election date. This would hopefully allow for any corrections.
3. Voter ID. With literally every other government interaction requires an ID I see no reason voting shouldnt either. But this should allow for non physical voting. There has to be at least some check so the Russians cant just bombard the system.
4. Complete separation from past job, whether private or public. Way too many ways to influence things improperly as it is. This starts from whenever you announce or show up on a ballot, to when you drop out, or at the end of your turn.
5. Keep the electoral system, non faithful electors are allowed, and states EC votes get divided based on popular vote. Not winner takes all. Like Maine and Nebraska.
6. If we keep parties have open primaries. Rs and Ds primary against each other. The final two from any combination of those parties go to the general. This would limit how much these candidates have to chase the party extremes before trying to get back to the moderate stances in the general.

What does everybody else think needs fixing?
 
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#3
#3
LouderVol said:
Particularly presidential elections as I am sure there are plenty of one off situations that make individual local elections a mess.

1. Get rid of the parties. Making candidates run on their own merits would be huge. You would no longer have people defending people they have issues with based on a letter.
2. Any voter purging/district redefining has to happen at least 1 year ahead of the election date. This would hopefully allow for any corrections.
3. Voter ID. With literally every other government interaction requires an ID I see no reason voting shouldnt either. But this should allow for non physical voting. There has to be at least some check so the Russians cant just bombard the system.
4. Complete separation from past job, whether private or public. Way too many ways to influence things improperly as it is. This starts from whenever you announce or show up on a ballot, to when you drop out, or at the end of your turn.
5. Keep the electoral system, non faithful electors are allowed, and states EC votes get divided based on popular vote. Not winner takes all. Like Maine and Nebraska.
6. If we keep parties have open primaries. Rs and Ds primary against each other. The final two from any combination of those parties go to the general. This would limit how much these candidates have to chase the party extremes before trying to get back to the moderate stances in the general.

What does everybody else think needs fixing?
Click to expand...
I like everything except 5. States are at their own discretion on how to allocate electors they represent the state in the Republic. I have no problem with counting faithless electors however the states should be able to impose civil and criminal penalties then too. Again the electors are the voice of the state.

I especially like open primaries. And I’d like to see a parring down to at least three mandatory final candidates and no writeins. Or write ins are automatically excluded it’s a wasted vote. Let the primary determine the best three candidates.
 
#6
#6
LouderVol said:
Particularly presidential elections as I am sure there are plenty of one off situations that make individual local elections a mess.

1. Get rid of the parties. Making candidates run on their own merits would be huge. You would no longer have people defending people they have issues with based on a letter.
2. Any voter purging/district redefining has to happen at least 1 year ahead of the election date. This would hopefully allow for any corrections.
3. Voter ID. With literally every other government interaction requires an ID I see no reason voting shouldnt either. But this should allow for non physical voting. There has to be at least some check so the Russians cant just bombard the system.
4. Complete separation from past job, whether private or public. Way too many ways to influence things improperly as it is. This starts from whenever you announce or show up on a ballot, to when you drop out, or at the end of your turn.
5. Keep the electoral system, non faithful electors are allowed, and states EC votes get divided based on popular vote. Not winner takes all. Like Maine and Nebraska.
6. If we keep parties have open primaries. Rs and Ds primary against each other. The final two from any combination of those parties go to the general. This would limit how much these candidates have to chase the party extremes before trying to get back to the moderate stances in the general.

What does everybody else think needs fixing?
Click to expand...

Some of these ideas are thought provoking for sure. 1 is a decent idea, but without at least some form of general ideological groupings it would be impossible for individuals to get notoriety on their own.
I agree with 2 3, so long as barriers are removed from 3 to make sure all citizens have a fair and easy way to obtain a government ID necessary to vote, 4, and likely 6.

Re: 5, I don't mind the electoral college as it is currently set up.
 
#7
#7
I think all these points would be an improvement.

A friend of mine is a big proponent of ranked voting. I don't think I have an opinion on it yet...
 
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#9
#9
LouderVol said:
Particularly presidential elections as I am sure there are plenty of one off situations that make individual local elections a mess.

1. Get rid of the parties. Making candidates run on their own merits would be huge. You would no longer have people defending people they have issues with based on a letter.
2. Any voter purging/district redefining has to happen at least 1 year ahead of the election date. This would hopefully allow for any corrections.
3. Voter ID. With literally every other government interaction requires an ID I see no reason voting shouldnt either. But this should allow for non physical voting. There has to be at least some check so the Russians cant just bombard the system.
4. Complete separation from past job, whether private or public. Way too many ways to influence things improperly as it is. This starts from whenever you announce or show up on a ballot, to when you drop out, or at the end of your turn.
5. Keep the electoral system, non faithful electors are allowed, and states EC votes get divided based on popular vote. Not winner takes all. Like Maine and Nebraska.
6. If we keep parties have open primaries. Rs and Ds primary against each other. The final two from any combination of those parties go to the general. This would limit how much these candidates have to chase the party extremes before trying to get back to the moderate stances in the general.

What does everybody else think needs fixing?
Click to expand...
I like it...you have my vote
 
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#11
#11
Peaceful secession. All these problems are due in large part to nationalism and the increasing centralization of the federal government. What if California decided what would be best for California and Mississippi decided what would be best for Mississippi instead of top-down, one size fits all, federal solutions that aren’t working. Worrying about political parties and elections is just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

The Case for American Secession
 
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#12
#12
LouderVol said:
Particularly presidential elections as I am sure there are plenty of one off situations that make individual local elections a mess.

1. Get rid of the parties. Making candidates run on their own merits would be huge. You would no longer have people defending people they have issues with based on a letter.
2. Any voter purging/district redefining has to happen at least 1 year ahead of the election date. This would hopefully allow for any corrections.
3. Voter ID. With literally every other government interaction requires an ID I see no reason voting shouldnt either. But this should allow for non physical voting. There has to be at least some check so the Russians cant just bombard the system.
4. Complete separation from past job, whether private or public. Way too many ways to influence things improperly as it is. This starts from whenever you announce or show up on a ballot, to when you drop out, or at the end of your turn.
5. Keep the electoral system, non faithful electors are allowed, and states EC votes get divided based on popular vote. Not winner takes all. Like Maine and Nebraska.
6. If we keep parties have open primaries. Rs and Ds primary against each other. The final two from any combination of those parties go to the general. This would limit how much these candidates have to chase the party extremes before trying to get back to the moderate stances in the general.

What does everybody else think needs fixing?
Click to expand...

#5 is excellent.
 
#14
#14
Campaign funds must come from within the voting base. Only Knoxville funds for Knoxville elections, Knox County funds for Knox County elections, Tennessee funds for Tennessee elections. US funds for US elections. Must be a citizen or US based company to donate.
 
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#15
#15
Eliminate the words "lobbying" "lobbyist" and "lobby" from the English vernacular. Entirely.

To lobby is to legally bribe a representative to act in a way they otherwise would not act...to betray the voters wishes who put them in office in the first place.

We need to make it a crime, just like trying to bribe a cop or judge to get out of legal trouble. THEN we could see our elected reps actually REPRESENT the PEOPLE who elected them, rather than corporations or industries. Limit campaign donations to be only from private folks with a $500 hard cap that can be linked to a tax return to stop fakes.
 
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#19
#19
Wireless1 said:
Campaign funds must come from within the voting base. Only Knoxville funds for Knoxville elections, Knox County funds for Knox County elections, Tennessee funds for Tennessee elections. US funds for US elections. Must be a citizen or US based company to donate.
Click to expand...
I like the idea of tax location setting vote/donations. Like those big cruise ships from Malta or wherever asking for money from the US.

If you arent headquartered and pay taxes in the US you cant donate money.

What about the PACs? I want to see them go. Always seemed like a way to launder money. I have wondered about setting up some type of federal trust or something that reimburses the individual campaigns from their individual war chest. Everything accounted for. Trace the money in and out.

Not sure how that ends up working though.
 
#20
#20
Repeal the 17th Amendment and no longer have a popular vote to determine Electoral College votes for POTUS.
 
#21
#21
Septic said:
#5 is excellent.
Click to expand...
It keeps the EC, but allows the popular to matter more. But not be true popular vote.

It gets a bit funky at the smaller EC states. As there will always be rounding. But in my system it would round up in favor of the popular vote winner. So if you won 75.1% of the vote in a 4 EC state you would get all 4. Win 74.9% and you get 3. Once you get to the larger states you dont get nearly as much rounding.
 
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#22
#22
Eliminate parties . These folks should represent the district or state they are from not a party or how the party lords and ladies tell them how to vote.

Term limits.

No more career politicians with outrageous benefits. You get paid hourly for your time in session.

They need to use VA hospitals for healthcare and wait their turn just like a veteran. See how fast the VA healthcare system gets fixed.

Retirement is their problem . No more pensions .
These folks are rich enough.

Travel is your own problem . No more free rides.

No more taxpayer funded slush funds like the sexual harassment settlement fund. You harrass it's your ass.

No more immunity from prosecution.

I'm not completely heartless ...set up apartments similar to bachelor quarters on a military base. You can eat at the base mess hall. Some morning pt would do them some good.
 
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#23
#23
LouderVol said:
It keeps the EC, but allows the popular to matter more. But not be true popular vote.

It gets a bit funky at the smaller EC states. As there will always be rounding. But in my system it would round up in favor of the popular vote winner. So if you won 75.1% of the vote in a 4 EC state you would get all 4. Win 74.9% and you get 3. Once you get to the larger states you dont get nearly as much rounding.
Click to expand...
So what are the constitutional requirements on the EC now with regard to vote distribution? None. Only the allocation amount. What you are proposing is actually forcing more federal pressure on states. That’s wrong as far as I’m concerned. Electors are free now to vote as they please. They just have to be willing to accept the consequences imposed by the entity which appointed them. The state.
 
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#24
#24
All of you miss the only real way to fix elections. That is to fix who can vote in them.

No matter what you do, eliminate parties, keep/scrap the EC, term limits it doesn't matter as long as you keep allowing people who have no real vested interest in this county to vote.
 
#25
#25
I'd include a "None of the Above" candidate. If "None of the Above" get 50% or more of the vote, none of the candidates are permitted to run for that office for X years.
IMO it would force candidates to give me a reason to vote for them rather than a reason to vote against their opponent.
 
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