How to fix a broken elections system.

Bernie Sanders stole my idea. The Democrat-but-actually-Socialist candidate for president recently announced that he was planning to introduce legislation that would amend U.S. code to designate federal election day as a national holiday.

I think it’s a marvelous idea. Mandate that everyone gets the day off from work (paid) so that everyone has the opportunity to vote without hindrance or fear of repercussions.

I believe in voting, you see. I want everyone to do it, starting at 18 and through until death. I want poor people to vote, rich people, black, brown and white people to vote. And I want their votes to count.

That’s where campaign finance reform has to come into the picture. The U.S. system is deeply, almost irrevocably flawed. Anyone who wants to run for office, often even at the state and local level, needs to have a whole bunch of cash on hand to have even the hope of being heard, let alone of victory. The amount of cash needed requires making friends with very wealthy individuals, businesses and organizations — or at least, those that can raise buckets of money for you.

And that fact means it’s nearly impossible for a person to rise to any kind of prominence as a politician without selling at least a little bit of his or her soul and becoming beholden to interests that may contradict that person’s will and the will of the majority of his or her constituents.

Never mind (or do) all the dark money now being injected into campaigns, and the ridiculous rules around PACs and Super PACs so deliciously laid bare by Stephen Colbert’s award-winning series on the subject.

Elections are broken. The two-party system is broken. Even within those parties there’s almost no room for a nonestablishment candidates to make a name for themselves. I make fun of the current Republican clown car of presidential candidates, but the truth is I’d rather see those kinds of numbers and choice every time, with real diversity of idea and record being offered to the American population regardless of party affiliation.

Personally, I’d be pretty ticked off knowing that my nominee had practically been chosen for me years before the primary itself.

Because, for instance, Sanders may be enjoying a groundswell of support for his candidacy at the moment, with some of the largest political rallies in the nation, but there’s almost no way the establishment Democratic Party will let him win the nomination over Hillary Clinton. He’s there largely to be the Town Crier, to hold Clinton’s feet to the fire a bit in terms of what her final platform will look like. He might have a shot at being her vice presidential candidate, too, but that’s it.

Which is a shame, and not just for Sanders. There should be room in the race for all sorts of qualified people to make a solid go of it, and the outcomes shouldn’t be effectively set in stone a year or more before the election itself.

The solution is fairly straightforward: public financing. Kick everyone out of the pool and then make everyone part of the pool.

Seattle recently passed campaign finance reform for its November ballot that could be an interesting model to watch: All Seattle voters get four $25 “democracy vouchers” for a total of $100 they can donate to candidates running for city office. Spending is capped at different levels for each office, and the money comes from a public levy of $6 million for every election cycle, with anything left over from less competitive races rolling over to the next election. The plan also puts limits on campaign donations and lobbying.

It may not be a perfect model, but it’s a bold and important step in the right direction. We should be looking at models across the globe and coming up with innovative ways to ensure that elections are as fair as possible. We’ve proven that a system based on treating corporations as people, and on convoluted rules that let untraceable and practically unlimited donations be made, doesn’t work in a way that benefits the greater good of the nation.

Imagine the revolutionary possibilities if we did everything in our power to ensure access to voting and campaigning for public office to as many people as possible. Imagine the real, vested interest more people would have in the day-to-day workings of their local and national communities. Imagine the progress we could make if our elected representatives actually represented their constituencies. Imagine the agency we’d all feel to effect true change.

I’m tired of just imagining. It’s time to make it real.

Emily Mills I want everyone to vote. And I want their votes to count.