Reform our ‘rigged’ election system
In 2016, Americans experienced the nastiest election in history. The candidates clashed both personally and on virtually every issue.
But the one area where Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton agreed, albeit for different reasons, was that our election system is “rigged.”
It’s not. But it absolutely needs an overhaul.
Here are ways we can improve it , enf ranchising more people while safeguarding each legal person’s vote:
1) No early voting. Not only does this practice add considerable expense to local governments, it is also unnecessary
The fact that over nine million Americans voted a whopping one month before the election is ludicrous - and that number only includes the 30 states that release such data.
From a common-sense perspective, what happens when a citizen casts a vote weeks before election day, and subsequently learns something distressing about his candidate? In 2016, the FBI director’s announcement about Hillary’s emails comes to mind, as did the Trump “sex tape” revelations. Now, it could be the president’s battle with COVID, or Mr. Biden’s newly-revealed tax policies. A remedy for “voter’s remorse” doesn’t exist, so, by definition, that person is making an important decision without a complete picture. Many died for our right to vote; the least we could do is respect their sacrifice by granting more weight to our choices.
Practically, there is no need. Sure, some work long
hours, or will otherwise be tied up on election day. That’s why God made absentee ballots. Use them. To those who complain about waiting in line - tough. You’re participating in a once-ayear (or for many, once every four years) event that will greatly impact your life. And since we no longer talk human-to-human, preferring phones in which to bury our heads playing Candy Crush, binge-watching Netflix, and posting motivational sweetnothings on social media, what’s the big deal?
Voting should be easy - but not too easy. There should be some level of responsibility to participate in our most hallowed right.
2) The Electoral College must stay. Period. Those complaining that it needs to go are, not surprisingly, almost exclusively in the Democratic camp. In arguing that the popular vote winner should win the presidency, they are ignoring the wisdom of the Founding Fathers with acute shortsightedness.
The point of the Electoral College, in which electoral
votes are awarded to the winner of a state’s popular vote, is to protect smaller states, as well as demonstrate each state’s uniqueness. Since the majority fall into the “small state” category, they would be dominated by the will of a few heavily-populated states if only the popular vote decided the election.
But with the Electoral College, voter interests in Colorado, New Hampshire, and Minnesota, for example, cannot be ignored - which they otherwise would be if states such as California (55 votes), Texas (38), New York (29), Florida (29), Illinois (20), Pennsylvania (20), Ohio (18) and Michigan (16) all voted the same way on a regular basis. Those eight states account for a whopping 225 electoral votes - 83 percent of the 270 needed to win!
Granted, some states are reliably “red” or “blue,” and therefore are not routinely visited by candidates. But since those political alignments change over time, smart candidates campaign in a lot more than just a few battlegrounds. Or not - to their peril. Proof? Hill
ary Clinton virtually ignored Wisconsin and Michigan (“blue” since 1984 and
1988, respectively), thinking they were in the bag. They weren’t, and she lost both by razor-thin margins.
3) Abolish the electors - they are unnecessary. The system works well by allotting winner-take-all electoral votes for each state. Injecting the agenda of 538 individuals, who can choose to ignore tradition, and even the law, by casting their vote for whomever they please, creates a dangerous situation. The Founding Fathers and the citizenry didn’t have
24-hour news and social media to inform them about their candidates. But we do. Electors are antiquated and pointless, serving only to potentially undermine the will of the people. Americans are grown-ups, responsible for their choices. If they elect a bad president, they will replace him. Let’s stop trying to save the people from themselves.
4) A citizen legally entitled to cast a ballot should not have his vote canceled out by those voting illegally - from illegal immigrants to citizens improperly registered. This one is simple: There should be a federal voter-ID requirement. The argument of those claiming such a law would “disenfranchise” the poor, elderly and minorities completely lacks merit. Anyone who doesn’t have a driver’s license can have a government-sanctioned ID issued at no cost. (States should be mandated to provide that service). It is unfathomable that, in today’s society - where we need an ID to enter office buildings and schools, and even to buy antihistamine -we don’t afford the same security to our most sacred right: Voting.
Of course, this also requires that states not be permitted to issue IDs to known illegal immigrants. Statesanctioned IDs to known. illegals is a recipe for disaster across the board, and, incidentally, is against federal law.
5) No one supports states’ rights more than this author, but some things must fall under the auspices of the feds.
All federal elections - president, Senate, Congress - should be standardized by being brought under federal control. States should not have the ability to change how electoral college votes are awarded (they do, and some have, such as Maine and Nebraska). They should not have different ballot requirements for federal offices. And they should not be permitted to allow their electors to cast a vote for anyone other than the candidate who won (yet 21 do).
Additionally, no more straight-ticket voting. Good policy should never come down to just a “Democrat” or “Republican” one-second lever pull. Voting for individuals over party may yet inspire citizens to take a more avid interest in who will represent them. Huge kudos to Pennsylvania’s Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and the GOP Legislature for doing just that last year.
Federalizing election law for federal elections is a common-sense way to protect citizens’ rights and bring election reform into the 21st century.
6) Revolving primaries. Enough kowtowing to Iowa and New Hampshire, which allows them to unduly influence who will and won’t be president. Instead, four groupings of states, encompassing varied geographical regions, would vote on four primary dates, which would rotate so that a different group votes first every four years. The groupings would reflect the diversity of America, ensuring that local or regional issues would not dominate the campaigns. With only four primary election dates on the calendar, every state would have a significant say.
Eliminating the system where a poor performance in an early state is a gameender would increase the slate of folks willing to run, and encourage millions more to become engaged.
Reforming our election system would likely ensure better candidates, and protect our right to cast a vote that counts. Maybe then we could finally vote for a leader, rather than the lesser of two evils.
Who wouldn’t that?
vote
for