I believe that Voting Rights and Campaign Finance Reform can be achieved though hard work, and a combination of ideas. I have a hard time putting my ideas down in writing, and sometimes get long winded, but I have been thinking about these things for a long time now, so I had to write them in this diary, and do hope people will read them, and make recommendations and suggestions on how to achieve and improve these ideas.
I have broken them down into sections so they don't all run together.
Voting Rights
Many ways have been invented to remove the right to vote from the American people, now I want to weigh in on this and suggest a way to fix it at the state level across this Nation.
1. Computerize all VITAL RECORDS for the purpose of creating a VOTER Data-base that only tracks birth-date, age, address(es) and date of Death. This will allow us to keep voter rolls out of the hands of would-be suppressors.
2. Grandfather in all persons born before records were kept on a computer or mass-data storage device (microfiche, tape-drives, or paper-records), this would all persons the right to vote.
3. Computerize all vital records that are not currently available on a computer data-base, but were kept on the above mentioned storage devices.
4. Allow only the Vital Records Data-base to remove deceased voters from the voter rolls, assuring that no-one can have access to remove a voter from the rolls, by allowing the data-base to search the vital records and matching only names based on birth-date, age and last known address will assure that voters that are deceased will be removed from the rolls upon their death, and not before. Also adding the ability to cross reference the Social Security Death Index.
5. Make the registration process easier than it currently is, by allowing the data-base to automatically registrar all 18 year old based on age and date of birth from the vital records data-base. Now most will ask about those that were born in one state, but live in another, I say as long as all states have the computerized data-base, these computers can talk to each other, allowing the data-bases to communicate with each other, is something that will happen soon any-way.
6. Don’t forget about the homeless voter, well, I haven’t, make it so they can use the address of the local shelter.
This will allow all Citizens of this nation to be tracked, you say, but it happens now, wither you like it or not, we are tracked via the Tax System, our Social Security Number, Court Records, and Credit Records. We are being tracked everyday of our lives and we don’t complain about that, so why, if there was an easy way to make it easier to vote would you care about being tracked for that purpose?
The Vote
It seems it is hard to get every-one to vote in this country, but I have a suggestion for that too, but this would be up to the people of each state, and it does come with a small price. I would also Like to see voting taken to the next level and made available over the internet, but that would cost quite a bit of money to develop, and until it is these suggestions will have to do.
1. Make Voting a requirement in this country at the state level, and make ways for it to be easier for the voters to accomplice this via a “All-mail-in vote” or making it a Holiday, either way you must make it a requirement of all citizens of this nation to vote.
2. If the state chooses to do the “All-Mail IN Vote” you will have to find a way to pay for it, because requiring postage can be considered a “Poll Tax” and I would want to nip that in the butt before some-one suggest it was, so I say add a transaction tax to all and any consumer purchase. This tax would have to be small but big enough to start a fund for the postage on all voter ballots mailed with-in the state. I’ll start by suggesting that it start out at 10 cents for the first 3 years and decreased to 5 cents for the next 7 years, and then 2 cents after 10 years, this will allow a fund to be built up. Now this Transaction Tax, would apply to all Transactions big and small, that way all postage would be covered. There would be no exemptions on this tax, because it is so small, and all charities, non-profits, and tax-exempted organization would also have to pay this tax.
3. Making it a state holiday, and requiring that a company give their workers the time off to vote would be the other way to do it, but then this idea would be fought by any business that didn’t want to give their workers the time to vote, so I highly recommend the before mentioned transaction tax to avoid the fight with business.
4. As I mentioned I would like to see the ability to vote over the internet, but that would require a lot of development to keep the vote honest and credible, a system would have to be developed to allow for only one vote per person, and also making it secure so no-one can go in and change some-ones vote. This could be done on a “ATM” like system, but I still believe that it can happen in my life-time, but I’m not holding my breath.
Campaign Finance Reform Ideas
I have thought hard about these ideas, and they may sound like crazy ideas, but if they sound crazy, and if you look at them a little closer, they may also be a way to fight big money in campaign business. So please take a closer look, because the ideas are about putting the control back where it belongs, and that is with the voters, and moving big money out of the picture completely. So here goes:
1. Redefine who can give to a campaign to only include “Voters”, yes, I’m saying ONLY VOTERS should be allowed to give to a campaign, but now I’m going to define what a voter is. A voter is an authorized person that has the right to vote, this doesn’t include those person that can’t vote do to the status of their residents with-in the United States, and it doesn’t include corporations, because they cannot vote legally. Only an eligible voter my give to a campaign.
2. Now let’s take this one step further, and make it only an eligible voter from with-in the boundaries of the candidate’s district. What this means is that money from out-side the district cannot be raised by the candidate’s campaign, and this is the tricky part, but since we are trying to put the voters in charge of their employee, then we must return the attention of the candidate to his/her employer. Now this concept may be challenged, but if it is argued that members of congress are in-fact hired via the election processed, then they are the employees of their district, and accountable to the voters. This would be the same with all candidates from any state, including state-wide office holders, and since a US Senator is elected by the citizens of his/her state, they would not be able to seek campaign funds from out-side their stat boundaries. I still have no idea how to do this on the one nation-wide office holder, since I could not set the same boundaries based on the state boarders, I have no clue how to make it work, and would welcome all suggestions.
Donations from Corporations
We will have to provide a way for Corporations to make donations, but to keep the focus on the voters. Now as some have said, but I don’t agree with this, ”that Corporations are people” I believe that people make up a corporation, but since a corporation cannot bleed human blood, then it has no place in where our politicians are allowed get their campaign money from. So this brings us to the problem of Citizens United, and since Republicans will not change that ruling, or amend the constitution we have no choice but to go around them on a state by state level.
1. Corporations will be allowed to give to a campaign with-in the campaigns district, any corporation can give, but the headquarters must be with-in the district of the elected official’s home district. Also a corporation can only give the amount of the lowest paid employee disposable income per election cycle. This is because corporations are not eligible voters and therefore not the employer of the candidate.
Lobbyist
Now this brings us to the final part of this idea. Lobbyist are the biggest problem in our political system, and how do we fix this. Well we have allowed the problem to get out of control, so there is only one thing to do since Lobbyist Money is only one thing, “A BRIBE”. Why do Lobbyist give money, because they want something in return, and that is the truth? So we must BANNED all LOBBYIST MONEY. There is no other way, because that is what a LOBBYIST is paid to do, Bribing our Politicians to get what they want. An outright ban on money from LOBBYIST is the only way to do it.
Well I have spent many nights thinking about this, and I know there are things in here we can get done, and there are things that would be a hard fight, but in my opinion this is what has to be done in order for our nation to go on, and get away from Corporations and Lobbyist controlling what goes on in this country, and returning the control to the people. So please read it, and pass it on, but most importantly please make suggestion, and comments, because I am only one person, and my ideas my not be the same ideas as yours.