I realize there are ideas for an amendment to overturn Citizens' United. But why stop there? Why not have a super-amendment strip the states of all influence over federal elections. The super-amendment would mandate an independent committee/commission/department be responsible for all federal elections. For U.S. House seats, the committee would draw lines in each state based solely on population within the state (ala the California re-districting plan). Seats not apportioned by population (like Senate and juidicial seats) would be won by majority vote, and the Presidency would be won by a national majority vote thus eliminating the electoral college.
For federal offices, the committee would also be in charge of polling places for federal elections in all states. If any state tampered with or hindered voting they could have their representation stripped for that election. The amendment would also mandate public funding of all campaigns for federal office, and the committee would determine a more reasonable (shorter) length for each campaign. Finally, my super-amendment would overturn Citizens' United and regulate the influence special interests have on federal elections. Of course, the election committee would need oversight to ensure it was not corruptible.
Think of all the current challenges to our National democracy this amendment would solve. No state could gerrymander federal districts to gain an advantage. No state could pass voter ID laws, early voting laws, disenfranchisement of ex-cons laws to tilt elections in one party's favor. Also, all voting booths could be under one set of regulations, so no hanging chads problems in Florida, ensuring the election of W.
Federal Government would be more efficient with no need for office-holders to raise funds for their re-election and with campaign lengths significantly shortened. With the public funding, one needn't be a millionaire to run for office. I would think it would be harder for a candidate to misuse campaign funds if the funds are not from some anonymous private source.
With Citizens' United overturned, states could institute/re-institute their own campaign finance laws. I wonder how many states would feel shamed into following the Federal example. I suspect that at least some of them would.
I realize that none of these ideas are original, but if we have to develop an amendment just to gain a chance at making elections more fair, why not go all the way, and attack every evil in our current election system.
