I orginally posted this late last night/early this morning... I think it was like 4:30am. And I got a few really good replies, mostly REALLY OBVIOUS things I forgot to include. How I forgot them I do not know... I blame it on being tired. Anyway this is the update list of electoral reforms I think we should push for before 2008.
Again you probably wont agree with them all and thats fine, but I think this is a good starting point.
- The right for every citizen to vote and have that vote counted should be a constitutional right, plainly written, no loopholes or loose ends to exploit. Something along the lines of "The right to vote and have that vote counted shall not be shall not be infringed."
- Automatic Voter Registration. Lose this system of having to register and stay registered. It just adds another step to the process. I say everyone is automatically registered to vote when they turn 18.
- Uniform Standards set by the Federal Government. This crap of some counties having touch screens, some optical scanners, some punch cards has to end. Along with the crazy and often vague standards for counting votes. The supreme court said in "Bush vs. Gore" that the differences in the way ballots were cast and counted from county to county violated equal protection laws and I agree. We should set national standards for counting and recounting votes. This includes provisionary ballots.
- Vote auditing. Sounds like a no brainer. There has to be a paper trail. And there has to be a way to compare the paper trail to the results and see if its right. And this has to be part of the nation wide standards.
- "Mandatory" voting. This is where alot of you are going to disagree with me and thats ok. I'm just sick of half the country being lazy and not voting. We're supposed to be the greatest Democracy in the world yet we elect all of our elected officials with less than half of the country even having a say in the manner. I know a lot of people hate the idea of Mandatory Voting because people who are uninformed make dumb choices. Just look at Bush. But I think that would be a short term problem. I mean look at Australia.
They have mandatory voting, voter turn out is at 80% and the vast majority of them are well informed on the issues... at least according to everything I've read on the subject. I mean lets face it the moment you make anything "optional" it is immediately interpreted as "unimportant" for instance if car registration was free but optional nobody would do it! If you're wondering how we would enforce mandatory voting, I suggest the same way the Aussies do. Providing a choice. You can still decided to stay home if you want too! But you will pay a $50 dollar fine!
Imagine all of the income the states would get from non-voters. And if they don't like it... well thats one of lifes hard lessons: Politics effects the lives of everyone. Perhaps they should have paid more attention and voted back when it was an option.
Ideally the next few items in the list would be part of #3's national standards to make voting easier, since it would be "mandatory" and all.
- Absentee voting should be available in EVERY STATE to EVERY ONE! In California you don't have to be out of the state or disabled to vote absentee, there is no reason every state shouldn't be this way. Heck some states vote entirely absentee. Absentee ballots work and they free up long lines at the polls. This is a practical solution to 9 hour lines and other problems we encounter when voter turn out is "high."
- "Election day" should become a National Holiday. Like a REAL NATIONAL HOLIDAY. Where you GET THE DAY OFF! Imagine that! That way if you do end up standing in line for 9 hours, its an all day thing instead of an all night thing! If you think about it this makes perfect sense. Right now we get the "Forth of July" off, which is to celebrate our independence. But we don't get election day off which is where we exercise the very freedoms we fought for? Talk about backwards! I say make Election Day a HOLIDAY.
- Two weeks of Early Voting in EVERY STATE! No reason in the world we can't do this. Two weeks of early voting followed by Election Day being a national holiday and you have no excuse for not getting out to the polls.
- Make anonymous voting optional. Anonymous voting was a GREAT IDEA. From what I've read it was created because employers were finding out who their employees voted for and then firing them if they voted for a candidate the company felt was a threat or whatever. So yeah anonymous voting is a great idea and should always be there for the American people. But many people aren't too worried about someone finding out who they voted for.
Most are proud to announce it from the roof tops. So for these people wouldn't it be great if you could check a box on your ballot that says "Feel free to contact me if you have any questions regarding this ballot." and then a place where you can write your name and phone number? Or perhaps use some sort of VOTER ID Number so your information is still secret, but county election officials can contact you.
It would make hand recounts that much less of a guessing game, hanging chad? Well lets call Mrs. Robinson up and ask her who she voted for. Or ask her to come down, show ID and re-vote. Anonymous voting would still be there, but if you don't care who knows your preference for President, or if you figure your boss will never go through the trouble of requesting FOIA access to the hundreds of thousands of ballots just so he can dig up yours and find out who you voted for than this could be a fail safe way to secure your choice for President.
- Open source voting machines. If we're going to use electronic voting machines the software has to be open source, allowing the General Public to scrutinize the source code to make sure there is no funny business going on. It should be updated regularly and rewards should be given to people who find and report any holes in the software. If anyone doubts the ability to make secure open source software just look to Linux. It's open source, people are even allowed to change it and repackage it as their own free of charge (though I'm certainly not suggesting that) and it is one of the most secure operating systems on the market today.
Also the voting machines should NOT be owned by a private corporation. Especially one as corrupt as Diebold. They should be owned by the people, that way they are our machines paid for by our tax dollars and owned by the states or even federal Government. If they want private corporations to build these machines thats fine so long as the software is open to public scrutiny. And the machines belong to us! No privatizing the vote goddamn it!
- Instant Runoff Voting! I think this would help a lot. Imagine the 2000 race. Most people would have probably picked Gore as their first choice with Nader as their second. Bush's 537 votes would have never stood up to Naders 2,000 or whatever it was. I'm not a Nader fan personally, but I would have preferred him to George W. Bush. We could have dodged a real bullet. This would also allow for better cooperation between the Greens and Dems allowing us to actually form alliances against the Republicans. Green Voters could vote Green, and if the candidate loses their second choice (the dem most likely) would get the votes. So you no longer have to worry about votes being "wasted" because of third party candidates.
- End the winner takes all system. More often than not I personally favor reform over all out elimination. The Electoral College system is one of the few areas I would stray from that line of thinking. It really is out dated and pointless, so I would like to see it destroyed, but at the very least some sort of reform is needed. Perhaps proportional representation? You win half the state you get half the electoral college votes. Whatever it is the one reform I would NOT support is one based on house districts or counties. That would tilt the playing field far too much. Vastly populated areas like LA county should have more pull (due to the fact that they have more people) than scarcly populated Areas like my home town.
Well thats all I got so far. Feel free to add to it! I mean these are just my personal ideas, changes I would like to see.