Election Reform"...both parties are willfully ignoring the greatest threat to our democratic process, further exacerbated by the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC, a ruling that legitimizes the corporate takeover of American political campaigns." Catherine Crier in her book Patriot Acts, What Americans Must Do To Save the Republic.. Without regard for low voter turnout, Republicans have been making it harder to
vote, so a wealthy minority can rule. Iran, not noted for its democracy, has its elections on a holiday. If the US did this working people would have a lot easier time voting. What does it say that we have not done this ? Even the Presidential candidates agreed that elections are
rigged, but not the way Republicans said. We are allowed only two political parties and they have failed in vetting candidates properly. The DNC favored Hillary, although Senator Sanders is the most popular politician in the Country. The Republican selection of Trump highlights the importance of requiring the release of income tax returns for all senior government positions: Presidential, Congressional, Cabinet included. In 2016, the two corporate dependent parties produced candidates with unfavorable ratings, controlled debates, effectively excluded minor parties, and severely limited discussion. There was not one debate question about climate change; no discussion of our addiction to all things military, no mention of harsh treatment of whistle blowers; accountability for torture, or the universal surveillance speeding us to dystopia. The billionaire winners of the 2016 election, want (and got)) large tax cuts for themselves, elimination of the inheritance tax (paid only by .2%.), police militarization, impenetrable borders, expansion of the world's largest military, and, disregarding the NPT expanding the nuclear arsenal. To pay for all that, their proposed budget eliminates health insurance for 30 million Americans, voucherizes Medicare, privatizes Social Security, and erodes other social supports. The most important single election change (just passed in Maine, but blocked on a Constitutional technicality), would be range voting so that minor parties are not spoilers. Using range voting (aka Instant runoff voting (IRV) "voters rank candidates in order of preference. If no candidate receives an overall majority of first preferences, the candidates with fewest votes are eliminated one by one, and their votes transferred according to their second and third preferences (and so on) and all votes retallied, until one candidate achieves a majority. The term 'instant runoff voting' is used because this process resembles a series of run-off elections." Using this technique, third parties would not be spoilers. Studies show that the U.S. government does about the opposite of what people, when polled, would want. That is reflected both by the budget and the agenda of the Congress. U.S. media played down
underlying structural problems in U.S. elections and largely ignored important major issues.
Bernie Sanders is the most popular politician in America, but no media pundit represented
his position. big money selects the credible candidates, Citizens
United, gerrymandering, voter suppression, misinformation or
'fake news' (mostly Republican),
a partisan Supreme
Court, Electoral College, machines that cast doubt on
the accuracy of ballot counts, prison
population disenfranchisement, interference from the NSA,
FBI and CIA with access to universal surveillance, dirty
tricks, influence from other countries. All of them game the system. Election reform is essential if we are again to have democracy. Improvements could include universal voter registration, roll back of Citizens United, disclosure of large campaign contributions, voting machine standards to include open software, restoration of the Voting Rights Act, a national holiday for elections, a requirement that candidates for high office release tax returns, and elimination of the Electoral College. If we don't have legitimate elections, we can't have legitimate government.
- - - - We badly need election reform. To assure election integrity, there need to be initiatives on several areas:
See elections. Ideas for a broader reform agenda are at Reform.htm Bibliography |