VOTING REFORM

VOTING REFORM Platform:

The right to cast a free and secret ballot is the foundation of American democracy.
Yet it has become all too clear that our voting system remains deeply flawed.

The description of a class of people known as "low information voters" became a popularized term among conservatives following the 2008 election of Barack Obama. The oft-talked about low-information voters are those people who have little interest or understanding of political affairs, rarely watch the news, and can't name major political figures or national events yet vote anyway on this limited knowledge basis.

It is easy to blame ignorance on stupidity or on the media. But basic information about most political issues is readily available in the media and online. The problem is that most people don’t take the time and effort to do so. That is not because they are stupid, but because there is so little incentive to acquire political information. Since most are convinced that the probability of one vote actually making a difference in the outcome of an election is infinitesimally small.....most people, whose only reason to acquire political information, is to make a better decision at the polls.....tend to remain obscure at best.
There is no easy solution to the problem of political ignorance. Providing more information is unlikely to work, since most people fail to assimilate the information that is already available.

So what's the answer??

Well....if you can license a car driver or issue a permit to carry a gun.... why is the same logic not applied to voting?  Something that fundamental to life as the one passes legislation to affect your well being....and who represents you in government .... Why would you want the ill-educated, easily manipulated and misinformed to vote on such matters ???  We'll look at that a little more in Item 5 below.

The logic behind the current voting system is much more dangerous than a gunman or a one-armed driver behind the wheel.  It effects your life and the country around you in every way possible.

THE SOLUTION:

1. Adopt APPROVAL VOTING via each State Legislature, followed by adoption nationally for all Federal Elections.
REMOVE THE "VOTE-FOR-ONE" RESTRICTION!!!
Let voters pick ALL or as many of the candidates they want.  Most votes still wins.  This eliminates "vote splitting (aka..the spoiler effect)".   Broadly supported candidates are favored regardless of party affiliation, and voters can always include their "honest favorite" without fear of "wasting their vote"!!!
THIS IS APPROVAL VOTING!. See more at Approval Voting - Center for Election Science
The solution really is THAT EASY!!
It’s not that there aren’t other issues with the way we vote. There are....and we'll cover many of them here.   But we find the voting method is the most impacting; and must be dealt with FIRST.
(a. Note that adoption of ANY winning threshold requirement and/or procedures for Following Runoff Elections can be determined later as needed by each State and Nationally in the case of Federal elections.)

2. OPEN BALLOT ACCESS for ALL qualified Candidates irregardless of party affiliations.
Different courts have always reached different conclusions regarding what sort of restrictions there should be; often in terms of ballot access, public debate inclusion, filing fees, and residency requirements, which are randomly imposed. This is discriminatory at best, and should be standardized to allow fair and impartial participation.

3. RESTRICT CAMPAIGN DONATIONS/FINANCING and eliminate Corporate influences caused by the mis-interpretation of Free Speech as "Corporate person-hood":   We, the People of the United States of America, should and do reject the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling and other related cases, and move to amend our Constitution to firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.

4. ELIMINATE THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE....
a. Critics argue that the Electoral College is inherently undemocratic and gives swing states disproportionate influence in electing the President and Vice President. The Electoral College gives a numeric advantage in the election of the president to the smaller states, as the minimum number of electors for the small states is three compared to one for the election of representatives. On the other hand, the winner-take-all method of voting favors the larger states. A number of constitutional amendments have been proposed seeking to alter the Electoral College or replace it with a direct popular vote.
b. Arguments between proponents and opponents of the current electoral system include four separate but related topics: indirect election, disproportionate voting power by some states, the winner-takes-all distribution method (as chosen by 48 of the 50 states), and federalism. Arguments against the Electoral College in common discussion mostly focus on the allocation of the voting power among the states. Gary Bugh’s research of congressional debates over proposed Electoral College amendments reveals that reform opponents have often appealed to a traditional version of representation, whereas reform advocates have tended to reference a more democratic view.
c. A result of the present non-functionality of the Electoral College is that the national popular vote bears no legal or factual significance on determining the outcome of the election.  Since the national popular vote is apparently irrelevant, both voters and candidates are assumed to base their campaign strategies around the existence of the Electoral College; any close race has candidates campaigning to maximize electoral votes by capturing coveted swing states, not to maximize national popular vote totals.

5. ADOPT IMPROVED VOTER QUALIFICATION STANDARDS.  The "right to vote" is NOT explicitly stated in the U.S. Constitution (except in certain amendments, and only in reference to the fact that the franchise cannot be denied or abridged based solely on the aforementioned qualifications).  In other words, the "right to vote" is perhaps better understood (in layman's terms) as ONLY prohibiting certain forms of legal discrimination in establishing qualifications for suffrage.States may and DO deny the "right to vote" for other reasons.
Therefore....
a. Identification & Verification....Voter Identification and Verification MUST be properly performed. Currently, many methods are subject to errors, systematic failures as well as fraud....and vary greatly among localities.  This must be corrected.
b. Citizenship authentication. Eligibility to vote in the U.S. is determined by both federal and state law. Currently, only citizens can vote in U.S. federal elections. Who is (or who can become) a citizen is governed on a national basis by federal law. In the absence of a federal law or constitutional amendment, each state is given considerable discretion to establish qualifications for suffrage and candidacy within its own jurisdiction.
c. Knowledge/Information testing.
Should voting be restricted to people with at least a basic knowledge of their government or current affairs???
If you were not born in the United States, the process of becoming a U.S. Citizen is called naturalization. U.S. immigration law has certain requirements for becoming a citizen, including: you must be at least 18 years old; you must be a permanent resident for at least 3 years; you need to be able to read, write and speak basic English; and you must have a basic knowledge of how the U.S. government works. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) administers a Citizenship Civics test to determine whether you have a sufficient knowledge of the United States government.

So....Could YOU pass a U.S. Citizenship Test??

In all fairness....This would be a good place to start considering a basic testing requirement prior to voting.

6. ADOPT STANDARD VOTING SYSTEM USAGE..
a. A Public Network Electronic DRE system with memory component and printable backup. (A public network DRE voting system is an election system that uses electronic ballots and transmits vote data from the polling place to another location over a public network. Vote data may be transmitted as individual ballots as they are cast, periodically as batches of ballots throughout the election day, or as one batch at the close of voting.)

7. ADOPT STANDARD VOTE COUNTING PROCEDURES with acceptable Cryptographic verification. (individual/universal/eligibility).
a. The concept of election verifiability through cryptographic solutions has emerged in the academic literature to introduce transparency and trust in electronic voting systems. It allows voters and election observers to verify that votes have been recorded, tallied and declared correctly, in a manner independent from the hardware and software running the election. Three aspects of verifiability are considered: individual, universal, and eligibility. Individual verifiability allows a voter to check that her own vote is included in the election outcome, universal verifiability allows voters or election observers to check that the election outcome corresponds to the votes cast, and eligibility verifiability allows voters and observers to check that each vote in the election outcome was cast by a uniquely registered voter.