Posted by Sunnely on November 12, 2000, at 15:17:14
In reply to Re: integrity of the elections » Sunnely, posted by Snowie on November 12, 2000, at 6:23:43
1. Electoral college.
Don't end it but mend it. EC was included in the Constitution by our founding fathers in the name of fairness. If EC is scrapped and the winner is based on majority votes garnered, most if not all of the attention will be grabbed by the big states. Major political parties will see to it that their presidential candidates hail from either California, New York, or Texas. If a presidential candidate is from CA, it is no brainer that he will pick for his VP someone from either NY or TX. This may lead to the polarization of the country. Smaller states may end up uniting to fight against the candidate of the big states.
2. Introduce and pass the Campaign Finance Reform bill.
Hopefully, this will stop those special interests with big bucks from "buying" the election. May be elected officials won't feel so beholden to any of them and will turn their attention to the less fortunate people who really need it.
3. Ban the media and other national pollsters from polling at least 1 week before an election.
I know that this may infringe against the First Amendment. On the other hand, polling only invites more confusion and discourages voter from participating in the election. Furthermore, pollsters can sway voters one way or the other. The number of national pollsters have mushroomed mostly giving mixed, confusing, and unreliable results. This last presidential election is a testament to this. All the major national pollsters gave Bush from 2-5 point edge against Gore until election day, except one, the Zogby poll, which correctly predicted that Gore would win the popular votes by a slim margin.
4. Ban all exit pollsters from the polls.
They are not always accurate. (This is related to number 3.) Remember the chaos they created when they initially projected Gore as the winner in Florida, then changed it to Bush, then changed it to "too close to call" where we are stuck right now, 5 days after the election.
5. Use only "user-friendly" and universal election ballot.
Stop the use of antiquated methods of voting such as the punch cards. With the US in the forefront of the high-tech age, there is no reason why we can't relegate these dinosaurs into extinction.
6. Make the US Presidential election day a national holiday.
I believe this will create increased enthusiasm for each citizen to exercise his/her given right to vote. In turn, this leads to increase voter turn out. It is appalling to note that only 50% of the US citizenry participated in the last presidential election. I don't think Americans realize how lucky they are to have the right to shape their future through the election. I came from another country (now US citizen) where the form of government was a carbon copy of the US. Tragically, for at least 15 years, democracy was raped by dictatorship. During this time, not only was the joy of electing a president came to a cruel and abrupt halt, but also the right of the people to gather, demonstrate and express ones' opinion. People were afraid to say anything negative about the president turned dictator. For one to do so risk a chance of being vanished without a trace and/or his/her family threatened and tortured. Finally, after those agonizing years although at the expense of countless lives, democracy was restored and the dictator was VOTED out of power and out of the country.
Just my own 2 cents.
poster:Sunnely
thread:2336
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20001031/msgs/2581.html