How did we become the laughing stock?
Welcome to America… land of the free and home of the voter suppression, election interference, and gerrymandering. WHY do we make it so difficult for people to vote? WHY is a FEDERAL ELECTION controlled by the States? Who we elect as President, Vice President and members in Congress effect ALL of us – so why is this regulated at the state level? And have you seen these ‘district maps’. They look like a toner cartridge exploded on a piece of white paper, or abstract artwork:
Is that an abstract painting or a rough map of Ohio’s congressional districts? You don’t know, do you. Exactly.
So what needs to be done about all of this. Here goes… again, tell us what you think!
- Ensuring election security (priority #1). Locked down technology, paper back up and tri-partisan observers. (that’s right, we said TRI-partisan. We need to start saying that. Along with ‘all three sides of the aisles‘ 🙂 ).
- Goodbye, Electoral College – what IS that? (popular vote wins for nationwide election)
- Goodbye, voter suppression and gerrymandering.
- For national elections we will have FEDERAL (not State) voting laws and methods, ensuring every American citizen can vote with the same amount of ease, regardless of their zip code.
- We will have FEDERAL districting guidelines, with districts based on county, municipality lines, natural borders or interstate highways – something we all agree makes sense.
- Nationwide election & primary voting should be in a 3-day window (Sunday – Tuesday), 24/7 with drive through voting, and use of stadiums & arenas. We could do this for Covid testing and vaccines and food distribution, we can do it for voting.
- Equal lines and process everywhere – cities, suburbs, and rural areas – will have an equal number of voting places per capita.
- Early voting, mail in voting, drop boxes – all done in a secure manner for proven state residents.
- Goodbye, dark money and Super PACs spending money on campaigns. Level financial playing field.
- Campaign contribution limits and transparency or Publicly funded campaigns
- Political ads from campaigns only; accountability for veracity
- Media companies (including social media) and individual influencers with a large audience need to be scrutinized and penalized for spreading falsehoods in the form of either ‘opinion’ or ads running on their platform. Advertisers and sponsors will be held accountable for the content of the show they are paying to make happen.
More detailed policy ideas will be up to the candidates. Back to Ideas.