Posted by
Mike on Thursday, April 24, 2008 10:38:20 PM
The election reforms proposed here involve the presidential nomination process, campaign financing and voting regulations. Implementation of these reforms would require coordination between the Federal Election Commission, national and state party leadership and the state governments.
Presidential Nomination Process
Every state would have a presidential primary. There would be only four primary dates for the entire country and all parties, including third parties and independents, would vote on one of those four dates. The country would be divided into four groups representing sets of 12-13 states. States in each group would be scattered across different regions of the country and have combined delegate counts that totaled up to approximately 25% of the total delegates. The primary dates would occur in March, April, May and June and the four sets of states would be rotated so they would all change order from one election to the next.
Each state primary would be a winner-take-all for the delegates apportioned to that state by the two major parties. The candidate in each party getting the most votes would be pledged all of the delegates. There would continue to be a threshold (60%) of pledged delegates that would be needed to lock in a candidate as the nominee. Also, a party may decide to use Super-Delegates. If they do, they would be used upfront to pledge themselves to a candidate before the first set of primaries. That way, these veteran political insiders would provide direction to the party rank-and-file on who they think are the best candidates. The rank-and-file could then decide to follow the Supers’ lead or go their own way. If, after the four sets of primaries, no one has achieved the required threshold, then the decision would be made during the July conventions. Each of the parties would need to establish their own process on how to decide the nominee during the convention (highest vote total or delegate count, runoff voting, back-room negotiations, Super Delegates decide, etc.).
As referenced above, third party or independent candidates are also included in these primaries. When voters get to their polling places, they will be able to request one of three ballots. One of the ballots will have the Republican candidates, one will have the Democratic candidates and the other will have all of the third party and independent candidates. Party registration would not be required to take a Republican or Democratic ballot. A qualified voter can select any ballot, regardless of whether they are, or are not, registered with a political party.
Only the vote totals will be tracked for the third parties and independents since they involve multiple parties and don’t have a process set up for apportioning delegates. After the primaries are done, only those candidates that receive 15% or more of the total vote count will get the opportunity to appear on the general election ballot. For example, let’s say that 100 million people vote in the primaries with the Republican candidates getting 40 million of that total the Democrat candidates getting 40 million. That means that a single candidate from the third party ballot would need to get at least 15 million of the votes from the remaining 20 million to appear on the general election ballot. This will ensure that only viable candidates will be able to compete with the Republican and Democratic candidates in the general election.
All these changes in the nomination process would ensure a consistent process for all parties and ensure that all states/voters get a fair chance to influence the outcome. With 60% of the delegates needed to secure the nomination, at least three of the four sets of primaries will be needed to decide the nominee. These changes also provide an opportunity for a third party or independent candidate to compete with the major parties, but candidates must achieve a high primary vote total to demonstrate their viability in a general election.
Campaign Financing & Disclosures
All current campaign financing legislation will need to be repealed. Going forward, all candidates who pay the presidential election fee and are listed on the primary ballots will be required to provide full disclosures on a Federal Election Commission (FEC) web site. The disclosures will include:
- Personal Information (marital status, family members, residences, education, affiliated organizations, employment, military service, age, religious affiliations, criminal history, health report, etc.)
- Policy views on the top 15-20 issues of the day (developed for each election cycle). They would include such issues as the Economy, Foreign Policy, National Security, Taxes, Federal Budget, Defense, Welfare, Abortion, Capital Punishment, Energy Policy, Environmental Protection, Space Exploration, Trade, Gay Rights, etc.
- A listing of all official endorsements from individuals and organizations.
- A listing of all financial donors and their contribution amounts.
There will be no more limits on the amount of money that can be donated to presidential candidates. This is essentially a free speech issue and citizens have the right to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to who they want for President. However, there will still be some rules regarding these contributions:
- The contributions must come directly from an individual (no groups or organizations or “bundling”).
- Contributions can only be accepted from those individuals with exclusive U.S. citizenship (those with dual/multiple citizenship cannot contribute).
- Contributors must provide their full name, current address, phone number and SSN (only name, city and state will be published on the web site).
- The FEC will frequently audit the list of contributors and notify the campaign if it has accepted an illegal donation, which requires an immediate refund. Also, the FEC will list all the illegal donations that the candidates received to provide full disclosure to the public.
This financing reform makes it so that only individuals can donate, they can donate as much as they want, but they need to do so publicly for everyone to see. The other disclosures will also provide voters with key information about the candidates to help them make an informed choice.
Voting Regulations
For both the primary and general elections, the voting process will include the additional regulations as follows:
- A photo ID with address will be required to vote. It will be matched against voter registration data. If someone has not previously registered, then they will also need to bring a utility bill with an address matching the ID card to get registered.
- A voter must be registered to request an absentee ballot.
- All ballots and instructions will be printed in English only.
This will help reduce voter fraud and provides an incentive for new citizens to know the national language if they plan on participating in the election process.