- Communist Zombie
- Nov 1, 2011
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Would more extensive reforms than PR and removing FPTP be fine for this thread? Because I have a whole slate of ideas on how to fix elections, including some out there ideas.
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Oct 8, 2017 23:36
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May 13, 2024 23:00
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- Communist Zombie
- Nov 1, 2011
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Heres my wide ranging slate of reforms which range from realistic to fantastical. And i would appreciate explanations for why my more radical reforms are actually bad ideas.
Election Reforms
- Consolidate election schedules: Make all elections, local, state, and federal, happen on the same day every four years, preferably on a weekend. I have no preference
on whether senators would have four year or eight year terms. Off year or off day elections were used to purposefully reduce turn out since it takes some political awareness and activism to be aware that you would need to vote on days other than for president. Though ballot fatigue is a thing so if it is an issue a compromise where you have election days in the beginning and end of the year with each one being a mix of all levels to help prevent one election day becoming hte 'main one'
- Guaranteed early voting time blocks: Two weeks of early voting starting three weeks before election day would be the minimum amount of early voting available.
- Election day is universal paid day off: Making a (paid) day off means people are more likely to go out and vote since work wont prevent them from going, making it paid is just an extra touch to help the poor. For jobs that cannot have all have a day off, like emergency services, or for some other reason still have to go work then the employer must give all employees working on election day a paid day off of the employees choosing during early voting. And since a lot of minimum wage jobs are 'on call' or otherwise have schedules that change weekly there would be some sort of formula to determine how much they would have worked.
- Mandatory minimum sizes for poll centers: Too small poll centers has also been used to discourage voting since waiting in line is no fun especially if its very long. So all poll centers should be able to process everyone in the voting district in a reasonable amount of time. The formula I came up with is there would be a maximum of a fifteen minute wait time assuming two-thirds of the entire voting population came to vote evenly between 8am and 5pm.
- Allow Mail in voting: Self explanatory, Id also allow people to turn in mail in ballots at poll centers.
- Remove FPTP and runoff elections: OP already went over why this needs to happen
- Add a 'none of the above' or protest vote option: Considering the state of US politicians I think its good for democracy for citizens to say none of these are suited to represent us. As for what happens if none of the above wins I see two options: the state appoints someone to that position who also will be barred from running for reelection, or the second most votes gets the position. But in either case they would be officially considered the acting representative and would not get any privileges of office, mainly franking which lets them send mail for free, and possibly also prevents them from running again for that seat.
A protest vote option would be for ballot questions and can be done either stand alone or in tandem with other options. Stand alone protest votes would be to show that you actively disagree with the entire question and arent just neutral or cant decide. While a protest yes/no vote exists to allow people to vote how they want will also letting their displeasure at the establishment/status-quo be known and so prevent situations like the Brexit vote or the FARC Peace Treaty vote where a significant number of people voted against what the ruling party wanted instead of their actual choice leading to the option they wanted failing.
- Suffrage for highschoolers: All residents aged 16 or older will be able to vote in municipal/local elections as well as for the school board. This will help people get engaged with civic life and start voting since 18 year olds also move for college which makes registering to vote harder, and if people dont vote when theyre young they are much less likely to vote overall in the future. And shouldnt students get a voice in how schools are run and their community? Berkeley passed a measure letting 16 year olds vote in school board elections last year.
- National Preclearance: Any change that would affect voting would require preapproval from the US Attorney General or the DC district court. I would change the bailout requirements from 5 years to three elections if elections have been unified.
- Universal recall elections: Any elected position
Legislative Reforms
- 2 or 3 Representatives per state minimum: An indirect method of reducing the size of congressional districts, and of course the smallest unit would be the basis for how many representatives each state gets. 2 minimum would give 1095 reps at 282k pop each, 3 min for 1642 at 188k pop each. Alternatively a 250k population size could work, giving 1231 representatives (1252 for all territories), especially if all of the US territories became states since that would push the House of Representatives to over 11.5k members with a 2 minimum rule.*
- Separate Voting Representatives for 'Federal Territories': All US territories, colonies, dependencies, etc would be each entitled to however many representatives they would get if they were state, but do not get a minimum number of representatives, and they would all have voting power. But territories would not get Senators.
- Create proportional representation chamber: Ideally I would move Senators into the House of Representatives, essentially making them two at-large districts, and make a new upper house. OP already covered why PR is a good idea.
- Allow multi member districts: This would just allow states more flexibility in choosing how they want to be represented.
- Representatives for Native American tribes: Native Americans have always gotten the short stick in American politics and policy, and have been powerless despite all the claims of co-sovereignty with the US, giving them specific voting power would help fix that. People living inside tribal lands as well as members of tribes would be able to vote for voting representatives in Congress as if they were a state, which would include Senators. Each tribe can choose whether they apportioned with the state they reside in or with other tribes. If there are enough Native Americans to get multiple representatives then the tribes will decide how to group themselves, with a preference towards preventing small tribes to be split among multiple reps or being joined with disproportionally larger tribes.
*I did math for how big the House of Representatives would be under various proposals and whether or not various territories and DC would be included if anyone wants to see.
Judicial Reforms
- Ban re-election of judges: Its been shown that judges give harsher punishments when they are near reelection, since the judiciary should be impartial this is obviously a major issue. I have no issue with the idea of electing judges, just reelecting them. If judges must regularly face the people then they should have term limits and have to wait one election before they can stand for election again.
- The Bar creates judicial nominee list: To keep politicians from nominating professionally unsuitable but ideologically extreme candidates to the judiciary the state's bar would create a wide list of potential nominees that the government would have to choose from. If thats too technocratic for your taste then the bar could either have veto power over nominees or the government and bar have to agree on a candidate.
Also I think an effort post summing up the different ways to vote and have assign representatives would be useful. I know CPGrey has his videos but he doesnt cover all options.
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Oct 9, 2017 13:53
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Oct 8, 2017 23:36
