Papoon Platform Plank on Election Reform

Great Debates
1

Beginning as soon as possible (but under no circumstances more than 14 days) after the candidate registry for the next election is closed (usually the same day that voter registration is also closed), the official responsible for voter registration and the composition of election ballots shall mail to all registered voters an election ballot.

Where these duties are divided among different offices these offices shall be mandated to co-operate full with each other.
(Usually the Secretary of State for any statewide/national office handles the candidate registry; individual county clerks handle voter registration and candidate registration for local office).

The mailing shall be conducted according to the regulations of the U.S. Postal Service (i.e., ballots must be pre-sorted by zipcode and address). This ballot shall be delivered by registered mail, but the post office shall charge only the lowest rate for delivery of commercial mail. All ballots shall be in the mail by 75 days before the election.

Any registered voter who has not received their ballot shall have until 60 days before the election to notify the responsible officer. Election officers must respond to all such questions/complaints within 5 working days. All such questions are to be resolved by no less than 30 days before the election.

Ballots shall contain a line to mark for each registered candidate, as well as a space for write-ins. In addition, each ballot shall have space to mark (for each office) “NOTA” (understood to mean none of the above). In any election where NOTA wins the largest number of votes, either the office being contested shall be eliminated, or a special election held.

Ballot packages shall contain both the ballot and a prepaid return envelope, precoded with the voter’s registration number, attached to the envelope in such a way that it may be easily separated by machine or hand. As ballots arrive at the office of elections, the voter registration number will be removed from the envelope, and the number posted on an automatic answering system which will allow anyone calling in to enter a voter registration number and learn whether that vote has been received.

Beginning two weeks before election day, the ballots will be opened and counted daily (either by machine or hand) and the totals publicly posted each day. Votes must be postmarked no later than midnight of the day before election day in order to be counted.

Anyone who has not voted by mail by election day shall be required to go to the county courthouse to cast their vote. Anyone whose vote has not arrived by 48 hours after the closing of all polling (and who has not filed a complaint with the overseer of elections) shall be considered not to have voted, and be removed from the voter registration rolls. Anyone wishing to re-register must do so by going to the local office of voting registration and providing verification of identity and address.

2

Don’t anybody get yer panties in a bind – I’m not really running, I had my fill of that the last time!

3

Too bad - it would be a plus to have a president that’s ‘not insane’!

4

I’m sitting here and dreaming of all the politicians who would be looking for work once their jobs were eliminated.

NOTA
I think I’m in love…

5

Not running?

Then who will get the support of all the delegates from Monster Island?

6

All right, Doctor, just one question: Lepus or Lupus?

And be careful of your language, young man, or I’ll treat you to a bar of Dead Cat Soap!

7

George Papoon wrote:

What determines whether the office gets eliminated or a special election is held?

8

Essentially, public interest. Actually, a second election would probably have to be held, but with one of the ballot options being ‘eliminate the position’. Also, neither of the previous candidates for the position could run as anything but a write-in candidate.

9

I don’t get it. WHY are you suggesting all this?

If your main point is to allow more voting by mail, well, I’m not sure I want more voting by people who don’t care enough to get up and visit the polling place.

Also, your timeline seems inordinately long. Think how many issues/comments/gaffes occur during the final month of a campaign. Lots of people could cast their votes long before the election and then regret their choice when Candidate Bob slips up and admits he has a thing for goats.

And did I understand that ballots could still be straggling in for two days after the election? I don’t like the sound of that.

As for NOTA, I’d be willing to think about it, but my initial reaction is that life isn’t about finding perfection. It’s about making difficult choices. If Candidate Bob and Opponent Mary are the people willing to stand up and say they want the job, we should pick the better of the two instead of turning up our noses and wishing for somebody else.

Up, up and away!

10

I agree almost completely; to the extent that other people do not vote, the votes of those of us who do become that much more significant; however, we must also turn the argument around to consider whether a political system which so disenchants the majority of potential voters can be said to really be a legitimate reflection of anything but generalized disgust. Also, before we consign a large percentage of fellow citizens to what is essentially political non-entity, a decent respect for the opinions of all citizens demands that we make it as easy as possible to register that opinion effectively. The physically handicapped and/or the housebound (agoraphobic, sick kids, etc.), even those “merely busy” with working during the hours of voting are thus encompassed. I also do not believe that issues of crucial public importance should be subject to vagaries of weather. We already have absentee voting, but in most jurisdictions, it requires swearing before the registrar of voters (whatever their actual title) that the voter will be out of town on election day. I see no reason why the convenience of voting in such a way cannot be extended to all voters, with some provisions.

Here, I think you have grasped my point, but not its significance. First, some voters (probably many of those who vote now) have made up their minds from the get-go, and they’re not going to change. For them, the system I propose would simply mean they can go ahead and get it over with, and let that portion of the body politic actually interested in examining the issues do their thing. It would also mean they get what they deserve for being hasty in voting. As for gaffes and such – those will or won’t happen anyway. If they’re going to happen, better that they happen when the people who haven’t voted still have a chance to effect the election than after it’s over.

News flash: this is what happens now, anyway. It’s just that most elections are won by a comfortable enough margin that the outstanding votes usually don’t matter. In addition, I believe the system I propose would greatly reduce the number of recounts, since vote counting would begin two weeks from the actual election day, so there wouldn’t be such a ‘crunch’ in which votes have to be tallied up within hours in order for the results to make the late news, only to have revisions posted later.

Also, consider the savings in public funds via the elimination of polling places and multiple voting machines, and the controversies that arise when this-or-that precinct’s machine does down in the middle of the day.

Consider that, with the start of vote counting, public opinion polls become totally irrelevant. The expense of polling, and it’s distortive effect on the outcome of elections (especially national elections), can be effectively reduced, if not eliminated. What pollsters say the public thinks (always +/- some %-age which often only proves the poll is worthless as a real gauge of the outcome) means nothing when the actual votes begin to mount up.

Consider that, as final election day nears, the votes of those who have not mailed their ballots become that much more important. Candidates will no longer be able to ease off running, self-confident that the polls show they have an ‘insurmountable’ lead, if the totals can begin to shift in a matter of hours in response to just the sort of gaffes and missteps you mention. Naturally, there will be a ‘last minute rush’ to the post office, just as there is now on April 15th (tax deadline day in the U.S., for those of you in other countries). Even so, the number of final votes will not be as huge. Also, of course, allowance has to be made for the surface mail to get the ballots delivered.

No one’s talking ‘perfection’ here, although I would submit that what I propose is somewhat ‘more perfect’ in the sense the words carry in the Preamble to the Constitution. While life may be about making difficult choices, I say that it’s not about just taking any shit that’s handed to you, either, simply because that’s the ‘best’ the system has served up.

Nothing about the system I propose would preclude anyone who feels the way you do from doing just that. However, it bodes ill for any democracy when even a large number of actual voters feel they must hold their noses when they pull the lever. Neither, IMO, should voting feel like you’re taking an emetic.

11

Maybe ya’ll were just too distracted by the game to give it a pass. Anyway, here’s another chance to ignore it . . .

"You’ll never get as much out of being right as you will from finding out why you were wrong . . . " The Papoon Principles Ch. 1.