But is our vote counting actually a foul up on so many levels? For all the conspiracy theories pushed by sore losers, the vast majority of our elections are counted with no controversy whatsoever. I see no reason why we need to routinely use 30 separate hand counts for a 30-item ballot (or however you’d do it) when the scanner machines work just fine.
I’m not limiting the thinking to just the counting of the votes.
Spin the question the other way; which procedural element of the US election process would you nominate as being worlds best practice?
Quite on the contrary:
While undoubtedly a representative who knows and works their district fastidiously [albeit whose multifarious boundaries would cause a hernia in a double-jointed snake] is a extremely valuable asset, why should I be limited to seeking the counsel of just one? If the state has a dozen reps, wouldn’t I be better served making my pitch to the one most likely to listen to and act on my enquiry?
Maybe I have an idea/need which is contrary to my representatives party platform, or has greater application in another district, or they are opposed on a matter of conscience or they just don’t like my haircut.
Would not the representative who delivers the greatest good to the greatest number be more likely to win their quota for re-election.
re Gerrymandering… don’t many of the Congresspeople of Color owe their seats to gerrymandered majority-minority districts?
To go big-picture: a goal of any electoral reform should be to make voting count. As things stand now, I could vote for a candidate president, senator, representative, and both my state-level reps a thousand times (or persuade 999 neighbors to vote my way) and it would not matter. This is not conducive to political engagement; voting itself becomes an irrational act. And I am, in this regard, a typical American. It’s a wonder we have the turnout we do.
Under many alternative voting systems, my vote counts. If I vote American Nazi Party for Congress under a PR system, I am contributing to the ANP’s representation in the legislature. (One hopes that the system has a floor for representation, like Germany’s 5% rule, but hey - if 5% of the population is Nazi-curious, let 'em try.)
Obviously we can’t elect a proportional president, but even there there’s a simple way to make voting and electioneering count: popular election. Every vote I swing counts, whether the voter is in California or Florida.
I recommend Hendrik Hertzberg’s essay “Let’s Get Representative” (collected in his excellent book Politics - available for a pittance used) for a more detailed argument about the importance of representation as a small-L-liberal, small-d-democratic value.
Absolutely. As do many of the non-“Of Color” congresspeople!
Uh? That sounds vaguely like something a defiant 15 year-old would say.
Though I agree that mandatory voting wouldn’t help. There is always going to be a significant fraction of the population who simply could not care less about government, viewing it as just this thing they have to deal with now and then at tax time or when a driver’s license is expiring or whatever. Forcing these people to participate against their will isn’t going to improve their understanding of the process or make them care about the results - it’ll just be another occasional nuisance the thing is imposing, to be dealt with as quickly as possible with the least effort expended and then promptly forgotten.
Of course, if you really want to shake things up, don’t have all the elections on one day. Scatter them around the calendar, i.e.:
Local legislature vote (i.e. city councilors) and ballot initiatives: every even-numbered year, in April.
Local executive vote (mayors, district attorneys, dogcatchers, etc.): every odd-numbered year, in June.
State legislature vote and ballot initiatives: every three years, in August
State executives (i.e. governors, etc.): every three years, offset from above by one or two, in September
Federal legislatures: every two years for House, six for Senate, in even numbered years, in November.
Federal executive: Prez and Veep, every four years, in an odd-numbered year to ensure offset from above, in May.
Combine with automatic registration. The votes are more frequent, but they’re also a lot shorter, with voters sometimes given a single list of names for one office and asked to pick one, rather than having to click through twenty or thirty votes in one setting and encouraging the impatient voter to just click “straight ticket” without any regard for the merits of the candidates, but based only on how they gutfeel about one of the two major parties.