My solution to the problem of Election Corruption in the USA. What are your ideas?

[Greyson]

Thanks for putting your thoughts out there. Yes, I agree it is time to take a look at our Federal Election Process. A key factor in this would be getting rid of the Electorial College. Ever since my childhood I wondered about the need for this. Of course it was explained in Social Sciences and then in undergrad Political Science.

Another road block to changing Federal Election Process and Campaign donations is Corporations are now considered to be people. Not so long ago, the US Supreme Court in all of its wisdom or lack there of, ruled that Corporations are people. This decision has major impacts in campaign finance.

Originally Posted by iamkeri1

Does anyone else but me think our federal election process needs, shall we say, a litte help? I've been thinking about it a lot and have developed a plan I think will deal with many of the issues. I see three main areas where change is needed. The first is the length of our election process.

I have long been an admirer of the election system in the UK, specifically the fact that candidates can not announce or begin campaigning until six weeks before election day. In the USA. our candidates start campaigning for the next election the day after the current election, it seems. This lengthy election process, and the enormous amount of money it takes to fund it, is largely responsible for corruption in goverment due to corporate funding. It also keeps good, but non-wealthy candidates from running.

Another problem in the election system is the way that each party chooses it's candidates. The primary system sucks. Each state has it's own rules, and the later primary results are greatly affected/influenced by the results in the earlier primaries. States with very small populations like Iowa and Vermont, have an inordinately large influence over the outcome of the presidential election.

A third problem is the two party system itself. Other points of view/solutions are effectively blocked from being heard. A candidate needs to already have national support/recognition before they can even participate in a debate or get government funding for their campaign.

Here's my plan.

I'd love to hear your solutions as well.

The presidential (and congressional term of office as well) begin at noon January 20th. So, June 20th at noon, (and no sooner) potential candidates could declare their intent to run for national office. ALL campaigns would be publicly funded. NO private contributions. The people pay for your campaign, you are responsible/in debt to, only the people for the way you perform your job once elected. To get in the presidential debates you would need to get petitions signed by only 1000 people in each state. If you are unable to get 1000 in each state, you do not run. (This would keep out the real crazies.)

Once you have the 1000 signatures from each state you get 1 million dollars in public funding to run your campaign (with all expenditures being carefully documented.) My funding recommendations center around the presidency. Different amounts would apply to Senate or House of Representative elections. Media would be required to offer advertising time/space to candidates at their lowest rates rather than at their highest rates as they do now. There would be three months of campaigning and debates followed by a national primary election on September 20. All citizens would be voting on the same day so no particular locale would have inordinate influence.

The top four candidates from each party would be placed on the federal ballot for the national elections to take place November 20th. Each of these candidates would receive additional funding for the national campaign, an amount somewhere in the neighborhoods of ten million dollars. You are only campaigning for two months so you don't need the multi-millions required for multi-year campaigns. When the results of the national election are counted, the winning party would take office. The candidate with the most votes would be President, the candidate with the second most votes would be Vice President. This way, the people choose the vice president, not the candidate for president as it happens currently. The successor to the presidency should not be someone chosen by a single individual.

January 20th at noon, the people elected to office will, of course, not be perfect. They will have their own predjudices, opinions and personality quirks, but they will not be beholden to the oil industry or the insurance industry or to wall street. They will be beholden to us. The people. We the people of the United States of America,

Patriotic Smooches,
Keri

[Glenn]

This is so very true Greyson. The Supreme Court struck down the campaign finance reform attempts by saying it was ok to donate massive sums to candidates and parties making them beholden to them. If we want to end a good deal of this purchase-able.gov (aka corruption), this must be stopped. I am not anti-corporation. I am anti- disproportionate corporate influence in the political process.

1.Stop recognizing corporations as people..
2. Set up public financing for all campaigns. Do Not allow any donations.
3. Eliminate all non-office professional interaction between lobbyists and politicians.
4. Eliminate revolving door between the lobby and political offices by imposing timeframe restrictions on employment in the respective occupations.

These resolutions were passed in Chicago by more than a 90% vote at the People's General Assembly.

[iamkeri1]

Oh yah - the electoral college - destroyer of the will of the people. How could tthat have slipped my mind?!?!

So many things I don't understand about our government these last few years. Two mind boggling supreme court decisions: First they decide that the innocence of real flesh and blood is not a compelling enough reason to release them from prison, then they decide that corporations 1) are people, and 2) that their freedom of speech (translated as financial backing for a person or cause) can not be restricted

The congress is not innocent either. In the senate, the republicans are blocking almost every bill that gets introduced by threatening to filibuster everything, and the democrats refuse to change the filibuster rules when the new congress begins...mind boggling.
Smooches,
Keri

[Toughy]

http://movetoamend.org/

On January 21, 2010, with its ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are persons, entitled by the U.S. Constitution to buy elections and run our government. Human beings are people; corporations are legal fictions.

We, the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United, and move to amend our Constitution to:

* Firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.

* Guarantee the right to vote and to participate, and to have our vote and participation count.

* Protect local communities, their economies, and democracies against illegitimate "preemption" actions by global, national, and state governments.

The Supreme Court is misguided in principle, and wrong on the law. In a democracy, the people rule. We Move to Amend.


In addition to the above Constitutional Amendment, I also support public financing of all elections. That means no private or PAC money involved in elections.

[iamkeri1]

Again I can only say mind boggling. The Supreme court used to be an entity I deeply respected. Justices CAN be impeached, pretty much in the same way that presidents can be impeached. Maybe it is the time for that.

I can remember most of my young life seeing billboards postd by the John Birch Society that read "Impeach Earl Warren" (then Supreme Court Justice for those of you who are too young to remember.) so I knew it could be done, but then I looked it up and found how to do it. It takes a two thirds vote of the congresspeople Who are present that day. On a typical day in the house there are less than a hundred people there, so theoretically, it could take only 66 people to oust some of those asshole,

While I am talking about Earl Warren, I just want to point out that he was elected three times to the office governor of California AS A REPUBLICAN!!! And he was nominated by Dwight Eisenhower (who warned us against the military industrial complex way back in the mid fifties.) Yet as Supreme Court Justice, he was one of the most liberal justices in US history. See Eisenhowers warning speech



Two Republicans we could respect, if not agree with. What the hell happened to the Republican Party? Mind boggling!
Smooches,
Keri

[Kätzchen]

Thanks for your thread imakeri1 !!

I’ve written to certain end democratically elected officials in several states to voice my support for :: 1) eliminate the filibuster, 2) eliminate the Electoral College, 3) and vocalized my support for shoring up institutional agencies who are weakened by rogue hiring practices that favor employing racist hateful individuals who are only there to collect a paycheck off the taxed voting base for no job done well that is in the best interests of the American citizen.

If no. 1 and no.2 requests get accomplished I will feel like the correct direction our country should be going in will restore my confidence in safeguarding our social institutions.

Oh, and idea no.4 is to:: make sure elected officials caught upending our lives are prosecuted to the fullest extent of Judicial law by drafting succinct laws and enacting them before it’s too late.

[GeorgiaMa'am]

I'd post my fantasy solution here, but I'm pretty sure it's illegal in most states. In reality, I'm with you, Kätzchen.