It’s election day here in the United States. Today many people will go to the polling places and cast their votes, some for the first time. Some will not go, either because they did not register, they did but choose not to vote, or perhaps like me they have no polling place to go to…
Yes, I said “I have no polling place to go to.” I am a registered voter, and have been since a few days before my 18th birthday. (I had to register before I was 18 as my birthday fell after the registration cut off date, but before election day.) I vote often, but I have never once voted in a polling station, for the state where I am a registered voter got rid of them before I was old enough to vote. (Hmmm… I guess that is not completely true, since for elections in school for student government officers could be seen as having polling stations….) Instead in my home state of Oregon all registered voters are mailed their ballots and must either mail them or drop them off at designated sites. Either way, the ballot must be received by 8pm on election day. Thus when I received my ballot I filled it out, voting for various positions and for various ballot measures, placed it in the envelope, sealed it, and it sat on my dresser for several days.
Yesterday, I grabbed it and was going to drop it off at city hall on my way to work, until I got to the car and realized it was later than I thought and so I drove strait to work, planning to drop it off somewhere on the way home…. The rest of the story will be at the end but now let us jump to my thoughts…
I wonder if we can find a better way to establish our leaders… a better way than a system which has seemed to become more gridlocked, more partisan, more dysfunctional, as the years go by. It seems at times some of the concerns George Washington expressed in 1796 regarding parties are a bit more than possible problems but realized ones today…
I wonder what can we do to make our government better… Of course the simplest, as it requires no change to any laws is: Get larger voter turnout, have more informed voters, and have more candidates who will seek to do what is best for all those they would represent if elected. (Not just those who paid for their campaign, not just those who voted for them, or those who say they are the same party… but also those who say they are of another party or no party, those who didn’t financially support them, and those who voted for someone else or did not vote at all.) When issues are passed or defeated by a party vote, I really wonder did all those who voted for/against something truly feel that was what was best for their people and the state/nation… as a whole.
Perhaps we also need to find better ways of choosing leaders. Over the course of the nation’s history we have changed the way we choose our leaders. At one time we didn’t elect our Senators directly, rather the legislatures of the various states elected them. Yet we still do not “vote for president” rather a group of 538 people, whose names few people ever hear or know, vote for president. Yes we “elect these people” but we do so by checking a box next to a person who is running for president.
Perhaps we should adjust laws (as some states have done I believe) so it isn’t an all or nothing. That is if a State has 3 electors, and the popular vote within the state is such that candidate A gets 35%, candidate B has 50%, Candidates C has 5%, Candidates D-Z 10%, that they would choose one elector who pledged for A, and two for B, rather than B getting all 3 as is typical. Thus the Electoral collage would better reflect the popular vote, while retaining smaller states voice in electing the Executive. Granted an elector has the right to vote for whomever they choose, even if they pledged for another (though they may face penalties in some jurisdictions for exercising that right, but as they are selected by the political parties and thus probably fairly party loyal the political consequence they would face are more likely to keep them in check than criminal ones).
So we could also amend the constitution to eliminate electors, but still keep the same voting power. That is Wyoming still get’s three votes, Oregon get’s 7, and California 55,… and those votes get divided up reflecting the popular vote of that state, but is decided directly by the popular vote rather than by people who could choose to vote against the popular vote of that state. So in the case above rather than those leading to people pledge to vote for them, instead the State as an entity casts 2 votes for B and and 1 Vote for A. Term limits might also be a good idea… As long term wisdom and experience can be good, but fresh ideas and less experience can be as well.
While it tramples a bit on free speech rights, it would be nice to also restrict political advertising and do away with negative/attack adds. These adds rarely inform voters, as often what is contained is misleading, or taken completely out of context. Rather limit adds for a candidate to: “This is what I have done, this is why I have done things that were not great, this is what I envision and will strive to do….” That is stay with the I statements, and reasons why they should vote for you. Just because you say the other person will do horrible things, doesn’t mean you will do less horrible things… You may do even more horrible things than they would.
I wonder however if there might be an even better solution. Develop a set criteria (a little more in-depth perhaps than the current age, citizenship, residency requirements,) for each office at local, state, and national level, and then out of all the population that meet those set criteria draft our leaders. Make it more like jury duty or perhaps still have some elected people but at least a portion be drafted. Maybe we would end up with better representation of the people, better ideas, and actually get things done… well depending on who got drafted.
One other area I’ve thought about is Judges. In Oregon we get to elect judges. It is a “non-partisan” position, and often on the ballot there’s only one choice. I’m not so sure electing judges is the best thing, especially if it is for a term and they can run again for re-election. At the same time I’m not sure the life-time appointment system of the federal judiciary is the best way either. What if we get a bunch of judges that once on the bench make frequent rules that are not the best for the jurisdiction they serve, but never do anything that could lead them to be kicked out? If we stay with an election method, perhaps it would be best to limit judges to a set term length and only one turn, and bar them from running for any other political office. Thus try and ensure the impartiality that the federal life-time appointment but also allow people to vote at a set frequency for judges. If we stay with an appointment system, perhaps some maximum time frame should be set as well, just in case we end up with some judges who negatively impact the welfare of the jurisdiction (or who after serving well for many years start negatively impacting the jurisdiction), but at the expense of forcing those who make a positive or neutral impact out when they could continue to serve the nation, state, county… well for years more….
I really have no idea, my mind was just running through with thoughts this morning, and so a few are shared here… feel free to share your thoughts on how we can make the various governments of the world work better… Okay the last part of my story…
My voting story… After work I headed down town to spend time at a university library to get some work done in quite. As I headed there I ended up in a slow moving line of traffic, but I needed to be in that line to make the turn I needed to make up for the turn I missed or had had taken and shouldn’t have taken or both (don’t recall now which was the case). I was wondering why only this lane had a bunch of people using it, the other lanes (it being a one way street) had much less traffic… why were there signs “don’t block intersection, don’t block alley… then I saw, and realized it was because it was the drive through ballot drop location next to the county courthouse, so I reached over pulled my ballot from where I had stashed it, rolled the window down and handed it to the man standing there in the rain (or perhaps he was just under the edge of the tent…) who glanced at the signature side and then passed it on to the next person, as I drove on… So perhaps I didn’t make a wrong turn after all, but made the needed turns to accidently end up in a place I needed to be… to ensure my vote got in. So if today is election day for you, GO VOTE, if not then when it is GO VOTE.
Peace be with you
— Lyle II