Electoral Reform: The agenda Democrats have to push next:

[Ken Burch]

If we are to be the party of ALL of America, we must be the party that leads the fight for a genuinely democratic and inclusive electoral system.

To do this, I propose that Democrats in and out of Congress push the following electoral reform agenda starting now and KEEP pushing it in 2008 and beyond:

1)Full Public Financing of elections;

2)Abolition of the Electoral College, so that, forever more, the votes of ALL Americans will be equal in presidential elections;

3)The institution of Instant Runoff Voting in elections at all levels, so that the "spoiler" issue is put to rest forever and the voices and ideas of ALL Americans will be heard in our electoral system;

4)A Consitutional amendment requiring all forms of media to print FREE advertising for political candidates and political organizations, so that money NO LONGER decides which candidates and which ideas are heard by the people.

We can mobilize the country around this agenda, and create an energetic and hopeful national movement for progressive, democratic and Democratic change.

And we have nothing to lose by trying.

[mike_c]

1. #3 is top priority for me-- the two party lockdown is hurting America....

I'm not holding my breath that it will ever happen, though. The problem is that the system is self-perpetuating-- the only folks with the power to do anything about it will always be the direct beneficiaries of the current system.

[StatGirl]

2. Making the Electoral College irrelevant

It's not possible to get rid of it, because all of the low-population states will block giving up their power, and it requires a constitutional amendment (2/3 of the House and 2/3 of the Senate must approve).

However, it can be easily sidestepped: Increase the number of representatives in the House by a factor of 10; let's make it an even 5000 (1 representative per 60000 people). Then the number of electors will be much more proportional to the population of each state.

[tnlurker]

3. 1 per 100,000 would be great.

I have proposed to several people that we increase the number of representatives to 3000. Roughly 1 per 100,000 should do just nicely. They would only come to DC a few times a year to make the critical votes. The rest of the time they would do committee hearings by video conference calls or some similar technology. You could even set up some committees regionally so some meetings would be held in Denver or Chicago instead of DC.
I did not realize it would increase the amount of electors also but that is just all the more reason to do it.

[Totallybushed]

4. Ho, ho!

A good idea. But it runs up against the same block as a constitutional amendment. Those who now have power will be reluctant to give it up.

If you think that Democratic congressmen are going to be one whit better than Republican ones on this, would you like to see the bridge I have for sale?

[Ken Burch]

6. Even removing the 435 seat size limit on the House would help.

That limit was put in place in the World War 1 era and as a result we have a "people's chamber" that is the same size as it was 90 years ago, even though our population has nearly doubled since then. Large states such as New York have lost representation simply because they haven't gained population as fast as the states of the Guns and Incest Belt.

I should have included making the House once again representative, of course.

The Electoral College votes could also be distributed by proportional representation in each state, and state legislatures with Democratic majorities in Red States could start changing that right now if they wished. There's no reason the South should have a GOP EC bloc vote when 40% or more of Southern voters reject the GOP even when we nominate relatively liberal tickets.

[Skink]

5. Dean's 50 state strategy anticipates a popular vote for President...

The more people feel they are being heard the easier it will be to reform the system.

[Zealot]

7. YEA!!!

Number 2 and 4 are the top hitters for me but they are all important. Also those issues are only on the electoral system we need to compile a list that includes many more topics and get as many people as possible to e-mail/call/bug the hell out of the senator elects and representative elects in congress. Make sure that they get the point loud and clear. The more people to e-mail/call/bug the hell out of them, the better.

[MasterDarkNinja]

8. Definitely agree with #2, look at how unbalanced the electoral college is

http://www.fairvote.org/?page=985">Click here for a list of how over or under represented states are based on the number of people per electoral vote. Small states like Wyoming get almost 4 times the representation as big states like California in the electoral college.