It’s Election Day back in the US and I want to get a bunch of jumbled thoughts out and see if I can make some semblance of sense from them.
The US is a very flawed democracy.
This isn’t a statement on current affairs. But the present state of things has exacerbated the flaws. I want to talk about these and float some of the ideas I’ve read about to address them. I may even have a few ideas of my own. I find it therapeutic to think about tangible ways to make things better.
Anyone who knows me knows my politics run very left. Call me a liberal or a progressive if you need a label. But I don’t think any of this is a partisan argument per se, though the proposed remedies would undoubtedly benefit the Democrats. But when a minority party controls all three branches of government, I’m left wondering, well, how did we get here?
FLAWS
1. The Electoral College. In a true democracy, the popular vote winner would win the presidency.
2. The Senate. States do not have equal populations, yet are represented equally in the Senate. This is, frankly, one of the least democratic institutions in any democracy.
3. The House of Representatives. While much more representative of the population than the Senate, there are still problems.
- Every state gets a representative for each senator, so while it’s not nearly the skew of the senate, it’s not truly representative of the population.
- We have US citizens without voting representation in the House.
- The process for drawing districts can be controlled by partisan legislatures who can intentionally gerrymander districts. And though both parties do this, the right has been, uh, better at it. Put it all together and there’s currently about a 5% advantage for Republicans. That’s a VERY significant advantage. (This is on top of a natural gerrymander effect stemming from the reality that urban centers with concentrated populations are highly liberal. Splitting these areas up leads to very unnatural districts.)
4. Voter Registration and Election Day. So many problems!
- Inconsistent and incomplete voter registrations
- Voter registration targeted purges
- Unequal distribution of Election Day resources (e.g. long lines at polling places, difficult travel to polling places, etc.)
- Voting held on a traditional work day
- Lack of an comprehensive and auditable paper trail for ballots (e.g. electronic voting)
- Potential for electoral voting system hacking
5. The Supreme Court. To me, the current process is too far abstracted from the democratic will of the people.
FIXES
What can be done? Well, I’d like to focus on processes and not outcomes. If we come up with more democratic processes, we should get more democratic outcomes.
1. Either eliminate the Electoral College or render it obsolete. I like the National Popular Vote initiative. It bothers me that in Oregon, currently a pretty solid blue state, my vote doesn’t matter. Why not? Well, if Oregon were a toss-up state, the election would already by lost. We’d be having a Republican landslide election.
2. Reduce the role of the Senate. I’ve read a few articles about the Senate recently, including one with the provocative headline about abolishing it (see below). But it’s enshrined in the Constitution in a way that would make it nearly impossible to actually abolish. I like the idea of reducing its role.
Further reading:
The Senate represents states, not people. That’s the problem.
The Case for Abolishing the Senate
3. We should:
- Make the House of Representatives strictly related to population. Take away the “+2” electoral votes each state gets which again skews things towards smaller, rural (and red) states.
- Use non-partisan commissions to draw districts.
- Make Puerto Rico and Washington DC states. Make representatives of territories voting members of Congress.
4. Let’s make the process of voting EASY. The outcome should be MUCH higher participation in our democracy, which makes for a stronger democracy.
(I realize that HOW all of the following are done could be complex, but it’s worth finding workable solutions and making adjustments as needed to reach these goals.)
- Automatic voter registration when you turn 18. Allow registration on Election Day. National standards for registration and election roll updates (e.g. name changes, moves, etc.). National standards for voting rights of convicted criminals. (I think specific crimes may make you ineligible to vote, but I don’t think we should take away rights from everyone, and everyone should have rights restored at the end of the sentence.)
- Make Election Day a national holiday. How about voting on Veterans Day?
- National ballot standards. Auditable paper trails, standardized election forms (i.e. no “butterfly ballots”), etc.
- Non-partisan Secretaries of States. (What’s happening in Georgia is unconscionable. You shouldn’t have the Secretary of State running for the highest office on the ticket. It’s such a blatant conflict of interest.) Equitable distribution of polling centers and Election Day resources. Let’s not have long lines to vote.
- Implement vote by mail nationally.
There’s a lot in this area. I’m sure there’s more to be done. I am convinced that voter SUPPRESSION is a huge story of recent elections. And fraudulent voting is currently a complete non-issue (the volume of documented cases is so low as to be completely insignificant). We need to swing the pendulum in the other direction, and if fraudulent voting actually becomes an issue, we can come up with remedies for that as well.
5. One idea I’ve heard for the Supreme Court is for the Democrats to expand it to 11 seats. And though I’ve wanted to focus on process and stay non-partisan, I like this idea as a way to unskew the current undemocratic nature of the Court.
I don’t like the lifetime appointments; I don’t like that justices are incentivized to “hang on” as they age to have their preferred party in the Presidency to fill their seat. Do you put in a 10-year (or 11-year?) term limit? Outside of impeachments and deaths, you’d then be selecting a new justice each year. Now, coupled with a four-year presidency, you could have a party naming all justices for four (or eight, or twelve, etc.) straight years. Perhaps you return to a 60-vote threshold for confirmation in the Senate to ensure at least some level of bi-partisan approval. I suppose a party could obstruct all nominations until they held the presidency, so you could look to overcome this with a ranked-choice voting system. I’m just thinking out loud here! Maybe you move the confirmation process to the House – a more democratic institution. This might not be easy or even feasible since the current process is embedded in the Constitution, but I’d like to at least see the idea explored.
OK. I’m sure I have a ton of the details wrong. I’m sure I’ve missed lots and lots of other flaws and potential fixes. But I’d sure like to see some candidates start to campaign on a platform of improving/restoring/fixing our democracy. What do you think?