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Politics - The Election Process
We need to change the way leaders of our nation are elected. The current system is broken. Our incumbent congress is ineffective and won’t take the bold steps needed to take to pass required legislation. The recent health care and financial reform bills that passed are prime examples. They are a nice first step towards what needs to be done, but in the end both systems are headed for meltdown. Our incumbent congress’s main concern is their next election and protecting favorite special interests that provide them campaign cash. This has to stop. Below are a number of ideas I am in favor of to change our election process.
Term Limits
Term Limits are needed to reduce the “incumbent for life” monarchy-like governing system we have now. A definite limit on terms will give us a greater chance congress will vote for what is right for the country and not what is best for their reelection chances. A possible step could be repealing the 17th Amendment that allows for the direct election of Senators by the voters. The state legislatures would choose our Senators once again. This would end the current quest for cash by our Senators, and it would be harder for special interests to influence a majority of state legislators in choosing a Senator than for them to influence to outcome of one Senate election.
Lower the Barrier for Candiates
We need to free congress from the appearance of exchanging favors in return for campaign contributions, lower the barrier to entry for middle and working-class candidates and reduce the influence of special interests on candidates once elected. One way to do this is to require TV and radio stations to give candidates some free air time as a condition of their license. Corporations are not persons, and multinational corporations are not citizens. Supreme Court rulings have allowed corporations to flood the election process with money.
Campaign Fund Limits
We need to enact legislation to keep corporations out of the election process. Campaigns should only be able to accept funds from citizens that reside within their state.
More Choices for Congress
We need more choices than liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans. One way to do this would be to adopt “instant runoff voting” for congress. Thus if a Democrat, a Republican and two Independents were running against each other, you would vote on the entire ballot ranking the candidates one through four. If no one had a majority the last place finisher would be eliminated and second-choice votes of those who voted for him would be redistributed to the top three finishers. This would continue again until one candidate has a majority
Iowa Redistricting System
Redistricting is another area where we could improve the political process. We could either adopt the “Iowa System” of redistricting or adopt multi-member districts. In North Carolina, we would have to get a waiver from federal civil rights oversight of our redistricting process to adopt the “Iowa System”. In the Iowa system, a nonpartisan arm of the legislature uses computers to draw compact and contiguous districts that disregard incumbency and partisanship. No more counties split between districts like there is now in Rowan, Davidson, Guilford and Alamance counties. The legislature still has to approve it, but it is an up or down vote with no amendments.
In multi-member districts, we would for instance divide North Carolina into four super districts of three to four members each. This would only require the repeal of a law passed in congress in 1967 prohibiting this practice. An example for North Carolina would be Eastern, North Piedmont, South Piedmont, and Western districts. You would vote for the all candidates in your district and rank order them. The top three or four vote getters are elected. If you combined multi-member districts with Instant Runoff Voting you can see how this would have a great impact on our political system.
Election Day as a National Holiday
Election Day should be a national holiday. We could start by eliminating Columbus Day, move Election Day to the first Monday in November and make it a new federal holiday.
Effective Legislation
We need to pass effective legislation and the current political process is not electing the leaders we need to make tough decisions. We also need to limit the influence of multinational corporations and the Wall Street elite to dictate policy in Washington.
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North Carolina's 6th Congressional District.
