Take Action

What can you do to fix our failing electoral system? Plenty. For a start, Register to Vote. Then get informed about The Issues. Find out why you have so few choices at the polls, and why politicians so often take your vote for granted. Then tell your representatives in the House and Senate that you want change.

Here are specific solutions that can be implemented right away, at little or no cost, to make our elections free, open and competitive.

Ballot Access Reform
Excessive ballot access requirements that apply only to candidates who try to challenge the major parties are unnecessary and unjustified. We need one reasonable set of requirements to govern all federal elections.

At least two bills have been introduced in the House to enact this reform. Each bill capped signature requirements at 1,000. One bill was introduced by a Democrat and one by a Republican, but both stalled from lack of support. Instead, incumbents keep raising the requirements, allegedly to prevent overcrowded ballots and voter confusion. But these problems are virtually nonexistent. No state that requires as few as 5,000 signatures has ever had trouble because too many candidates were on the ballot.

No one knows this better than our own elected officials, who so often run unopposed. Incumbents shouldn't be allowed to rig the system this way, by enacting discriminatory laws that exclude their competition. Tell your representatives to take a stand on this issue by supporting ballot access reform.

Redistricting Reform
Not every expert agrees that gerrymandering is the primary reason 90% of our electoral districts are one-party monopolies. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that incumbents intentionally draw districts to collect their supporters and dilute the opposition. This is an abuse of power, and the solution for it is simple: take the job of drawing electoral districts away from incumbent politicians. Congress should either delegate this job to the Federal Election Commission, or it should establish a new commission comprised of retired judges or other nonpartisan officials. The time is long past due for this simple reform that, at the least, would remove an opportunity for partisan interference with our electoral system.

The Electoral College
The Constitution establishes the Electoral College, but it doesn't require the college to operate on a winner-take-all basis. In fact, Nebraska and Maine both divide their electors proportionally, according to the percentage of the popular vote each candidate receives. That gives candidates incentive to compete in those states no matter who is ahead, or by how much. If every state adopted this simple change, the 74% of our nation that has been monopolized could be competitive again. There would be no "safe" states anymore, and candidates would be forced to compete for every vote.

The Presidential Debates
If the major party candidates want to reduce their debates to a mutual photo-op, they are free to do so. But they shouldn't be allowed to hide behind a front organization like the Commission on Presidential Debates, which they created - much like discriminatory ballot access laws - to exclude their competition. At the very least, the media should not participate in this fraud upon the public by broadcasting these sham events without explaining what they really are. Specifically, the media ought to publicize the Memorandum of Understanding the parties sign before each debate. The media should also provide equal air time to the debates sponsored by the nonpartisan Citizens' Debate Commission.

The Price of Admission
Buckley v. Valeo has been widely criticized for equating money with speech. Imagine, for example, if you could only attend your local Town Hall meeting if you paid a dollar to get in. Or if you had to pay a dollar every time you wanted to speak. Obviously this arrangement would benefit those with money and harm those without. It would also be unconstitutional: the state may not discriminate against the poor by charging a price of admission to the electoral process. But in effect, that's the system we have today.

We need clean elections in the United States - and that means complete public funding for qualifying campaigns. This would require an investment of public funds, but it would be a small fraction of the amount we spend to promote democracy abroad. Besides, funding for elections must come from somewhere. Right now, the vast majority of campaign funding comes from corporations, labor unions and other special interests. Apart from the recent scandals this system has produced, the constant quest for campaign cash compromises our elected officials' ability to put their constituents before the special interests. Public funding of campaigns is a small price to pay for clean elections.