[GCFL-discuss] Our voices

[gcfl-discuss at gcfl.net]

It is that time of year again when the media begin to tell us that people
in both parties, or at both ends of this or that polarization, have "more
disdain for the candidate they oppose than affection for the guy they
support" and that we are all saying "I wish there was someone else I
could vote for."

The media are great at telling what "the people" are thinking, not so
good at telling us what the candidates are doing and saying, so WE (the
people) can decide what is important to us in deciding how to vote.

But our current process does produce a lot of disillusionment and "what
ifs," so in the interest of ending it all, and giving greenBubble the
freedom to vote his conscience in a practical sort of way, I propose the
following for 2008:

1) Every state will hold a primary election between August 1 and October
15. Which states get which dates during the time period will be
determined by lottery, each election. Anyone can be on the primary ballot
in any state where they turn in petitions signed by 1/2 % of the total
voters in that state for the last general presidential election. They can
have a party label next to their name, but no party categories to the
primary. Each voter in the state can cast one vote for any candidate they
choose.

2) The general election ballot will be the same nationwide. It will list
the top four candidates nationwide after all the votes from all the
states are counted, PLUS anyone else who came in first (plurality) in at
least 25 states -- if they are not already among the top four. Voting
will be by order of preference: you number each candidate from one to
four, or five if there are five candidates left. This will be on a PAPER
ballot designed to he scanned and tabulated by computer (which is how we
do it now in Wisconsin) -- leaving a paper record in the event of
challenges, recounts, fraud, etc.

The first place choices will be counted. If anyone has a majority, they
are our next president. If not, the ballots for whoever got the least
first place choices get redistributed according to second place choices
of those voters. (Not hard with a computer scanned database). If anyone
has a majority, they are president. If not, whoever is now in last place
gets their ballots redistributed by second or, where necessary, third
place choices. Etc.

The winning candidate will be the closest to what more of the people are
willing to live with, and farthest from what most of the people refuse to
accept, that is possible in a majority-rule election set-up.

I haven't figured out how to deal with vice-president, but these days the
nominees more or less pick them anyway. The convention votes are a
formality. So, let the top four pick whoever they want from among those
who qualified for the ballot in at least 25 states during the primary,
and ANNOUNCE that choice to go on the ballot WITH their own names in the
general election ballot.

The principles are simple. Writing it into law would be complicated, but
not hard work. Its complicated, because we would have to anticipate all
the absurd arguments some idiot would try to go to court with, and
explicitly rule them out.

The only reason we couldn't have this in place in 2008 is, almost all the
people who would have to vote on a constitutional amendment (senators,
congress reps, state legislators) have a vested interest in keeping
things the way they are.

Siarlys

All first place votes will be counted


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