Overhauling the Election Process in Eight Easy Steps

We need to make sure 2016 United States Election never happens again. But no, I am not referring to the results (which…was a mess as well, with seven candidates receiving electoral votes), but the painstaking election cycle that produced so much drama, irritation, and frustration that it led to a still-low voter turnout and a string of wild results (Bernie Sanders, who wasn’t even running for president after losing the primaries, wound up with Electoral College votes) and controversies that persist today ranging from Russia’s meddling all the way to Trump saying that Google has skewed the results (wait, that doesn’t even make sense..). The United States’ electoral process is a disaster, is outdated, and it’s time for a major overhaul in order to create a true series of elections that truly seeks out what the public wants.

I have created a foolproof eight step procedure to overhauling the electoral process and making sure Americans in the future have a nice, cleaner, simpler, less-frustrating process to voting for the next round of politicians. If I were to ever run for the presidency, and if I were to ever win, this would be one of the major policies I would tackle: the simplifying and the streamlining of the methods when determining who should be running the United States.

1)      Kill The Electoral College

Electoral College will die if I ever become president. Executive order, double executive order, whatever it takes. This outdated process was created centuries ago only for slave states to have more equality when compared to their counterparts that had drifted away from holding people and forcing them to do labor. Time to make sure one vote actually equals one vote. Time to make EVERY American citizen’s vote count---even the territories scattered in the Atlantic and Pacific. But the Electoral College will die under my watch.

So who wins the election? Very simple, the candidate with the most votes. It is not that hard. And for the smaller states that claims the big cities will wind up picking every president; that cannot be the case because you can combine the amount of people living in the five most-populated states in the nation and guess what, they only represent one-third of all citizens. To add to that, voter turnout remains extremely low, a mere 40% most of the time. So if all the rural areas and small states actually make the effort, they can still make enough noise to choose who they want to see. You can’t skip Wisconsin and win, the margin of error is always too small to skip out on millions of citizens.

Besides, making sure the electoral college remains dead will create results that will dismantle one of the biggest setbacks plaguing American politics: the two-party system.

2)      Make Sure the Electoral College Stays Dead

Two-party system is a mess, and has separated this country in ways you don’t see in other politics around the world. Democrats and Republicans have created a hostile environment in Washington for decades at this point (although White House Republicans have been faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar and beyoooooooooooooooooond the bigger culprit, the Dems have also had their questionable moments). With the Electoral College decimated once and for all, it allows for candidates to not have to stick with one of the two parties, they can branch off and form their own party, form their own alliances and start building from within. It won’t happen immediately, will take multiple election cycles, but making sure the change of no electoral college votes remains permanent will offer chances for those that politically drift far-left, those that drift more central, or gives a chance for those to leave parties that have become too extreme (Like today’s White Supremacist Republican Party dismantling everything in Washington).

Independent parties like Green Party or Libertarians or whatever new party pops up (cue the eventual Millenial Party) will be offered more room and space to operate and make some headway, while movements within political parties like your Tea Party peeps, like the Democratic Socialists can separate and not have to comply with the two-party system. Nobody has to step in line because you aren’t battling to win an entire state through the electoral process, you can gain support in a variety of different places across the nation.

Like I said, this will take a while, but the first hurdle needs to be eliminated. Nowadays, not a chance does a Green Party candidate wins the presidency, even if you match up against bottom-of-the-barrel candidates in the Democrat/Republican political juggernaut side. But maybe in the future, an unlikely political source will bring about a voice of reason that will resonate with the country, and it may not come from a Democrat or a Republican. Under the death of the electoral college, third-party candidates would have a better chance at even smaller seats like being governor, like being in the Senate or the House of Representatives. Time to start closing the gap, and making sure the death of the electoral college remains permanent is the biggest step to achieve this.

3)      Election Week

Election Day? How about Election Week. Let’s expand the voting window, let’s allow early voting across the entire country and let’s give everybody a legitimate chance to place and/or mail their votes. Life is hard, scheduling life is harder, so let’s not place the entire fate of the country to just one mere day of the year. And yes, early voting does exist in certain states, but 27 out of 50 states allowing excuse-less early voting is extremely unacceptable. All 50 states, all territories should offer early voting of at least a week.

To add to that, during that Election Week, the United States Postal Service will remain open all seven days and with extended hours to ensure proper service and minimize the headaches. And for those worried about the workers, don’t worry, when I’m president I’ll guarantee them the entire week they work during the vicious Election Week cycle will be considered overtime.

And yes, this is for midterms and the main elections.

4)      Election Day is a Holiday

So let’s say you weren’t able to vote the entire week? Election Day becomes a national holiday so nearly everyone has the day off, and for most Americans with that extra special pay. Once again, this is the future of the United States, so we should reward Americans for performing their duty that others have died to preserve. Expanding the voting period, guaranteeing that final day be a holiday will increase voter turnout exponentially, and will do a far better job showing what America truly wants, as opposed to representing just the 30%-40% of registered voters that are able to make the effort.

Oh and let’s be sure to give the next day off to everyone that was involved in Election Day, so Election Day Hangover is the holiday USPS and election workers get to enjoy.

5)      Age 18? You can vote.

Once you hit 18, you are automatically registered to vote, you automatically get a free, government-issued voter ID, and you can then update it with political party affiliation whenever you want, but once you are an adult, no more hurdles to voting in the midterms or main election, no exceptions. Done. Period.

6)      Stronger Attention Paid to Third Parties and Beyond

It is 2019 and we still struggle in seeing non-Republicans/Democrats competing in debates against the most popular of the Two Big Parties. Part of the reason I’ve noticed through my limited research is because the requirements to even enter the same playing field as Republicans and Democrats is much stricter than that of the two major parties. And there’s even laws that prevents people from competing in the election if they lose in the primaries---this happens in 44 of the 50 states. So back in 2016, the Bernie-or-Bust campaign was definitely a waste because Sanders was probably completely limited in his reach for votes even if he was willing to battle as a third option.

All of these restrictions and silly laws should be eliminated, and it should be the best man or woman winning regardless of their road towards the election and regardless of their political party. What should happen is a nationally followed and publicly unveiled schedule that sets deadlines on submitting paperwork to run, and deadlines on collecting enough support by votes and amount of donations (not amount in terms of money, but in terms of headcount) in order to remain in the picture with the Red and Blue candidates.

Third-party candidates with at the very minimal 5% nationwide support should have the potential to appear on ballots in every state, they should always have the opportunity to compete in nationally-televised debates against the others given the proven amount of minimalist support. They say you need 15% support in the polls to compete in nationally televised debates, but I personally would limit that down to 7% because polls can notoriously be inaccurate and even biased (*cough*2016*cough*) and it would be interesting to see how the ideas of the big parties match up or differ from the ideas of the smaller fringe groups.

With more national exposure, it allows for these smaller parties to be more willing to take smaller roles in Washington and within their own states to improve their status and improve their platforms. Currently, the doors shut way too often and it leads to stagnated growth and no real chance to earn any seats small and large. Although I don’t necessarily see myself as one of these smaller parties, I relish in the competition and competing views and new ideas, as well as offer chances for wild card candidates in Red/Blue teams like Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, John Kasich, and Andrew Yang (good candidate but in an extremely crowded Democratic field) to potentially branch off and try to make it on their own.

At the end of the day, we need more voices. We need to remind Americans, it doesn’t have to be one or the other political party for the rest of history. We need to remind the media that they should try to cover more candidates that are seeking some coverage to maybe introduce ideas and concepts that could really bring about proper change. Even if they don’t win, even if they don’t have a chance, maybe some of their ideas and methods could inspire necessary changes within the frontrunners themselves. Bernie Sanders may have lost in 2016, but a lot of his ideas transferred over to the current Democrats’ universally accepted platforms. They just need that chance.

7)      Create Year-Round Bipartisan Election Department, while expanding USPS

We need an entire and permanent committee dedicated to ensuring equal, fair, and problem-free elections nationwide from the small local mayor elections to the main ones determining our president. This group will cooperate with Washington D.C., the Supreme Court, the FBI, the CIA, the USPS, and the FEC to guarantee the American people that the elections are not compromised, they are done without any restrictions to any voters, and the process is done as quickly and efficiently and accurately as possible. Incidents like the 2018 midterms in Georgia with several broken machines in Black neighborhoods are unacceptable and in a world with Siri and Alexa, should never become a reality.  

This organization’s reach and power will be strong, as they will have the ability to kill any bills or ideas that appear to limit the voting rights of certain groups alongside the help of the Justice Department in Washington———as we still have Jim Crow-esque laws plaguing the country. This group will also work on improving the technology and the processes on a year-to-year basis. Even if there isn’t a federal election going on, this group will be hard at work catching mistakes, preventing mistakes, and catching those attempting to cheat the system. It is not enough to just rev up election security on midterm or election years, it has to be a routinely event for there are important elections big and small all over the nation.

Expanding the USPS to include and election/registration branch allows new opportunities for those that need to update their voter IDs, that wants to update their picture, change their address, and even affiliate themselves with a specific political party in order to vote in the primaries. The USPS has been struggling in recent years but giving them government-assisted responsibilities to help the DMVs and registration places nationwide will give the service a new breath of life. Plus, connections with the expanded USPS allows access to mailing patterns of potential culprits and criminals.

8)      Kill. The. Electoral. College

This deserves to be repeated until the end of time…or at least until it actually happens.

The United States’ politics is a mess, is full of bad bad people never looking out for the American people and has many gaping holes that has allowed for corruption and minimal change. We can start eliminating this slowly by improving the electoral process, by giving the people and the smaller politicians outside the usual Republican/Democratic circle a louder voice and a more open window of opportunity. It won’t solve all problems, but at the very least will improve relations between the people and the government, will at least increase trust, and at the very very very least prevent another 2016 from happening again.

but yea…kill the electoral college. Please. Now.