Election Reform, part 2

In a previous post I presented some suggestions on how to make voting less cumbersome to get more Americans to take part in the most important process in our democracy- voting. I present here some more suggested changes that could tweak the system but this time I focus less on making voting easier but on actually making it more effective...

Cooked down, my sequel proposals are to prohibit judges from using their incumbency advantage on the ballot, to quit voting on positions of functional government officials who must have a certain amount of job expertise and to enact some form of proportional representation or cumulative votingsystem.

In the interests of electoral fairness, let’s lose the incumbent designation for judges on the ballot. We don’t allow any other people seeking office to tout themselves as incumbents, so why should judges get such special privileges? All I ask is that Circuit Court Judge James Fisher be referred to on the ballot as simply “James Fisher.” Judges get plenty of publicity so that voters are likely to know who they are anyway, certainly as opposed to some sacrificial lamb opposing them.
It is no secret that in West Michigan, if you’re a Republican and an incumbent, the chances of you being ousted at the polls are about as good as mine trying to hit a home run off Justin Verlander. In the Detroit area, Democrats enjoy the same unfair advantages. The dealer a long time ago handed the good cards to those already in power and left those brave or foolish enough to challenge with lousy hands. It’s time to level the playing field.

Though it’s been said before elsewhere, I call for eliminating the process of electing at all for the so-called “county elected offices” of register of deeds, clerk, treasurer, sheriff, prosecuting attorney, drain commissioner and surveyor. One of my biggest worries is that an electorate that doesn’t pay attention will elect unqualified bozos, and maybe they already have,  to one of more these jobs, which really should be appointed by an elected County Board of Commissioners. Many of us, myself included, have little clue what a drain commissioner or register of deeds does or better yet what makes a good one, yet we’re charged with the solemn task of selecting such an animal. Even worse is when somebody running for prosecuting attorney or sheriff can be a demagogue or slick political salesman, but not a competent or effective professional, and the masses of the clueless easily will choose the former over the latter because they’re nice people and give us false promises to “get tough on crime” rather than promise us fair justice for all. Sometimes deciding things by a vote of the people isn’t in our best interests. Plato cautioned us about mob rule mentality.

We also need to take a look at the very nature of how we elect people to office. There are many other ways to distribute votes and elect politicians that would not interfere with the plan our Founding Fathers set into motion- in fact many of the problems I seek to address are "add ons" that came later such as gerrymandering which haven't been dealt with with by the 2 major parties simply because it helps both of them consolidate their power into their geographical bases and it leads to a government that only works as a re-election machine for incumbents. Proportional representation offers a way for people who dislike our current two-party system where both parties seem to be offshoots of one Corporate Party to have a bigger say in who gets sent to represent them. Proportional representation exists in many different forms and likely it would tough in our current atmosphere to enact such a plan let alone choose just one but it would allow for so-called "fringe" groups to have their voice heard who aren't currently being served now. Cumulative voting would allow minorities to not be completely silenced by the majority and would also perhaps provide a sensible and simple method to eliminate the "need" to gerrymander districts to reduce the power of minorities which results in skewed districts where minorities represent only a small number or an overwhelming majority producing the "wasted vote effect." These methods could be effective in breaking the 2 major parties' stranglehold on votes and power and produce a more effective government and a less divided nation.

Consider these ideas along with the proposals I advocated earlier to make it easier for all of us to vote. Let's make it so incumbents don't get an unfair advantage, let's clear the clutter off the ballot and make it so citizens aren't having to worry about who they should elect dog catcher and let's think about how the process of voting is used to send people into office and whether we can't tweak the system and reduce the grip of power from corrupt fiefdoms where the party in power has no fear of losing. Maybe there will come a time when we truly can make a difference. Until that glorious and wonderful day, I’ll have content myself with venting on a boring, repetetive and obscure blog that only a few read for occasional comedy relief...