My Completely Impractical Voting Reform Proposal
Today in "Why I'll Never Hold Elective Office"
Since absolutely everything this week seems to be about a completely doomed and arguably incompetent attempt to pass an ambitious voting rights bill through a 50-50 Senate where two of the majority party Senators aren’t on board, I might as well cave in and throw in my own package of proposals. I mean, these have almost exactly the same chance of becoming law as the bill currently before Congress, so why the hell not?
Make Election Day a holiday nationally in years when regular Congressional elections are happening (which automatically picks up the Presidential elections). An extra half-day-off per year (on average) isn’t going to cripple the economy, so there’s no reason not to. Alternatively, we could just shift the observance of Veterans’ Day to the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November in election years, which would produce the same practical benefit.
Allow at least a week of early in-person voting, including at least two weekend days. Even on a holiday, somebody’s going to have to work, or have a child-care disaster, or whatever, so give them a chance to participate in the important civic ritual of spelling your last name for an elderly poll worker in an elementary school cafeteria.
Allow no-excuse absentee voting everywhere, but require ballots to be received by the time the polls close on election day. Enough of this nonsense where votes trickle in over a two-week period: set a solid date when voting will end and counting will start, and get the results done.
I’m fine with some form of identity verification at voting sites, or when requesting/submitting absentee ballots. That is, as long as we simultaneously create some process for getting suitable ID for free in a reasonably convenient manner. Add photos to Social Security cards, or use the passport photo services in the Post Office to generate government ID that must be accepted as proof of identity when voting in Federal elections.
Absolutely ban the reporting of partial count data for, say, 48 hours after voting ends. Vote Tuesday, check and count everything twice, and report the final results Thursday night. Let’s be done with this nonsense where people freak out over illusory swings based on tiny fractions of the overall vote.
There you go, that’s my platform. Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi: call me1.
This is short, I know, but I have other shit to do today, and I don’t think it needs to be any longer than this. Here are some buttons:
and if you have suggestions of things that ought to be added to this list, the comments will be open.
For real, not one of those bullshit spam robo-calls where your stiff, recorded voice tries to alarm me about your lack of cash on hand.
Unfortunately the other stuff we need probably requires a Constitutional amendment thanks to Citizens United, but:
No funds may be spent on campaigns except public funding; all candidates have the same budgets available. No donations of any size may be given to campaigns. All campaigns must provide public documentation of all campaign expenses.
All advertisements of any kind for candidates are banned from all mass media outlets for the two months before an election. All candidates must participate in scheduled debates and all candidates above a certain polling threshold are given a free amount of time on radio and television in the final two months of campaigning in which to discuss their candidacy. This time must be spent in 15 minute blocks as scheduled programming.
No PAC advertising for candidates or parties within six months of an election. No campaign staff may meet with or coordinate with PACs under any circumstances. PACs must disclose all sources of funding at all times.
All candidates for federal office must release their tax returns for the previous decade prior to being on a ballot; refusal to do so by six months before an election will lead to invalidation of signatures/removal from ballots.
Much of this is perfectly plausible--there are European states that apply some or most of these regulations to elections.