Approval Voting — Let’s Do It!
— Members of Congress typically hold 15–20% approval ratings but 95% re-election rates!
[Originally written as a Facebook Note on December 25, 2016]
In a democracy, politicians under the influence of money and political pedigree should become challengeable — Michael Weddle
I write this on Christmas Day: What greater gift can citizens of democracy receive other than the gift of a fair system for elections?
Is the president-elect Donald Trump a bucket of coal? You bet! Was his opponent Hillary Clinton a bucket of coal also? You bet! Most Americans would agree the 2016 presidential election was, at best, a sham — really no gift at all!
Too many voters found themselves stuck with a choice between one candidate who rigged the Democratic primary to attain the nomination, and the other a television celebrity candidate who championed hot button issues of hatred among a significant faction of Republicans in order to gain the nomination from a crowded field of 17 inept unpopular candidates.
When voting day arrived on November 8th, Trump and Clinton were each sporting high disapproval ratings. Again, no gift for voters at all!
To make matter worse, once the Democratic and Republican nominees were set, the national debates were rigged effectively shutting out the voice and hope of Green Party candidate Jill Stein (on the ballot in 48 states), and the Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson (on the ballot in 50 states).
Common sense tells us a candidate who qualified for the presidential ballot in so many states would, at a minimum, make them debateworthy.
Did America’s founders envision only a two-party system of government? A King Party and a Queen Party? I don’t think so. How many of us throughout 2016 thought: Do I want two Bushes and two Clintons in four of the past five presidencies? Thus, Trump got the lion share of anti-system votes. For better or worse, he’s gonna be our next president — Merry Christmas!
Yes, a fair election is the best gift an American can have!
Some ideas:
First, make voting easy by automatically registering everyone at age 18. Does anyone think this technology exists today, including confirmation and crosscheck capability? Of course, it does! Do it!
Second, explore all options related to how, when and where to vote. Many new ideas are now being tried. They range from early voting or absentee voting through town or city hall to voting online or expanding voting hours for congregated areas.
Third, standardize a system for voting. Do not keep a system whereby one major party donor owns the company that makes, distributes and sets up the tech to control voting machines. Or use paper ballots only.
Approval Voting:
Approval Voting is a very great idea. Our present system only shows strength only for a two-party system. Pretty much all other voices get shut out.
Approval voting concepts have been around and often used in organizations. The concept has recently been strongly advocated by Dr. Steven J. Brams, professor of politics at NYU and author of the book Mathematics and Democracy. It works as follows:
Rather than only voting for one candidate, under the present system, you vote your approval for two or more candidates. Each candidate approved of receives that vote. The candidate with the most overall votes wins the election.
Brams asserts Approval Voting eliminates the “wasted vote” effect, whereby you feel your vote won’t count if you select a third party candidate. So what happens alternatively is, wanting to make your vote count you end up reluctantly voting for one of the two major party candidates. In effect, you’re forced into the two-party, lesser of two evils system of choice and you end up not voting for your true choice candidate.
Gradually over time Approval Voting would reduce the dominance and/or reliance of the two major political parties. Your second vote, most likely for an off-party candidate, would also send an important message to the winner. A strong off-party showing would become a guideline for the winner on how better to govern policy issues.
Approval voting would also spark incentive for greater citizen participation in politics.
