Political Ponderings part two
Part Two, continued from Tuesday’s Column
(My opinions don’t necessarily reflect those of the hosts of this website, its subsidiaries or friends or family or anyone else even loosely connected with anyone who may, at one time or another, have glanced at this website! These are my opinions alone. Please don’t sue me.)
Thing Two: No more electoral college.
In this day and age, when a simple computer program can count millions upon millions of “clicks” for a specific ad on a specific website, why can’t we have a simple program to calculate votes? One legal adult gets one legal vote. It’s simple.
Each adult citizen of the United States, legal immigrants included, has a unique-to-them Social Security or Immigrant Identification Number. Enter that number in the box on a secure website, make your specific selection then tabulate those results. If McDonald’s can verify whether or not I’ve already entered a specific game piece code, and stop me from entering that code again, certainly a voting website can do so as well!
I don’t think individual votes count within the electoral college system. Since we now have the technology to count each individual vote, I say we do that.
Also, the voting website should be simple. The name should be simple, vote.com for instance. There should be an absolute minimum of graphics/pictures/images. The first page says “hello”, gives a very brief (three sentences or less) explanation of what “click the link” means and provides links to the main pages of the website (ie: list of candidates and the secure voting page). The list of candidates is exactly that, a list of names which link the websurfer to that specific candidate’s page (not a separate website, but a single page within the Vote.com website). This list of candidates can be grouped by federal, state and local governmental offices so that they’re easier to locate.
Thing Three: Campaign Spending.
Since civil service will be an unpaid position, there should be no charge for public announcements of candidacy or commercials for each candidate. Each candidate gets two thirty-second ads on television and two on radio. The first ad is aired during September. The second ad is aired during the last week of October, immediately before voting commences. If candidates want to enter debates, they are allowed to do so, but the venue must be public and free (ie: a public park).
Candidates must, of course, apply for candidacy, but anyone who meets the standard requirements is welcome. Those standard requirements would be simple and few. Each candidate must be at least thirty years old, be a citizen by birth (or an immigrant who has been granted naturalized citizen status for at least thirty years), have no criminal record (including misdemeanors) and have the skill set appropriate for the desired office (ie: if you want to be a mechanic, you have to have mechanical skills/experience).
The ads are to be a statement of the candidate’s qualifications for the office. The first time a candidate implicitly or tacitly says anything negative about another candidate, they are given a slap-on-the-wrist fine. The second time a candidate “slings mud”, they are ejected from the race. One should NEVER be voted into office based on how bad the other guy is. You don’t go to a job interview and bad mouth your previous employer, co-workers or customers; at least, not if you want the job. Instead, you state why you’re qualified for the position for which you’re applying.
Also, each candidate’s application and qualifications will be posted on the candidacy website. If a candidate wants buttons, bumper stickers or promotional items, they can go to CafePress and create those items. The candidate is then allowed to include the URL of their specific CafePress site in the links on their specific page of the candidacy website. Any profit made on those items will go into the account with all the other tax payer money, thus eliminating financial gain.
*End Part Two
Until next time…
D. S. Vic
Please include Northwest Journal in the subject line of all Email. JD_DSVic at Yahoo.com
Copyright © 2010 D. S. Vic
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