Rochester Post-Bulletin former publisher: 4 steps to fair elections
Bill Boyne: Four steps to restore fair elections
Post-Bulletin, Rochester, MN
2/28/2008
Free and fair elections are the foundation of democracy, but in the United States the foundation is crumbling.
Four major steps are needed to restore that foundation and early action is required.
Special interests have taken over our government, trapping us in a costly and unnecessary war and degrading this country's standing in the world.
Here are the major changes needed:
1. We need to abolish the electoral college and choose the president based on the winner of the popular vote. Manipulation of the electoral college vote in the year 2000 resulted in the election of George W. Bush and a whole series of policy disasters that would not have occurred otherwise.
2. We should ban the use of vote machines unless they meet certain standards. They should include a reliable paper record that can be used to verify the electronic count. Without that feature, some machines are subject to manipulation that can alter the election result.
Legislation to require a paper record for vote machines has been introduced in Congress by Rep. Rush D. Holt, D-N.J., and has been backed by the citizen group Common Cause. It should be passed.
3. We should introduce Instant Runoff Voting (IRV), a method that more accurately reflects the wishes of all voters. It also saves time and money by eliminating primary elections.
It works as follows: If there are eight candidates, each voter ranks them one through eight. If no one has a majority, the votes for the eighth-ranked candidate are distributed among the other seven candidates. This process continues until a candidate receives a majority and is declared the winner. In this way all voters' choices are recognized.
The system also gets rid of the possibility that a third-party candidate can block the election of the candidate who otherwise would have a majority of the votes.
4. We should change the way the boundaries of state and national legislative districts are determined.
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