Issue 297 Electoral reform March 21, 2014

Elections are essential for a Republic like the United States. They determine our Representatives and thus determine the direction the nation is headed. But there is corruption involved which secures the two main political parties as power brokers and thus limits alternative candidates. Rather than focus on the corruption here, I would like to discuss an alternative to the current rules so that anyone can run for office without the political manipulations.

The idea: The idea is simple; create an account for each individual running for office. Yea, it is not necessarily that simple. These accounts belong to each candidate and are monitored by a body that ensures that the money comes from U.S. citizens or businesses. These accounts are given to each person running for office so that all individuals who have decided to run for office have a centralized fund that can be monitored by the public to detect unlawful use and spot for other forms of corruption. So under this system, no individual is left out of running for office unlike the current system where you have to achieve a certain popularity rating.

How it works: A similar idea is to create an account that is shared equally between both candidates to use does not sit well with me. It does not take into account that individuals giving money to a candidate is a form of the freedom of speech. So having individual accounts makes sense. Also, currently, individuals are limited to how much they can donate to a campaign (even though the loopholes favor the two main political parties). As such, that limitation would be eradicated so that people would be able to donate as much as they please (including businesses) to their candidate with one stipulation. That stipulation is that all donations are anonymous. This prevents the candidates from knowing who actually donated to their campaign which prevents future kick backs to an extent. It also prevents political backlash by the other candidates who may win and want to punish those who did not support them. So this is how it works.

Conclusion: This idea is not 100% perfect, that I know. But I also know it is at least better than our current election rules that thrive on corruption and solidify the Democrat and Republican power base. As such, I submit this idea which protects your privacy and freedom of speech to you my dear readers. Critique it as you may, I am open to all improvements.