by Midwest Mike

Created on: May 26, 2007   Last Updated: March 05, 2011

My premise: A democratic government's election process should be fair to all voters and candidates, with positions, issues and opposing viewpoints presented clearly, completely, objectively and honestly. The two-party system should not block outside candidates who are willing to serve the people. No candidate or interest group should have an unfair advantage or be permitted to misrepresent their's or another candidate's background, qualifications, experience or positions. Voters should have enough information to be able to make informed, objective decisions with their ballots.

Based on my premise, I make the following recommendations for election reform:

1. At the very beginning of a campaign, the process for selecting candidates should be open to all who would choose to run, and each candidate should begin with equal shares of the voters' attention. A series of randomly paired round-robin debates would quickly cull the field to the final 2 contenders. Once this process is completed, additional candidates (which usually only divide the moderate vote) should be barred from running.

2. I believe there should be no direct interaction between lobbyists and politicians. All lobbying should be done in the public forum. Lobbies should present their views for public consideration. Elected politicians work for the people, there should be no behind the scenes influence.

3. All campaign contributions should be split evenly among all candidates. It's the only way campaigns can be fair, and this will eliminate the need for campaign contribution limits. You'll be contributing to democracy rather than for your own personal interests. If you really believe in your candidate, you should not be threatened by this idea.

4. As a public service, all media outlets should be required to donate commercial free time/space and divide it equally among the candidates. Now this would create a campaign environment that is "fair and balanced." The amount of time/space per outlet should be based on each outlet's comparable audience size. I'd even go so far a to suggest that candidates should be required to use their time/space substantially, i.e., speeches, town halls, editorials, white papers, fact sheets. Campaign ads are blatantly manipulative.

5. Live debates should be held more frequently and all candidates should be required to attend each one. All major issues should be covered over the course of the debate season and efforts should be made to deliver substance over style, i.e., demand

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