The Essays of Dominic Martia
Proposal for Reforming our Electoral Process
Dominic Martia's Main Page - - Email Dominic Martia - - Inditer dot Com Index - - Inditer dot Com Main PageI have proposed legislation to my senators and representatives that would simplify elections and end forever the confusion, rancor and uncertainty that has brought ignominy to our electoral process in the 2000 presidential race.
The proposal is simple and will, I'm sure be widely endorsed by social scientists, pundits and political analysts. Prior to each election, five percent of registered voters in each state will be randomly selected. This will be the voting pool. Another five percent would be selected as a reserve. On election day the voting five percent will appear at a television studio set up to resemble a polling place. They will go through the voting procedure, as in a normal election, although the ballots will not be counted. As they step out of the booth, a trained interviewer will conduct an exit interview. The results of these interviews will be transmitted immediately to an adjacent studio where they will be announced by anchors as part of a running tally. As soon as all voting participants have been interviewed in any state the results for that state will be announced. When the results for all states have been posted, the election is over.
The advantages of the proposed system are obvious. First the expense of elections would be tremendously reduced. Campaigns could concentrate on the five percent instead of trying to reach all voters. Campaign finance reform would take care of itself. News broadcasters would get their normal sleep and not be forced to sit in front of cameras and drone on endlessly about tight races and fights to the finish. Viewers would have virtually the entire evening to watch their usual sitcoms.
Since election results would be completely scientific and rely not on millions of ballots that are subject to the effects of mutilation, miscounting and the incompetence of voters, we would avoid the kind of fiasco that followed the 2000 election. In the event of a tie in any state, which might affect the electoral tally, rather than prolong the counting process, and entangle it in litigation, we would simply repeat the voting and interviewing process using the reserve five percent. If necessary the process could be repeated nineteen times, using the entire population of registered voters, and still take only two or three days.
This proposal eliminates the problems of elections but retains all their cherished traditions. It allows citizens to vote, but it also allows the vast majority to sit out the election, consistent with recent trends. It retains the role of the media in tracking and announcing results and, most importantly, it gives appropriate emphasis to the media projections and the exit interviews on which they're based. No one can be against a proposal so simple, so logical and so timely.
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