One Person, One Vote

If the 2000 presidential election and the current primary season has taught us anything, it is that our current presidential election system is antequated, anachronistic, and broken: laws are enforced that stipulate the rights of certain states to hold their contests before others; each citizen gets only one day to cast their ballot, regardless of work or family commitments; the lobbying for digital voting machines threatens to wipe out the paper trail, and thus the ability to ensure a proper election; and come November, the next President of the United States will not be chosen by the people, but rather by the Electoral College.

Enter Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL). Caught up in the current Florida primary debacle within the Democratic Party, Sen. Nelson recognizes the serious problems and flaws within our current election system, and has come out with a plan for reform (read through his proposals here). I say that it's about time someone put some serious political capital behind this issue.

First and foremost, the Electoral College needs to be abolished. One person, one vote is the fairest system. And since this reform will require a constitutional amendment, it will be extremely difficuly to acquire. Getting the House of Representatives and the Senate to agree on a piece of legislation is no easy task, but getting two-thirds of the states to agree as well is like getting water to travel uphill. But major election reforms and amendments are not unprecedented: when the constitution was first framed, it stipulated that senators were to be selected by their repective state legislatures, not the people, and it took the 17th Amendment in 1913 to change that statute. Sen. Nelson's proposals on rotating primaries, expanded voting windows, and touch-screen voting machines are all practical, mostly refreshing ideas on an unsexy issue groaning from the weight of controversy and bordem.

It is true that when the framers formed the constitution, they didn't want the people deciding the highest ranking government officials. The framers didn't trust the people. In fact, they were downright afraid of them. But there is nothing stopping the average person today from educating themselves about the issues, and so it is time to overhaul the system, and to give the final power still withheld after almost 228 years: one person, one vote, for all elected positions.

"Democracy is the worst form of government...except for all those others that have been tried."

-Winston Churchill