Last week, we had to wait in hours-long lines and attend a two-hour presentation on Republican values before we were allowed to vote in the US primaries. I scribbled my vote for Utah’s presidential candidate on a piece of scrap paper and put it in an ice cream bucket.
The ice cream bucket where we put our votes.
The result? Only 85,797 people in Utah voted in the Republican primary. Donald Trump beat Nicki Haley by only 11,729 votes.
Compare that to 2020 when we were allowed to vote by mail: 344,852 people voted.
The reason so few people voted? This year the Republican party decided that they were going to caucus instead of vote.
There can be no doubt in my mind that caucusing should be illegal. It’s a tool used by parties to weed out some voters.
But this is The Elysian where the goal is not to talk about the problems but to come up with the solutions. So I’m putting it to you for a creative worldbuilding exercise:
How should we vote in the future?
Give me every crazy idea you can come up for the future of voting—let’s discuss them together in the comments!
I think the idea of Tuesday elections is an obscenity. I would favor weekends, and I feel that mail-in and "early voting" options should be open as well. These would increase participation.
Only slightly off-topic but relevant nonetheless: Many have lauded the notion of "ranked choice," but the bigger problem here is that the USA is a duopoly. I favor a system in which multiple parties participate: the parliamentarian ideal, with representation proportional to ideology. Notwithstanding its inherent drawbacks, it is far more "democratic," for what that might be worth. New parties can be formed and -- as we have witnessed in France and Greece -- rise to power within a few years. Such enhanced choice would bring many of the disgruntled (e.g., those who identify with the GOP but hate Trump; those who are progressive and despise Biden) to the polls, necessitating various improvements with access.
Finally, the Electoral College is an abomination. We would have FAR more people vote if we went to a direct election. Why vote for president in a deep-red state (e.g., Texas) or deep-blue state (e.g., Massachusetts), when the outcome is a fordrawn conclusion. However, if the popular vote mattered, we would have greater participation, which in turn might prompt our "shakers-and-movers" to find better ways to facilitate the process.
I can't resist starting with: we shouldn't! Representation is a lie! Every vote is an abdication! Voting is the biggest curtain they've pulled over our eyes yet!
Said with a little more nuance: we should vote on decisions, not for people. Politicians are parasitical by nature. When it's necessary for a community to send a delegation to coordinate major decisions btwn big groups (knowing these would be fewer in a freer society than we have now), they should only be compensated for travel costs (transport, lodging, food, etc), and they should return to their communities once the decisions are made. (Or they could be made remotely.)
In the meantime, local decisions that cant be made through consensus should be voted on directly by the people involved, with avenues for dissenting opinions to be heard.
I vote for telepathy lol. No, really, I'm not joking.
I come from a country with the Westminister system, so it's very different from America's. I am watching the elections in US with a bit trepidation. BTW the Westminster system is no better for my country. Malaysia actually had a political coup during the pandemic and we got saddled with a government we didn't elect due to some stupid technicality. WE managed to turn it around but I think the next election will be as fraught. Frankly, I am just waiting for our own Donald Trump moment.
Frankly, I have fallen out of love with democracy, at least, the democracy we have now. It's far too easy to manipulate people so that the popular person gets into power.
I don't want popular people to get into power. I want capable people with a string of achievements, who has walked the talk and really made real change to get into the hot seat of a country.
I don't want people who can spin, give good speeches to win.
How do we create a system that enables that? That's the question.
Until there is a system where the BEST and most capable candidates are given the spotlight and chance to rule, voting is rather useless IMHO.
From a country that often enjoys over 100% voter participation, more votes is not always a good thing. Those votes should represent legal voters, and real people. Please try again without the unspoken assumptions.
The former is straightforward. Voting day is a holiday. Registration is automatic. Mail ballots for anyone who wants one. I don’t favor compulsory voting, but making it as easy as possible ensures that anyone who wants to, can.
As for making it representative, I’d make elections use ranked choice voting. On the ballot, you select your first choice, but also your second, third…
Both parties nominate candidates that nobody wants (whether because they’re too old—or say—a convicted rapist)? That’s fine, you can vote third party without fear that you’ll be handing the election to the worst option. Naturally, the number of parties expands, and they actually get seats in government. Even when they don’t, the mainstream candidates can clearly see what factions are pulling votes and adjust their positions and attitudes for next time. The ideological diversity of the US is increased and our representatives are more representative of what we actually think and want.
All of this creates a positive loop where people feel their vote is meaningful, they engage more, and we have an even more robust democracy.
I've heard of this new invention called the computer. Some people even have their own portable computer which fits in their pocket! Each person's computer can talk to each other person's computer. Maybe there is a way to identify each person by their computer and let them cast a vote from home? It sounds a bit crazy, but I hear some people even send in their taxes from their computers, so it must be pretty secure.
I think ice cream bucket is for sure the future of voting..only after watching a video about why we should vote for the person who is going to change everything that is broken
I kinda like the idea of doing away with "voting" all together. How? Lots of small opinion polls throughout our digital lives. Then we just put all the opinion polls together into a consensus "view of the will of the people" and use that as what we act on. It's a rough thought, but it's in-line with how I'd see a post democracy world too. I.e. in the US there is overwhelming public support for reasonable gun control. With this new system we could actually enable reasonable gun control. Need more nuance on what's reasonable? Just do more opion polls. Essentially we crowdsource legislation bit by bit.
Voting isn’t the right process for humans to solve problems. It leaves our weakest link, leaders, subject to corruption. Our epistemology should start with a problem, then try to solve it as a group. In this way a direct democracy on blockchain would work.
Well, obviously, they should let just me nominate and vote instead of everyone else. One vote to rule them all! 🤣
Seriously, voter turnout would improve dramatically if the two entrenched political parties gave us someone worth voting for. Independents like me really have no voice in government. Neither party represents me. Voting is an exercise in futility for me. Almost anything would be an improvement.
By the way, here in North Carolina, when I voted in the primary, since I am unaffiliated, I just had to choose a party to vote in their primary. It took about five minutes total. Plus the two-minute walk from my house. Not that it really mattered. It was basically already decided. But it made my conscience feel slightly better.
For legislative seats where representation is most important (especially the lower house of a bicameral legislature, where experience may be less important), candidates should have to convince at least 50 people to vote for them, then the representatives be randomly selected from among those who receive at least 50 votes. This would mean that ordinary people who are respected within their communities enough to receive 50 votes could have an equal chance of governing. It would break the monopoly of parties and eliminate the corrupting influence of money in elections. The average politician who runs competitively for major elected office today almost has to be an insane psychopath, whereas the average person who could get 50 friends to vote for them on the off chance that they get selected is probably an unusually intelligent, sensible person worthy of that confidence.
If voting could change anything (in the elite's preferred and chosen status-quo), it would have been made illegal a long time ago.
As long as revolving doors, lobbyists, FED, cronyism, corporatism, insider-business, deep mingling by ADL & AIPAC, appalling federal debt, utterly sick health-system, heavy corruption in all echelons of administration, manipulation of ballot-machines, etc., etc. are rampant, the basics for a democratic voting with solid, positive results for the citizens are not given.
The only kind of vote under those conditions and in case you still want to stay in the US territory, is not to play the "game", opt out of the system by decentralization, building small, self-sustained and -responsible communities, even by secession of entire states from the sick juggernaut.
Good luck with that !! You ALREADY are being considered a domestic terrorist controlled by Putin or the CCP ...🤣🤣🤣
More fruitful would even be a final bye bye and a move to some other, more moral, sustainable and safe kind of jurisdiction.
The fans are whirring, the s*it is being piled-up, mountain ranges of it. Brace for what is to come !!
oss the country. Here in Oregon when you turn 18 and you're a citizen, you are automatically registered to vote. Ballots are mailed to your legal address. You vote, put a stamp on it, and toss it in the mail. It's virtually error-free and tamper proof. Weigh that against poor souls staniing in line to vote in machines or buckets, who can be barred by voting based on how they look or where they live. Here in Oregon you can also update your info easily online, including your party affiliation, and change it back any time. So if you want to vote for Biden in the Republican primary you can do that.
2. Get rid of the Electoral College and just tally the popular vote. The E College was created to keep populist autocrats from gaining office, and it completely failed.
3. I'm not sure if we can change or improve our current bicameral, two-party system, but perhaps ranked choices would work in some cases. And certainly if a major party endorses a treasonous felon con artist as President, and has no other platform except for theocracy, we should be able to shred that party and move on to the next viable choice.
Here’s a good starting point. A single binary vote for a particular candidate doesn’t communicate anything more than “I like him better than the other candidates.” It doesn’t communicate a voter’s passion regarding specific issues. How can we communicate passion for specific issues with votes?
Ranked choice voting online for a set period of time.
Ranked-choice vote would at the very least lessen the "lesser of two evils" dilemma that bad leaders weaponize against their own voters
I think the idea of Tuesday elections is an obscenity. I would favor weekends, and I feel that mail-in and "early voting" options should be open as well. These would increase participation.
Only slightly off-topic but relevant nonetheless: Many have lauded the notion of "ranked choice," but the bigger problem here is that the USA is a duopoly. I favor a system in which multiple parties participate: the parliamentarian ideal, with representation proportional to ideology. Notwithstanding its inherent drawbacks, it is far more "democratic," for what that might be worth. New parties can be formed and -- as we have witnessed in France and Greece -- rise to power within a few years. Such enhanced choice would bring many of the disgruntled (e.g., those who identify with the GOP but hate Trump; those who are progressive and despise Biden) to the polls, necessitating various improvements with access.
Finally, the Electoral College is an abomination. We would have FAR more people vote if we went to a direct election. Why vote for president in a deep-red state (e.g., Texas) or deep-blue state (e.g., Massachusetts), when the outcome is a fordrawn conclusion. However, if the popular vote mattered, we would have greater participation, which in turn might prompt our "shakers-and-movers" to find better ways to facilitate the process.
I can't resist starting with: we shouldn't! Representation is a lie! Every vote is an abdication! Voting is the biggest curtain they've pulled over our eyes yet!
Said with a little more nuance: we should vote on decisions, not for people. Politicians are parasitical by nature. When it's necessary for a community to send a delegation to coordinate major decisions btwn big groups (knowing these would be fewer in a freer society than we have now), they should only be compensated for travel costs (transport, lodging, food, etc), and they should return to their communities once the decisions are made. (Or they could be made remotely.)
In the meantime, local decisions that cant be made through consensus should be voted on directly by the people involved, with avenues for dissenting opinions to be heard.
That's off the top of my head!
All party caucuses.
I vote for telepathy lol. No, really, I'm not joking.
I come from a country with the Westminister system, so it's very different from America's. I am watching the elections in US with a bit trepidation. BTW the Westminster system is no better for my country. Malaysia actually had a political coup during the pandemic and we got saddled with a government we didn't elect due to some stupid technicality. WE managed to turn it around but I think the next election will be as fraught. Frankly, I am just waiting for our own Donald Trump moment.
Frankly, I have fallen out of love with democracy, at least, the democracy we have now. It's far too easy to manipulate people so that the popular person gets into power.
I don't want popular people to get into power. I want capable people with a string of achievements, who has walked the talk and really made real change to get into the hot seat of a country.
I don't want people who can spin, give good speeches to win.
How do we create a system that enables that? That's the question.
Until there is a system where the BEST and most capable candidates are given the spotlight and chance to rule, voting is rather useless IMHO.
From a country that often enjoys over 100% voter participation, more votes is not always a good thing. Those votes should represent legal voters, and real people. Please try again without the unspoken assumptions.
Mail in ballots should also be illegal.
Vote in person with an ID. Simples. If you can’t due to disability that can be proven then you can get someone to vote on your behalf.
1. Make voting easy.
2. Make voting representative.
The former is straightforward. Voting day is a holiday. Registration is automatic. Mail ballots for anyone who wants one. I don’t favor compulsory voting, but making it as easy as possible ensures that anyone who wants to, can.
As for making it representative, I’d make elections use ranked choice voting. On the ballot, you select your first choice, but also your second, third…
Both parties nominate candidates that nobody wants (whether because they’re too old—or say—a convicted rapist)? That’s fine, you can vote third party without fear that you’ll be handing the election to the worst option. Naturally, the number of parties expands, and they actually get seats in government. Even when they don’t, the mainstream candidates can clearly see what factions are pulling votes and adjust their positions and attitudes for next time. The ideological diversity of the US is increased and our representatives are more representative of what we actually think and want.
All of this creates a positive loop where people feel their vote is meaningful, they engage more, and we have an even more robust democracy.
I've heard of this new invention called the computer. Some people even have their own portable computer which fits in their pocket! Each person's computer can talk to each other person's computer. Maybe there is a way to identify each person by their computer and let them cast a vote from home? It sounds a bit crazy, but I hear some people even send in their taxes from their computers, so it must be pretty secure.
I think ice cream bucket is for sure the future of voting..only after watching a video about why we should vote for the person who is going to change everything that is broken
Quadratic voting could be used by representatives or by voters in a direct democracy fashion
I kinda like the idea of doing away with "voting" all together. How? Lots of small opinion polls throughout our digital lives. Then we just put all the opinion polls together into a consensus "view of the will of the people" and use that as what we act on. It's a rough thought, but it's in-line with how I'd see a post democracy world too. I.e. in the US there is overwhelming public support for reasonable gun control. With this new system we could actually enable reasonable gun control. Need more nuance on what's reasonable? Just do more opion polls. Essentially we crowdsource legislation bit by bit.
Voting isn’t the right process for humans to solve problems. It leaves our weakest link, leaders, subject to corruption. Our epistemology should start with a problem, then try to solve it as a group. In this way a direct democracy on blockchain would work.
Using a collective intelligence system like this
https://open.substack.com/pub/joshketry/p/direct-democracy-is-the-answer-lets?r=7oa9d&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Well, obviously, they should let just me nominate and vote instead of everyone else. One vote to rule them all! 🤣
Seriously, voter turnout would improve dramatically if the two entrenched political parties gave us someone worth voting for. Independents like me really have no voice in government. Neither party represents me. Voting is an exercise in futility for me. Almost anything would be an improvement.
By the way, here in North Carolina, when I voted in the primary, since I am unaffiliated, I just had to choose a party to vote in their primary. It took about five minutes total. Plus the two-minute walk from my house. Not that it really mattered. It was basically already decided. But it made my conscience feel slightly better.
For legislative seats where representation is most important (especially the lower house of a bicameral legislature, where experience may be less important), candidates should have to convince at least 50 people to vote for them, then the representatives be randomly selected from among those who receive at least 50 votes. This would mean that ordinary people who are respected within their communities enough to receive 50 votes could have an equal chance of governing. It would break the monopoly of parties and eliminate the corrupting influence of money in elections. The average politician who runs competitively for major elected office today almost has to be an insane psychopath, whereas the average person who could get 50 friends to vote for them on the off chance that they get selected is probably an unusually intelligent, sensible person worthy of that confidence.
{...How should we vote in the future?...}🤔🤔🤔
If voting could change anything (in the elite's preferred and chosen status-quo), it would have been made illegal a long time ago.
As long as revolving doors, lobbyists, FED, cronyism, corporatism, insider-business, deep mingling by ADL & AIPAC, appalling federal debt, utterly sick health-system, heavy corruption in all echelons of administration, manipulation of ballot-machines, etc., etc. are rampant, the basics for a democratic voting with solid, positive results for the citizens are not given.
The only kind of vote under those conditions and in case you still want to stay in the US territory, is not to play the "game", opt out of the system by decentralization, building small, self-sustained and -responsible communities, even by secession of entire states from the sick juggernaut.
Good luck with that !! You ALREADY are being considered a domestic terrorist controlled by Putin or the CCP ...🤣🤣🤣
More fruitful would even be a final bye bye and a move to some other, more moral, sustainable and safe kind of jurisdiction.
The fans are whirring, the s*it is being piled-up, mountain ranges of it. Brace for what is to come !!
They should make it even harder to vote. More votes = more people who don’t care and don’t anything deciding our leaders
1. Vote by mail should be mandatory acr
oss the country. Here in Oregon when you turn 18 and you're a citizen, you are automatically registered to vote. Ballots are mailed to your legal address. You vote, put a stamp on it, and toss it in the mail. It's virtually error-free and tamper proof. Weigh that against poor souls staniing in line to vote in machines or buckets, who can be barred by voting based on how they look or where they live. Here in Oregon you can also update your info easily online, including your party affiliation, and change it back any time. So if you want to vote for Biden in the Republican primary you can do that.
2. Get rid of the Electoral College and just tally the popular vote. The E College was created to keep populist autocrats from gaining office, and it completely failed.
3. I'm not sure if we can change or improve our current bicameral, two-party system, but perhaps ranked choices would work in some cases. And certainly if a major party endorses a treasonous felon con artist as President, and has no other platform except for theocracy, we should be able to shred that party and move on to the next viable choice.
Here’s a good starting point. A single binary vote for a particular candidate doesn’t communicate anything more than “I like him better than the other candidates.” It doesn’t communicate a voter’s passion regarding specific issues. How can we communicate passion for specific issues with votes?