[alphageek31337]

I've been kicking around an idea for some time now as to reforming our electoral system. One of the major weaknesses I see, and that has been pointed out in the "Who will you vote for" poll/thread is that there really are only two major parties in America, and that, at least as far as the presidency goes, no one else even has an outside shot. Thus, election reforms in Steveland (the small post-industrial nation that exists in my head) would go as follows:

1) Voting is compulsory. No more bullshit, no more apathy. When faced with a decision like this, too many people choose not to choose, because it's the easiest way to do things. If they are forced to actually go out and vote, who knows, maybe the unwashed masses might even take the time to inform themselves a bit. When forced to choose, most people will actually want to make the best decision.

2) Soft money must go. It distorts the will of the people, because the vast majority of campaign money ends up coming from the vast minority of Americans (or even foreign companies), who, in turn, must be pleased by the candidate should he take office, in order to guarantee the continuing flow of the insane amount of money it takes to run for a high office. Which brings me to...

3) Eliminate/severely limit mass media advertising. Part of the severely prohibitive cost of running in a national election is the money spent on advertising. In lieu of 30-second sound bites that really don't do much more than either bash the other candidate or make irrational, emotional claims that have nothing to do with the candidate's stance ("I'm a person for people. I'm an American for America..."), force the candidates to do a whistle-stop tour where they have to fill more than 2 minutes worth of time, and, as such, might actually be forced to go into their stances on the issues of the day.

4) Limit the time that can be spent actively campaigning. The time limit I'm tooling around with right now is one month, though I'm quite sure that it wouldn't be long enough. This also goes to limiting the amount of money that must be spent in order to campaign for office, thereby effectively leveling the playing field between third parties, the Demicans, and the Republicrats.

These are, of course, only ideas. Not only would they never, ever, possibly be implemented (beware the advice of men in power, for they abhor company), but they are only in their infancy anyway, and shouldn't yet be implemented. Luckily, I have at my disposable a whole bunch of reasonably smart people who I hope will help me work these out to an honest-to-God viable form.

Criticism is encouraged.