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While the Electoral College could be improved, it still remains one of the
last bastions against near-total media control of the vote. Some of the
improvements might include:
- Change the constraint on voting according to the single winner of the
state elections
- Bind the electors to not being able to over-represent lessor
candidates
- So, for a state with hypothetically 10 electors, with a 70% / 30%
split on two presidential candidates, the electors could all vote for
the winner, but up to 3 could rebel and vote for the less popular
candidate without any special procedures
- Electors may discover new information about candidates, and be able
to vote internally to override the two points above, allowing
electors to form a united front against any candidate they've
discovered is pursuing treason, or premeditating violation of the
Constitution or laws governing presidential power
- Require that all electors be given a chance to grill, in person, the
presidential candidates
- This is potentially the greatest strength of a function electoral
college, being able to directly challenge individual candidates on
behalf of state's citizens
- These debates should be recorded, ideally only in textual form to
limit the impact of performative showboating in glossing over actual
issues. If televised or otherwise presented in video, the debate
should include a running side commentary on abusive debate techniques
used (straw man, etc), and fact checking
- These grillings should explicitly be structured to avoid structure,
especially banning requirements to register questions in advance
- Change the electors themselves
- While electors should desire to support presidential candidates as
described above, they should also be people who are informed about
the federal government, the dangers of corruption (if necessary with
a crash course), able to apply critical thinking, and above all, be
willing to vote against their preferred candidate if some deep
problem with that candidate is discovered
- Electors should not be otherwise involved in elections themselves, nor
be part of any government office, nor supporting staff, nor been an
elector before, nor be involved in PACs and other funding mechanisms for
office, nor ever lobbied personally, and so on as required to
establish independence. Electors should also be excluded for
business dealings with candidates, and excluded if closely related to
the candidates unless the candidates themselves are closely related
as well
- The selection process should be structure to encourage appropriate
people to be involved
This is just a brain dump, not a solid document, but d*mmit, something
needs to be changed.
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