In your opinion, what is the most urgently needed electoral reform in America today?

[Stuart98]

abolish the EC and force redistricting to be done via a computer algorithm that is as fair as possible

How do you define 'fair'? There's no objective standard you can achieve here, which makes such a reform difficult to get people on board for. People will largely agree in the abstract but far fewer will be happy with a given algorithm.

The most immediate and urgent reform--and something that would have a better shot than abolishing the EC entirely--would be to abolish electors, and award unretractable electoral points that are awarded immediately upon the state's certification--that removes any element that could go contrary to the state's vote, and something I've been in favor of as long as I've followed politics.

If we're going to have an electoral college, then sure, this is a thing that should be done, but I don't think I'd call it urgent; faithless electors have never impacted an election. Moreover, I doubt your proposed reform could happen without a constitutional amendment and at that point, why not go for broke and get rid of the thing entirely?

Outlawing gerrymandering.

It's major driver of the extreme partisanship and gridlock. If 85% or more of members have nothing to fear but a primary challenge from the right or left, that doesn't give them any reason to work with the other side, which is needed most of time in American politics. Members of swing districts tend to be more moderate and willing to make compromises, while lots of members from safe districts think obstruction is the way to go. It makes everything so dysfunctional.

How exactly do you outlaw gerrymandering? If there's legislative districts, then someone (or something, but I've yet to see a satisfactory algorithm) needs to draw them.

abolish the EC and force redistricting to be done via a computer algorithm that is as fair as possible

How would the algorithm in question work?

The algorithm on 538 for compactness whilst following county borders would be a good place to start. Obviously more requirements would need to be added on such as for minority majority districts, ensuring decent road connectivity, keeping cities and towns together where possible etc. It is definitely doable though you likely would still need some human involvement to iron out cases where the algorithm comes up with non-ideal proposals.

That wasn't algorithmic, only the "compact (using an algorithm)" districts were algorithmic. All others in the atlas of redistricting were drawn manually. The simple circle based algorithm 538 used is obviously unusable.

Make all elections nonpartisan.

I don't think this will do anything. Numerous elections across the country already are non-partisan, such as judicial elections in Wisconsin and state legislative elections in Nebraska. People still know damn well which camp the "non-partisan" candidates fall into. You can take away the political parties as institutions but the nature of our voting system means that people still sort each-other into two main ideological camps. The voting system itself needs to be changed to reduce the influence of parties, if that is your aim.

[Coolface Sock #42069]

Presidential primary reform for Republicans to make the process more fair and democratic.

[Motorcity]

Abolish the electoral college

We would never have gotten George W. Bush or Donald Trump

[Pericles]

Eliminating gerrymandering would probably have more of a positive impact than making presidential elections decided by popular vote. Even the basic step of having independent redistricting commissions decide all of the lines would empower voters and gradually reduce polarization and extremism in government. A truly transformative reform would be to have the House elected with a different electoral system, my ideal would be MMP like New Zealand has. So half the House are local electorate representatives, and the others are from the party list. This would ensure proportionality and so legitimacy more than any other system, and it would break the two party duopoly and empower the entire electorate. It would be a refreshing positive change, certainly NZ politics has moderated since we ditched FPP, and as an added bonus it would likely provide more diversity in government.

[Medal506]

I think in the National presidential primaries, there should be a run off of no candidate gets more than 50% of the popular vote. I think all primaries should have run offs.

[Frodo]

Getting rid of the electoral college would be a good start, and moving to a direct popular vote for President and Vice-President, like we have already done for our senators.  It is an anachronism that we have long outgrown as our democracy has matured over the past couple of centuries. 

[The Economy is Getting Worse]

99% of the votes should be counted by next noon.

[Progressive Pessimist]

There is way too much that needs to be done, but getting rid of the Electoral College gets rid of the kind of s*** that enables the election denial that culminated into the insurrection.

[Pres Mike]

1. Replace the electoral college with a two round popular vote system

2. Ban gerrymandering at both the federal and state level

3. Universal voter registration

4. Lower voting age to 16

5. Living wage for state legislators

6. Increase House to 600 members

[Pres Mike]

1. Replace the electoral college with a two round popular vote system

2. Ban gerrymandering at both the federal and state level

3. Universal voter registration

4. Lower voting age to 16

5. Living wage for state legislators

6. Increase House to 600 members

[defe07]

My ideas for electoral reform

1) voting rights: anybody at least 18 (or about to turn 18 before or on election day) can vote with a voter id (states must give on the spot insatnt voter ids for free)

 2) representation for non states (including dc and puerto rico): a minimum of 1 to a mximum of 2 us house seats based on the last census (states would get a minimum of 3 us house seats)

3) congress expansion: using a modified version of the wyoming rule, expand the house to its real size; the senate should guarantee 1 us senator for each non state and the current 2 per state rule.

4) electoral college reform: reform the electoral college by having a multi round system that leads to election day by having candidates compete in groups, with the best candidates qualify for the next round (electoral votes would be divided equally to the group winners)

[Mechavada]

1. Overturn Citizens United.  NOW.
2. Automatic voter registration at age 18.  Once immigrants become citizens they too will immediately have the right to vote, if they're older than 18.
3. National Voter ID Law.  Just like Del Tachi says ID Cards (I would say any ID issued by a state government/the federal government (this would include US Passports) would suffice) for folks who have not registered with the local DMV by the age of 18 should be free.  Individuals still have to be US Citizens.  Individuals can request one online if they have a portrait photo they can upload (there will be security verification of some sort).  The ID card will then be mailed  to the citizen, free of charge.
4. Replace the Electoral College with National Ranked Choice Voting.
5. Replace Super PACs, corporate dark money, billionaire meddling, and all other sorts of elite manipulation with publicly financed elections.  Money has no business in determining who rules.

[MarkD]

1. Overturn Citizens United.  NOW.
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5. Replace Super PACs, corporate dark money, billionaire meddling, and all other sorts of elite manipulation with publicly financed elections.  Money has no business in determining who rules.

Those are not electoral reforms, those are campaign finance reforms.  And you better adopt an amendment to explicitly say that the freedom of speech shall no longer have anything to do with campaign expenditures.
I'd be willing to support that.
I think we need a constitutional amendment that creates a schedule for when states and territories are allowed to hold presidential primaries; abolish caucuses; no state or territory shall hold presidential primaries before April 1; only the smallest states, and the territories, will be allowed to hold them in April; all medium-sized states will be allowed to hold them in May; require all of the largest states to wait until June.
Abolish the Electoral College.

[Electric Circus]

Abolish presidential primaries and put the state parties back in charge of how they choose their delegates.

[DS0816]

Complete move to a public campaign finance system. For years I opposed this out of fear that unsavory people would get money, but frankly nothing has been more unsavory then the influence of money in terms of distorting our politics and the will of the voters. It is far more consequential then the Senate or electoral college, which so many have raised as an issue in this thread yet the only mention I see of money is in context of limiting fundraising to within a year before the election.

Get all independent money, self-funding and donations out of politics, give a capped amount to each candidate that way everyone has an equal amount to make their case to the voters. No one can say their free speech has been impinged if everyone has equal access to the resources to get their message out.

The fact that it took one month after this topic was posted … and that this comment was posted by a forum member with a Republican avatar … says a lot about this period’s Democrats and this site’s forum members with Democratic avatars.

[defe07]

I think in the National presidential primaries, there should be a run off of no candidate gets more than 50% of the popular vote. I think all primaries should have run offs.

I would propose a multi round system when it comes to primaries and general elections.

My idea would be with 3 rounds:

- first round: 8 candidates, voters vote for 4, top 4 qualify for second round
- second round: 4 candidates, voters vote for 2, too 2 qualify for final round
- final round: 2 candidates, voters vote for 1 candidate, the candidate with the most votes wins

What do you think about my idea? 😉