Wholesale Change is Needed in the American Electoral Process

 By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon

I am not the smartest person in the world. I have never thought I was. I did not graduate at the top of my class when I walked across the stage to receive my high school diploma. I did not graduate with the highest Latin honors when I walked across the stage on the South Lawn of UTB to receive my degree. I will never have a Washington, D.C. think tank knocking down the door offering me big money to go work for them. I'm a simple guy who just likes pouring his opinions out on the internet.

All that said, I am smart enough to know our electoral process needs a serious and immediate overhaul. As I type this out, a winner has not yet been declared in Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina. There is absolutely no reason why it should take a state, province, or commonwealth from a technologically advanced, industrialized, First World nation more than a full week after an election is over to decide who won.

There's also no reason why we should still use popular vote to decide every race with the exception of President of the United States. I make no apologies for thinking we no longer need the Electoral College. It might have been a good idea once, and with job opportunities and population distribution being what it was not wanting to give one state too much say or power over the others, maybe the idea of electors and the Electoral College was a good one, but one has to remember our government is structured on a document that is over 240 years old.

We also have to remember the Constitution once valued an African-American at three-fifths, women weren't allowed to vote, and state legislatures once selected U.S. Senators without having them popularly elected. The Second Amendment to the Constitution which allows for a well-regulated militia and their right to bear arms has opened the door for the most powerful country in the world to also be the most heavily armed country in the world. An Amendment that was written before there was electricity running through cities is still causing debate and controversy to this day. 

Times must, and always do, change.

There's no reason why the President of the United States can't be elected by a straight popular vote. If that were the case, the country would be different because this country would have had former President Gore and President Hillary Clinton would probably be well on her way to planning strategy for her second term. President Trump would have never happened. This would also save states money and the time spent focused on choosing electors and the debacle the Electoral College causes, including the "faithless elector" theory.

There's also no reason why the process itself can't be streamlined. There's no reason why each individual county in each state gets to decide how to run their elections, what method to use, whether to use optical scan ballots, punchcard ballots, machines, paper, pens, markers, pencils, or carrier pigeons. There's no reason why a national, standardized system can't be created or perfected. There's also no reason why the way we vote can't be standardized. Absentee ballots, mail-in ballots, drive-through voting, and in person voting should all be standardized. Someone casting their vote in New York should cast their vote the same way someone in Florida, Texas, and Hawaii vote. 

I am not suggesting one method over another. I do not have all the answers. I just know things need to be fixed. The United States cannot afford to be made a laughing stock of. This country is one of the only stable, functioning Constitutional Representative Republics with a single chief executive. Most other democracies have survived as parliamentary systems with prime ministers. Our government needs to be refurbished and retooled. 

Our government is the envy of the entire world, and the mere fact that it can be reworked is proof that it was built to endure.

In the coming weeks, we will be training our guns on a few more national topics including the Unitary Executive theory and the damage the Trump administration has done to the separation of powers doctrine and the system of checks and balances. We will also be talking about the Supreme Court in the same manner. I do not fancy myself a national correspondent or someone well versed in federal politics, but these are all things that are important to restoring the United States at the head of the table. 

To quote some former chief executives, we definitely need a return to normalcy, and we absolutely need to legitimately make America great again.