Amendment 1 Deep Dive

Section 1

Section 1 defines a new way to elect our president.

First, the problems with our current system we are trying to solve:

• We only have 2 choices for president that have a chance of success.
• Most of us feel that voting for a third party candidate is a waste of our vote, so not many people are willing to do it.
• Only having two choices doesn't leave us anywhere to go if our party is not performing well. Unless we want to join the other major party, which is not likely.
• Many states are currently not competitive in presidential elections. These states don't receive as much attention from candidates or political parties, and many of their citizens' votes are not represented in the selection of the president.

How the new system works:

• The electoral college, and winner takes all for the states is eliminated. Voters vote using a range voting system, and all votes count toward deciding the president.
• Range voting is just like the system used to score The Olympics. Everyone gives each candidate a score from 0 to 9, and the candidate with the highest average wins.
• Voters can give multiple candidates the same score if they want, allowing voters to express their true opinions about candidates
• If a voter leaves a candidate blank, not assigning a number, their vote has no effect on that candidate's average. Blanks are the equivalent of "no opinion".
• If a voter wants to vote the way we do now, they just need to assign a 9 to their candidate of choice, and assign a 0 to the rest of the candidates.
• If a voter only puts a score on one candidate and leaves the rest of the spaces blank that is fine, but their vote will not be as impactful as if they filled in zero's for the rest of the candidates, since the blank spaces won't pull down other candidates' averages.
• The best outcomes for the country would most likely be if all voters honestly filled out their ballot to reflect their opinions of each candidate.
• For those interested in the math, there is an example at the end of this paper.

Why this helps fix the problem:

• We can give our favorite candidate the highest score, and also give our second favorite candidate the same or slightly lower score. In this way, third parties can grow and be counted fairly.
• How our votes are counted is not impacted by where we live, so voters of every state get to be heard.

Section 2

Section 2 mandates that range voting is also used to elect Senators for the US Senate.

Section 3

Section 3 is a major overhaul to how Representatives are elected to the House.

First the problems with our current system that we are aiming to solve:

• About half our votes are not impacting our government. If we are part of the majority in our district, then extra votes over what is needed to win have no effect, and none of the minority votes make a difference.
• We have weak, ineffective parties. They don't set clear objectives. If a party momentarily has a clear purpose it is likely because of a particular president, not the party as a whole. This leads to swinging policies depending on the current presidential candidates for the party, and frequent priority shifts.
• The political parties' most effective technique for gaining and holding power is to make voters fear the other party. Fearing or hating the other half of the population is wasting our mental energy.
• We do not have enough choice in political parties. The 2 parties are being asked to represent a huge variety of niche interests, most of which are not important to the overall operation of our country. These interests should be represented, but we should not all be forced to support so many radical views just to gain representation in our government.
• Policy swings between presidents are too large. Some change is expected when the White House changes hands, but recently the changes have been too large. Both businesses and individuals are struggling to make long term plans due to government policy changes.

How the new system works:

• First, each political party forms a list of candidates they want to become representatives. The lists are ordered sequentially. Each party chooses how their list is created. The party could conduct primary elections, have caucuses, or the leadership could pick names out of a hat.
• At the polls, voters select one party's list they wish to support.
• The percentage of votes each party receives is the percentage of representatives they get to put in the House.
• Each party fills the seats they won in the order of their list. So if a party won 23 seats, the top 23 candidates on their list would become representatives.
• Only the top 5 parties get to send representatives from their lists.
• Up to 30 days before an election, parties can choose to transfer their votes to another party if they don't make the top 5.
• For those interested in the math, there is an example at the end of this paper.

Why this helps fix the problems:

• We get more parties because voters are no longer "throwing away their vote" if they vote for a smaller party. This lets new parties slowly grow if they are doing a good job.
• Everyone's votes influence the membership of the House. We get better representation. We can also vote for a party that more closely aligns with our values, since there are more choices.
• The parties do their jobs better because there is more competition. Simply keeping your members scared is less effective when there are more choices. They have to get things done if they want to get elected. Hopefully this leads to less fear of our neighbors
• Giving the parties more control over candidate selection, will result in stronger parties. Having parties more in control of policy goals will create more stable long term objectives than having goals change with each new group of representatives.
• Although this change is focused on how representatives are elected, the broad strengthening of the parties will also help limit policy swings within the party as a whole for other elected officials.
• Limiting representatives to the five most popular parties will limit the possibility of having an overly fractured House. Having to work with other parties to get things done is ok, but being split into too many factions could make progress difficult.

Section 4

Section 4 sets universal requirements for candidates or parties to get their names on the ballot.

The problems with our current system we are trying to solve:

• The states each have their own rules for what it takes for candidates or parties to get their name on the ballot. Many times these rules have been set by the major parties to make it difficult for new parties to emerge.
• Being on the ballot in the general election is further complicated by the requirement to have primary elections.
• Primary elections force candidates to extreme positions so they are noticed.
• Primary elections reduce the power of political parties. If political parties don't pick candidates, then wealthy donors often have the most influence on primary results.
• Primary elections force another election on voters.
• In states with closed primaries it's difficult for independent voters to vote in primaries.

How the new system works:

• Candidates for president or senator must collect signed statements of support from a specified number of voters to get on the ballot for the general election.
• Parties must collect signed statements of support from a specified number of voters to get a list of representatives on the ballot.

Why this helps fix the problems:

• With uniform rules, all parties or independent candidates have the ability to put in the work, and get on the ballot.
• Allowing candidates to get on the ballot without a primary election allows parties to have control over who will represent them. We aren't forced to have standout candidates that must be extreme to make it through the primaries, although parties may choose to have some sort of primary election if they conduct it themselves.
• Because there will be more viable candidates in the general election, and primaries will be less common or not exist, we have a more simple voting process.

Section 5

Section 5 provides that presidential candidates must choose a vice presidential running mate at least 60 days before the election, and if they win, then their VP choice is the VP. There isn't a major problem with our current VP selection system, but it relies on the Electoral College. Section 5 just leaves VP selection to the candidate the same as it is today without relying on the Electoral College to confirm their choice.

Section 6

Section 6 addresses fusion voting.

Fusion voting is when a party chooses to support a candidate that is already running for office for another party or as an independent. Fusion voting has now been outlawed by the major parties in most states, although it was common before the early 1900's. This has reduced the influence of third parties, and contributed to the wasted vote mindset.

In order for a party to get on the ballot with an existing candidate the candidate must agree.

In order for a party to get on the ballot with an existing candidate they must already be running a list of representatives. This sets a certain threshold of work that needs to be done before getting on the presidential ballot line, but less work than would be needed to run their own candidate.

Fusion voting does not serve the important function it did in past US history since we are using Range voting, and getting a solid count of smaller parties' impact on the election would cause confusion with vote counting. Voters could certainly achieve the same results without fusion voting if they wanted to; however many of us use parties to organize our political thoughts and views. If a voter sees their favorite party's name next to a candidate, that gives them an extra piece of information, if they have not thoroughly researched the candidates.

Further Reading

• Rangevoting.org has lots of well thought out info on various voting systems.
• NewAmerica.org has a very in depth history and policy proposal on proportional representation. Do a general internet search for "The case for more and better parties" to find it.
• FairVote.org has an analysis of proportional representation being used in US Cities. Do a general internet search for "A brief history of proportional representation in the United States".

Range Voting Example (Presidential and Senatorial Elections)

This is what a range voting ballot might look like when voting for senators or the president. This voter left Andy blank, but ranked everyone else.

We'll start with a very simple example to show the math. We are looking at one candidate's votes received in an election with only 13 voters. We add up all the vote values, and divide by the total number of votes excluding blanks. That's the average for that candidate.

Addition of All Votes = 42

Number of Votes (Not Counting BLAnks) = 11

Average = 42 divided by 11 = 3.818

Our next example uses the same math, but with more candidates and voters.

Instead of listing out all 2392 votes for each candidate, we put the possible values (0-9 or Blank) at the top and show how many of each value the candidates received. Then the average is calculated the same way.

Angry Andy made a very strong showing, but with the help of both the Beaver and Badger parties, Moderate Mike pulled off a win.

Proportional Representation Example (Representative Elections)

At least 30 days prior to an election for representatives each party trying to get candidates elected to the House will publish a list of candidates to be representatives. For a typical election of all 435 representatives each party would have a lot of representatives on their lists. 435 to be precise. For our example we are only showing the top five candidates in each list. Let's say these are our lists:

Choose 1 Party

This is what a ballot might look like when electing representatives. As we go through the calculations, remember that voting is very easy here. Just pick your party. Very similar to what most folks do right now.

The Racoons declared before the election (30 days before as required) that if they did not make the top 5 their votes would go to the Squirrels. The Catfish declared they would transfer their votes to the Bison. No-one else declared a transfer. The results are in. Let's see what happened!

Raw Election Data

We start by checking out which parties are the top 5; These are the only parties that will get to place representatives in the House. After that, votes are transferred from parties that didn't make the top 5. In this case, the Catfish made the top 5, so their transfer doesn't happen. The Racoons didn't make it, so all of their votes will be added to the Squirrels' votes.

The results are figured up below. The top 175 candidates on the Beaver's list will be members of the House of Representatives. The top 116 candidates from the Squirrels list will get in, and so on and so forth. Essentially the percentage of votes the parties received is the percentage of reps they get in the house.