10 Reforms to Save and Improve American Democracy

1. Abolish the Electoral College, and elect the Presidential ticket based on majority vote. Time to scrap this outdated 18th century scheme and instead make the
practice of voting for the President fully democratic.

2. Establish statehood for the District of Columbia and full congressional representation. Washington, DC should gain full statehood including
representative(s), based on its population, and two senators.

3. Weigh Senate votes proportionally based on each states population. Based on

census data, the weight of each Senators vote needs to be based on the population he or she represents. A Wyoming Senators vote [who represents 284,079 voters*] should not be equal to their Californias counterpart [who represents 18,845,956 voters*] which is 66 times as much! 4. Limit the Senate Filibuster. Reform the process to eliminate minority rule over popular will. 5. Prohibit political advertising on broadcast and cable TV and radio. Current efforts to curb contributions are futile; However, by eliminating the greatest generator of costs this change will reduce moneys corrupting influence and also curtail the insanity of policy formulation by30 second sound bites.

6. Shorten Presidential campaigns All primaries held between June 15 and August 15th in four representative groups. Reducing the time period and
clustering all state primaries over a 60 day period will reduce costs, and end the unfair advantage that small rural states have over shaping the selection of presidential nominees. The country is divided into four geographically balanced groups of equal population, composed of a mixture of rural and urban states. 7. Make election day a National Holiday. A simple amendment to have Democracys most important day a Holiday to help ensure voter access to the polls.

8. Establish nationally standardized rules to protect voting registration, poll access, and balloting. Prohibit discriminatory voter ID laws, allow same day voter
registration and absentee voting on demand, establish controls over electronic balloting or require paper ballots. 9. Require Ranked Choice or Instant Runoff Voting [IRV]. Voters rank candidates in order of preference, and their ballots are counted as one vote for their first choice candidate. If a candidate secures a majority of votes cast, that candidate wins. Otherwise, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. A new round of counting takes place, and the process continues until two candidates remain with the winner as the one with the greatest tally. Increases the power of each voter and third party candidates, while reducing the spoiler effect and discourages negative campaigning. 10. Establish controls and periodic charter review of Corporations. End corporate personhood and allow public oversight of corporation performance, including revocation of corporate charters in cases of major corporate crimes.

* One half of the states population as of 7-1-11 as per the US Census Bureau.