Election Reform

Bob Hubbard

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Election Reform

I seek the restoration of an electoral process which is controlled at the state and local level and is beyond manipulation by federal judges and bureaucrats. The federal government has unconstitutionally and unwisely preempted control in matters of district boundaries, electoral procedures, and campaign activities.

Each citizen should have the right to seek public office in accordance with the qualifications set forth in federal and state constitutions. Additional restrictions and obligations governing candidate eligibility and campaign procedures burden unconstitutionally the fairness and accountability of our political system.

To encourage free and fair elections, all candidates must be treated equally. We call for an end to designated "Major Party" status that gives an unfair advantage to some candidates by providing ballot access and taxpayer dollars, while requiring others for the same office to gather petition signatures or meet other, more stringent criteria.

We call for a repeal of all federal campaign finance laws (i.e. McCain-Feingold) due to their violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.



Electoral College

Article II, Section I of the U.S. Constitution states, in part: "Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of senators and representatives to which the state may be entitled in the Congress: but no senator or representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector." This established our Electoral College.

Although the Constitution does not require the states to adhere to any specific manner in electing these electors or how they cast their votes, it suggests, by its wording, that prominent individuals from each congressional district, and from the state at large, would be elected or appointed as electors that represent that district. Under this arrangement, a voter would vote for three individuals, one to represent his district and two "at large" representatives to represent his state. These electors, in turn, would then carefully and deliberately select the candidate for president. Under this system each congressional district could, in essence, select a different candidate. The candidate with the most electors nationwide would become the next president.

This was the general procedure used until the 1830's, at which time all the states, except for South Carolina, changed to a "general ticket."

The "general ticket" system is still in use today. Inherently, it causes corruption by the inequitable transfer of power from congressional districts to the states and large cities at the expense of rural communities.

I strongly encourage states to eliminate the "general ticket" system and return to the procedure intended by the Framers.







(Note: Text is mostly from Constitution Party platform. I've removed a few lines that I either don't agree with or understand at this time.)
 
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Bob Hubbard

Bob Hubbard

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Term Limits
I support extending Term Limits to Senators and Representatives. To many of our elected officials are out of touch with the people. This must be changed if we are to regain our government.

Term limitation will accomplish a number of positive things, but one stands out: it will improve the quality of leadership of our congressional public servants by a quantum amount, by replacing careerists whose primary motives are reelection, with citizen legislators whose motives are to serve the country. Only with citizen legislators can the Congress address all our problems from an honest perspective.
 

Bester

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So, you would return the EC to its origins?

Why not scrap it all together and go on straight popular vote? We have the technology available today to do so, why not use it?
 
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Bob Hubbard

Bob Hubbard

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The existing system is designed in such a manner that smaller communities votes don't count. By returning to the original intent a small community will have a voice again.

While I can see the eventual use discarding of the system, the economics are not there yet to truly allow for universal modernization of our election system. Small communities do not have the capital to modernize their equipment rapidly enough to allow this in the near future. In addition, many parts of the country still use paper ballots and manual counting, and there have been many concerns over the accuracy, security and reliability of the newer electronic machines.

I can see a time where all voting is done electronically over the Internet, but before we can do that, many obstacles will need to be overcome. Security and accountability are 2 of them.
 

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