How US Presidential Elections can be Held Online and Thus Marginalize the Power of Big Money*

Imagine yourself watching a series of debates between presidential candidates on the screen of any device with an Internet connection. Two debaters, in a real debate, have one hour to show their merit. Then you watch a second one hour debate between two more candidates. 

At the end of that debate, you turn to your cell phone, or other device, and log on to your county's secure election website. After it checks your registration, a ballot appears. You can then rate each debater from 0-9, not just cast one vote for one winner. Winning would depend on the ranking total. 

In three evenings, the American electorate can sort through a dozen different candidates. Eligibility for such candidacy is proscribed in Article Two, section one of the US Constitution. The three requirements are; born a citizen, be at least 35 years of age (prior to taking office), and been a resident of the US for at least 14 years. But, one more requirement could be added as an amendment; that is, a Presidential Literacy Test. This could be administered for free to the applicants. Only those with a passing score would be allowed to run for the office.

Hearing all the ideas and arguments of those candidates would be far more of an education to the electorate than they now get from one Repub and one Dem. 

Here is how the power of the superrich will be marginalized:

The voter will focus on the performance of the debaters, and base his or her ranking on that, rather than on some tricky ad that runs for weeks all over the Internet.

Shortly after each set of debates, special interest advertising would have very little time or opportunity to interfere with the voter's decision making process. Let the corporations spend all of their shareholder's money on political commercials. Internet voting, rightly organized, can neutralize their pernicious efforts. 

The debates can be free for the candidates. Sites like C-SPAN can show the debates. We, The People, license the use of public air ways, and can require the time needed for debates from the broadcasting licensees. With that, the need among candidates for campaign contributions drops to nil. 

Only 125 years ago the horse and carriage were the primary means of transportation in the US. The horseless carriage was an object of scorn and skepticism. Eventually, however, that new technology proved irresistible, and the car became our primary mode of transportation. 

You can make the same happen with Internet voting. One day it can, and will, become our primary mode of voting. You can hasten the process of realizing this promise if you simply demand of your elected officials, local, state, and federal, that they Cyber the Vote.

Real democracy can be ours, if we only demand it!  

William J. Kelleher, Ph.D.

@InterpretivePo1

Internetvoting@gmail.com 

 

* This post is excerpted from my more detailed 2009 essay, “How to Organize the Direct Election of US Presidents in a Way Which Will Restore Reason and Eliminate Costs to the Candidates, Based on Internet Voting,” https://ssrn.com/abstract=1444147

The term “Restore Reason” refers to the original intentions that the Framers of the Constitution had for the presidential election process by electors. More on that can be found in my 2008 essay, “The Original Intentions of the Framers for US Presidential Elections,” at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1317837