Sen Nelson's Right On!

Sen Bill Nelson of Florida unveiled a sensible plan on the floor of the Senate today to upgrade our election processes. His plan will provide for six regional primary election days, all between March and June. Election dates will rotate between the regions every presidential year, so eventually every state will be part of the early-voting region.

The two-year presidential race we've seen this time is ridiculous by most people's standards of tolerance. There is no real advantage for a race to take such time. In fact, it disadvantages voters. Last year we should have been focusing on local races. Instead of learning about local candidates all we heard in the news were updates about presidential candidates. Many letters to editors complained about that throughout the year.

The only advantage to early caucus and primary dates is that those states receive news coverage and a little notoriety for being early. Yes, some local businesses make money as campaigns trail through their towns. That doesn't include very many towns and businesses, and those campaigns would trail through those towns regardless of when the elections were held. Results in early-voting states rarely have any bearing on the eventual outcomes of elections, so where's the real advantage to the people?

Nelson also proposed grants to states to help develop internet voting systems, as well as systems to allow everyone to vote by absentee ballot. I'm not sure I agree with that last one. There are many disabled voters, traveling business people, and members of the armed forces that cannot get to their polls on election days. I agree that these people should be allowed absentee voting.

Millions more every year, though, are simply too lazy to rise from their easy chairs to exercise their right to vote. They probably comprise 96% of those continually complaining about the government they refuse to be part of! If they're too lazy to inconvenience themselves only twice a year to vote, do you really believe they'll be willing to think through major issues and cast wise ballots? In addition, there would be a lot of wiggle room for fraud in an open absentee ballot system. It would also place considerable increased burden on local and county election workers who already work on election days for less than minimum wage.

Sen Nelson also proposes abolishing the antiquated electoral college. In his words, "The goal is simple: one person, one vote". Currently if a candidate wins the majority of citizens' votes in a state the Congressmen of that state should cast their ballots in the electoral college for that winner. Nationally, the candidate that receives the most electoral college votes is deemed the winner, even if their opponent received the majority of citizens' votes. In 2000 Al Gore won the most popular votes, but Bush received the most electoral college votes. The people's voice was overridden by the electoral college.

Congressmen are not legally bound to cast their electoral college votes according to the people's wishes. I suppose our founding fathers wanted to assure they could override citizens' choice if they had real grievances with the winning candidate. As though their voice was more important than that of the populace. Abolishing the electoral college would require legislation separate from the bulk of Nelson's proposal, as it would require a Constitutional change.

All in all, I give Sen Nelson a hearty, "Hoorah!", for taking this bull by the horns.