Dreaming of a Chaos-Free 2024 Election……
It is the year 2023. The primaries are set to begin.
Donald Trump has exited the Republican Party after multiple years of battling politicians, Fox News, and even some of his own Republican supporters through his own television network that’s a rebranding of the OANN Network. He’s about to start his own political party known as the MAGA Party. The Republican Party is still very unsure on where to go next in the midst of the battling, but a few presidential hopefuls nonetheless rise up to the challenge. Ron DeSantis, after losing the 2022 Midterm Elections in Florida, has decided to take the next step. Close behind are Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and John Kasich. Matt Gaetz considered it except people keep calling him Rick Gates. Donald Trump Jr. and Mike Pence have joined Donald Trump on the new party. Back to them later.
The Democrats have seen a mostly-peaceful shift from a recently-retired Joe Biden to Kamala Harris. There is still much work to be done cleaning up the shenanigans from the last administration. But the inner-party turmoil continues. Led by The Squad, we see a few of their supporting hopefuls like Julian Castro, Stacey Abrams and Andrew Gillum consider a run, to go up against a resurgent Pete Buttigeg, controversial Andrew Cuomo, the reliable Cory Booker---and the incumbent Kamala Harris who automatically gets a spot to the main election ballot. But there will nonetheless be opportunities for others. There were rumors of a party split, but recently-retired skeleton Bernie Sanders persists for the Democrats to stay united even if they are idealistically divided.
Andrew Yang has created his very own party, the Worker’s Party, with support from other entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos, Tom Steyer, and Howard Schultz. The Libertarian Party has decided to back Gary Johnson once again. Over at the Green Party, they managed to convince Amy Klobuchar to join as their leading candidate. Now, you might be wondering why all these smaller political parties are feeling more energized and why Trump and Yang decided to form their own parties instead of joining the major ones.
Because this is the very first election being done without the dreaded Electoral College.
The Electoral College after a brutal two-year battle has finally been eliminated by a plethora of close votes in Washington D.C.. Now, the election is ultimately decided by a mixture of the popular vote and ranked voting, and with the new state of District of Columbia and the decision to also count the votes of all U.S. territories, there’s even more votes available to count. All the presidential candidates on the ballot must all be ranked but more on that later.
The Primaries however have expanded in scope because the Democrats and the Republicans will be ultimately submitting not one but three candidates to the main ballot. And, if either party refuses to send in multiple options, then the slots will be empty and available for ANY candidate from said party to snatch up and be placed on the final ballot. So, if the Republicans want to back one horse, then they’ll end up potentially leaving space open for a dissident Republican battling them.
Then, to finish up the final list of eligible candidates, the four most popular third-party candidates will also be on the ballot. Best of all, this is the first election season in which the smaller parties will be allowed to debate on the main stage alongside the Democrats and Republicans. So it won’t just be two major candidates and a bunch of people you heard nothing from on the ballot, everyone on Election Day will have had their moment on the spotlight.
New requirements to be allowed to run for president includes a mental test, a physical test, and a small civics exam on how the American government functions. All three must be passed and approved by courts and medical professionals in order to continue. This is to prevent unhealthy and mentally unfit candidates to ever be able to run again. So of course, Donald Trump flunks this exam and is unable to run. Donald Trump Jr. also fails…he knows nothing about ethics. Even Rick Gates flunked. Mike Pence surprisingly passes, with his years of clean-up duties as Vice making him more experienced. Mike Pence becomes the new presidential hopeful representing the MAGA party. Despite their failings, the Trumps and Gates tours the entire country in a giant, tiring rally-laden schedule to drum up support for MAGA.
All the hopefuls have carved out their paths to trying to drum up the most votes. Andrew Cuomo’s first goal is to try to win over New Yorkers and Long Islanders, as they are the heartbeat of the United States. They aren’t feeling it. Julian Castro tours the Southwest, from Texas through Arizona to encourage the Latinos in the area to back him. He also makes his way through Nevada. Pete Buttigeg is traveling the Midwest in search of Democrats and leaning Democrats in former “Red” states (there are no blue/red states after the destruction of the Electoral College). Cory Booker goes up the entire Atlantic coast, from Puerto Rico to Miami all the way to the northern part of New Jersey. Lastly, Andrew Gillum takes the tough task of earning Floridians and Californians which are currently pro-Kamala.
On the Republican side, Marco Rubio’s road trip starts in Puerto Rico, and he moves west through the South and makes his way to Texas, where he hopes to gain the biggest percentage of Republicans to vote for him in the primaries. Ron DeSantis got chased out of Florida, but makes his way through the Appalachian states and into the Midwest in search of those who supported his Coronavirus tactics. John Kasich starts in his home state, and travels eastward all the way up to Maine to present his less-aggressive approach to politics. Diamond and Silk and Candace Owens attempt to make a push but they quickly learned that they are only enjoyed from a distance on social media and not an inch closer.
Andrew Yang tours the Midwest and makes his way all the way to Silicon Valley to drum up support of his new party and perhaps even entice some rich donors. The Green Party begins in Seattle and makes its way along the Canadian border to Minnesota to sneak in some support from farmers and landowners who have seen the environmental changes occurring. Mike Pence focuses on the West Coast, as there are five to six million Republicans on the California/Oregon border that before had zero chances of having their voices heard thanks to the terribly dated Electoral College system.
The Primary Debate schedules have been set. There are five debates from three major sections of the competing candidates that occurs before next year’s Primaries Weekend, which is the one weekend in which every state and territory selects their choices. No more individual states or groups of states on select nights, just like the main election it all boils down to one set finalized date and all the votes will be combined—no more random rules on caucuses depending on region. The process has to be streamlined better; this is the new millennium. So we don’t start in Iowa, we start -everywhere- simultaneously.
Helping make this a good process is that there is an entire section of the White House solely dedicated to the election process, which has a full-time cast of employees tasked with improving and maintaining the electoral process. Whether its midterms, main elections, primaries, or even on non-election years voters allowed to grade the performances of all branches of government, there will be elections every single year in every state, city, and even county; and the Biden Administration will greatly expand the funding of the election process. This increased funding ensures the absolute minimum in voter fraud, voting confusion, and also will finance the processes that would make it easier to register to vote, to register your party, and to vote whenever the time comes.
But first, the primary debates.
After over a week of waiting for all the votes to be counted and without any confirmations, the news media finally starts receiving and displaying the results. The three candidates from each party with the most votes represent their party---with the four-leading third-party/independent candidates on their own primaries heading to the next round.
Representing the Democrats are: Kamala Harris, Julian Castro, and Pete Buttigeg. Representing the Republicans are: Marco Rubio, John Kasich, and Ron DeSantis. Then rounding out the ballot is: Amy Klobuchar, Mike Pence, Gary Johnson, and Andrew Yang. So these will be the ten main candidates to run for the presidency.
Everyone campaigns all over the country. No more swing states, no more red states, no more blue states; the search for new votes and extra votes has expanded to include every corner of the country, even Guam, even Puerto Rico. Because we are relying strictly on who has the highest percentage of votes, you even have to court voters that will not consider you as their top option. Republican candidates will have to approach Democratic voters to try to appeal and ensure they’re at least considered a top 3 option in the field of 10. Democrats like Kamala Harris are going to have to enter places in Texas and Northern California, where there are millions of Republicans but potentially willing to consider them as a top-tier choice after their Republican preference(s).
So Kalama is going to start her tour by trying to court all of the West Coast, including Alaska, and make her way through the Canadian border until reaching Obama’s Illinois. Dona—er, Mike Pence is going to primarily and strictly focus on the center core of the country, where his MAGA party will have the most support---but also has eyes for Pete Buttigeg. Marco Rubio is going to run through the entire U.S./Mexico border in search of Mexican, Cuban, Central American immigrants willing to consider switching to the Republican Party; while Julian Castro pursues the same path. Cory Booker is going to rely on his Atlantic Coast connections, similar to Ron DeSantis who is trying to win back Floridians.
They will spend the next few months collecting funds, campaigning, rallying, and preparing for the debates starting in September. The news networks are going to love this, because instead of three major debates before the main election itself, we will see eleven debates spread out over two months and five weeks. Labor Day will be opening night of the debates, which features the three candidates leading in the average polls conducted by the major networks and newspapers. But we will get three straight days of debates, splitting the candidates into different categories throughout the debate weeks so we never have too many participants on the same stage---until the finale. This not only makes it for stronger ratings, but gives ALL candidates multiple opportunities to have their voices heard without having to keep an eye on the clock. Those in the lead will speak, but so will those trailing shortly after.
Every debate will also feature multiple fact checkers that will furiously research the declarations, takes, opinions, and ideas being made by the candidates, and an accuracy rating will be broadcasted to each candidate before they give out their closing statements. We must have stronger accountability so that we can limit disinformation being fed to the audience and voters researching online. An extra element; Biden Administration will also pass a proposal administering fines over inaccurate news and factoids being spread by websites and television networks. Part of the Election Branch in government are official fact-checkers that will be tasked to making sure they can uncover fake news and fake facts coming from the media, whether its CNN, Fox News, OANN, and even smaller sites like Buzzfeed or New York Post.
As we approach the final days, October 1st becomes the first day where mail-in ballots are shipped, online ballots are e-mailed, sample ballots are distributed to every American over the age of 18 nationwide. As an effort for the electing process to become more streamlined and nationally consistent, the entire month of October is early voting for every state and territory. Across the board, from October 1st to Halloween Night, every day (including weekends) is an open window for people to cast their votes early if they want to. If they are still unsure, October still has a few more debates lined up for people to watch. But as we approach the final debates and the final days to vote, the vote-counting has already begun, with the counts remaining secret and extremely hidden until the LAST day to vote.
The final debate will feature all 10 candidates, and will last over three hours, and will have the strictest rules to ensure minimal chaos as the debate progresses. This is the final opportunity for the candidates, big and small, to reach a widespread audience. Let’s be honest, the Democrats and Republicans will travel far more than the smaller candidates like Andrew Yang or Gary Johnson. So we need this final debate to give them their spotlight so their ideas can make it to the deepest, least-approachable corners of the country like a Fairbanks, Alaska, or a Portland, Maine. The plethora of debates evens the field considerably for the smaller parties to make their presence known.
Along with each ballot sample or real are the new directions for choosing the next leader: ranked voting. Since every vote is going to count and will not be split by state in ridiculous winner-take-all methods, the winner of the election is the one with the most first-place votes as long as it can reach 55% majority; otherwise additional steps have to be taken---more on that part later.
Each voter will be tasked with ranking at least seven of the ten candidates, that way there’s nobody strictly voting for their political party and nobody else. Also, this entices for the voters to learn more about other candidates, including the independent parties like the Green Party or the Worker’s Party. The ultimate goal of this new election process is for there to be a multitude of options, opinions, stances, and ideas and plans for how the country should function. It does not have to be strictly being liberal or conservative, we have to expand the scope of ideas. This is why we’ll see many more debates before Election Week, because there are many ideas, and we need for Americans to be well-informed of the variety.
Election Week, not Election Day, is the final opportunity for Americans to vote. From the first Sunday of the month through that week’s Friday, those are the final days for you to register your vote, submit your vote, mail your vote, or vote in your assigned location. Election Day, the last day, is on the Friday---and it’s a federal holiday to give a final giant shot for everyone to have the day off and available time to place their vote. Voting will not be required as like other countries, but we have to give as many opportunities as possible for everyone to vote. With expanded federal funding, more employees than ever before, and the ability to count early, the results can start pouring in with certainty on that weekend.
Under the ranked voting, if nobody reaches 55%, then the candidate with the least amount of first-place votes with be eliminated, and their second-place choices will be added to the overall total of the remaining nine candidates. This procedure continues until a candidate secures 55% of the vote from first-place and second-place votes of eliminated candidates. Once every count is tallied, then we can start doing the mathematics to see who the next president is going to be---or if Kamala Harris is going to stay.
The winner is going to be---
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---truthfully, I’m not predicting the results, I’m actually presenting a random scenario in which we have a better, stronger, less biased method of picking our next president. Under this scenario, gone is the Electoral College, gone is the winner-take-all system, and we’ll see reductions in good but eliminated candidates, reduction in angry and spiteful advertisements since candidates are ranked, we can reduce the separation that comes with the concept of blue/red/swing states, and we’ll see an increase in ideas and an increase in opportunities for candidates with small money but big ideas to make a presence on the main stage. With nearly a dozen choices, the two-party system’s power will be significantly reduced, and we can get rid of all the stupid entanglements that comes with certifying results, selecting electors, and all the nonsense we’ve seen from the 2016 and 2020 elections. Bernie Sanders and a Native American leader won electoral votes off of Hillary Clinton for crying out loud—and they weren’t even running in the main election.
Regardless of who you voted for in 2016, or in 2020, its impossible to deny that our process in choosing presidents is extremely broken. In my dream scenario, more candidates, streamlined process on the Primaries, more organized and consistent voting procedures, and most importantly no Electoral College----its time for it to be one person = one vote, and even their second and third picks being considered to ensure that the person with the most top-tier ballot support truly wins, as opposed to states and land picking a president. Its time for third-parties to have more weight, for the idea of creating your own political party to not be such a longshot, and even if you don’t win your ideas are presented for eventual winners to consider.
It is time to change the process. Start with killing the College, and ultimately opening the door for more ideas. That way, we’re not stuck with choosing between old person needed cooperation to win the primaries, and a second old person who has set the country back generations. We can’t have that again. Hopefully, we learn this lesson moving forward.
