Election Season Should Be One Day
We could select a president in one day, and we should work towards shortening the decision process.
Yes, a single 24 hours is enough time to hear from candidates, research, and decide.
I’ll give you the reasons first.
Elections are costly
Our last election cycle cost us 14.4 billion, and for what? So we could witness a bunch of career lawmakers and washed out geriatrics fight on CNN and MSNBC every other week? What a worthless use of capital.
Elections make corporations richer. In 2016, cable news networks brought in 2.5 billion from their election coverage alone. They may act like they hate Trump, but their pocketbooks tell a different tale.
People are busy and distracted
We don’t care.
Political apathy is growing more and more in the United States. In presidential years, only 55% of Americans vote. On off years? 22%.
Most humans do not care about elections, nor do they pay attention.
The endless cycle of elections is dividing us more.
As of 2020, 30% of individuals identified as Democrats, 29% as Republicans, and 39% as moderate or independent. We have an even split between the left and right parties and most people not wanting any part of either.
We’re not good at this
Voters don’t act in their best interests.
Democracy is causing problems in society and government because people aren’t smart enough to make smart decisions.
Bruce Y. Lee argues when humans are “overwhelmed by the choices and complexities, [we] focus on superficial qualities,” like clothing, manner of speech, or the bronze of one’s skin. Faced with over twenty candidates on a stage, our minds face analysis paralysis and we freeze. We revert to making choices the easy way: by things that are obvious to the eye but don’t matter.
The single day election cycle
Having a short election cycle won’t be easy, yet it will be elegant.
Campaigning is a waste of time perpetuated by corporate greed, lobbyists, and oligarchs.
Ban campaigning.
“Heidi, but how do I get to know my candidates?”
Simple.
Ballot day should be a national holiday.
Let’s use presidential decisions as the example.
Say you have 10 candidates running for a position.
They each have 10 minutes of video time to make their case. They may point people to their website or other materials. You have a day to research.
How will we narrow the field? What if 100 people decide to run?
One idea: random lottery should choose the candidates one week before Election Day.
Throw our social security numbers in a bucket and shoot out a president.
It should be like jury duty.
Someone who wants to be a politician is not someone you want.
Alright, you think I’m insane by now. You’re not wrong.
Why should we view campaign ads for years, though?
Campaign lengths are increasing. Election cycles start two years before anyone votes.
Politicians are supposed to be doing actual work while they’re gallivanting around campaigning. They’re too busy raising money and winning over voters to do their job!
How about a week or a month?
Elections are not even producing significant results. The results are dismal, in fact.
How do we save democracy? By making voting efficient, cheap, and accessible to anyone.
Okay, maybe a day is wildly impractical.
We need more ideas, and thinking about how to make elections work for everyone is a worthwhile exercise.
I challenge everyone to consider one radical way to change elections and post on your favorite social media channel, tell a friend, write something, or even work to change things if you’re motivated.
If we all considered the lunacy we allow to happen and meditate on ways to fix our democratic process, then we’ll end up with more solutions than problems.