Election Improvements

Update Jan. 12, 2018. Bloomberg News also sees the need for psychological checkups.

It’s important that citizens vote. It’s essential that they have the right information to base their choices on.

Voting with information — Important to vote, but
with necessary information

Presidential Candidate Requirements

Some thoughts about presidential elections to ensure we have adequate information to make informed selections.

People need relevant information in order to sensibly evaluate candidates. For instance, all candidates must release:

Results of a current physical exam by an objective physician. Only major impediments to the strenuousness of the duties
Results of a current psychological exam by an objective physician. Only major problems in decision-making capability
Income tax returns for previous five years

House Seats

All House seats should be at-large elections across a state. This change is mainly intended to limit the power of gerrymandering. As a side benefit, if an issue has broad support spread across the state, its advocates would have a better opportunity to bring it to the fore and occasionally elect a candidate who supports their views.

If the candidate wants to focus on a particular area of the state like the current congressional districts—ignoring the rest—that’s a choice they could make.

Electoral College

Instead of scrapping the Electoral College, which would be a major challenge because it’s directly in the Constitution, each state could decide to proportion their electoral votes to align with that state’s popular vote.

That would remove the intense focus on a small number of battleground states and their particular issues. More states and more issues would receive national attention.