Ideas to Make the Elections Better

Let's admit it... The Presidential Election took us all by surprise. A lot of us thought Hillary was going to win, and I'm sure there were Trump supporters who assumed the same. But in the end, while it was a close call in the popular votes, he clearly won in the electoral votes.

What does this mean, though? How can she win by one category and he wins in another, yet he is declared the winner? Isn't that like saying she baked a ribbon-winning cherry pie, and he baked a ribbon-winning apple pie, but even though both of them baked pies that won, he's somehow more of a winner than her???

A lot of us aren't exactly sure how this election thing works, and I think that's part of the reason why we ended up in this situation. It's kind of like one of those situations where you order cable television service, but when the bill comes, you find out they've added registration fees, equipment fees, installation and setup fees... and then if you can't pay the bill, you have late fees, re-installation fees... There's so many underlying issues that end up making it a lot more complicated than it should be, just like with the elections

There has GOT to be an easier way to do this, right? How can we fix our election system so that who we vote for is the actual person who wins? Or what are other ideas we can come up with to make the system more simple and less twisted? Here are some suggestions.

A Third Party

For starters, a 3rd candidate would help. A lot of us aren't into this "left/right" "this or that" situation, and I think one of the biggest mistakes we made was with the "other" option. A lot of us didn't like either candidate in this election, but instead of making a choice with the two most popular candidates and choosing who they thought would be the lesser of two evils, they marked "other" and chose people like Harambre, Justin Bieber, or Selena Gomez. They pretty much threw their vote away. If that "other" option had been assigned to someone, we might be looking at a different president right now.

Ranked Voting

I think a ranked voting system would pair well with a third candidate. But even if a third candidate was not an option, ranked voting is still one of my favorite options. If we could rank our choices, it would mean we would be putting in order who we like the most, who we could tolerate if we had to, and then who we liked the least. Then maybe at least one of our top choices would be elected.

Same-Day Registration

Another choice could be same-day registration for all states. A lot of people are being told to go out and vote, but what they're NOT being told is that they have to register in advance. Apparently only about half of the United States voted this year, but I heard about so many people that wanted to vote and were turned away when they were told they hadn't registered far enough ahead of time. I wonder how much different that number would be had everyone that wanted to vote been allowed to vote? Same-day registration would make elections more accessible.

Automatic Registration

Another alternative to having to register in advance is just to not have to register at all, if eligible citizens could be automatically enrolled as voters. A lot of people wait until the last minute to do things, so if they were already registered to vote, it would ensure a much higher turnout on voting day.

Mandatory Voting

The most effective way to ensure that voters do their "patriotic duty" is by requiring them to vote, or else receive a penalization. There are so many other things that we are required to do, such as renewing our driver's licences, attend jury duty when summoned, register to own a gun, and now we're even required to have some kind of medical insurance, or else we get a penalty during tax season. Why not be required to vote as well? After all, voting is something that impacts our country on a huge scale.

Weekend Elections

Something else that might draw in the crowd on a larger scale would be weekend elections. Most of the working class works on the weekdays, freeing up their weekends to take care of anything else that needs to be done, including voting. It may be a federal occurrence, but it's an event based on the people, and should therefore suit the people's convenience, not the officials'.

A Federal "Holiday"

If the weekend isn't a good time for voting, then why not make voting day be a federal paid holiday so that everyone can be off of work to head to the polls? After all, it's not always a fast process, and waiting lines mean inconvenience, and having to set aside time, possibly losing out on income they could be earning at their job, had they not taken off work early to go vote.

Some of these may not be the best options, but I think they're pretty good choices, and they would certainly help things. Do you have any ideas to add to this? If so, leave a comment and share your opinions!