#bettervoting

[encyclopideas]

143. Smarter Voting

There is a lot of debate going on regarding voting these days, and I’m not going to insert myself into the middle of it - mostly because no one will see or read this. I just think it would be useful for votes to be validated. We have to validate so much in our lives...we even have to prove that we aren’t robots before entering a website. This would require each person to answer a very basic, factual prompt about candidates before leaving the polls. Is Donald Trump a male or female? Is Bernie Sanders from California? If their answers aren’t mostly correct, how can we think they made an informed choice? I’m not talking about political views or stances on issues, just very, very basic questions to prove you are a functioning human being who knows enough about the candidates to make an educated choice - whatever that may be. 

[encyclopideas]

105. Better Voting

Regardless of where you stand politically, I think we can all agree that the recent Presidential campaign and election was shocking. One contributing factor to this unlikely outcome was voters who didn't necessarily favor either candidate, but felt obligated to vote and had to choose one by default. 

This is dangerous because the outcome an election may fail to reflect what people actually want. Not just on a Presidential level, but also in the many other races that go on every election cycle. No single person can stay informed on every race, so why should they be inclined to vote? If you include a bubble, similar to multiple choice tests, that simply says "None of the above" or "I don't know" each voter can leave feeling like they still did their civic duty, without making an uninformed decision that could affect others in an adverse way. 

Another option would be to include a brief slugline, approved by each candidate, to better describe their platform or political stance. This of course is a bit riskier because it wouldn't necessarily be accurate. Like a political campaign.

Basically let’s not feel the pressure to make a selection unless we know what that selection stands for. Like being in 8th grade and choosing “all of the above” or “none of the above” if you don’t know the answer.