Election Erection Suggestion: Allowing voters to decide which candidates are allowed to be on the election ballot. If we want to eliminate the role of third-party intermediaries we must also eliminate the ability of candidates to remain on the ballot for an election after losing a Party Nomination contest. One of the ways in which this could be done is to have a "non-transferable" portion of a candidate's party registration automatically transferred to their spouse or to other adults dependent upon them. It should be clear that the mere fact that it was transferred to someone who will or has voted in a Party Nomination contest, does not eliminate the need for that automatic transfer to occur. With that one simple change, it would only be necessary for a political party to hold an election contest before being allowed to run in another election. If a political party is unwilling to have an election contest for any reason whatsoever, they will not be able to run in that election. A variation on this suggestion is for political parties to have each precinct/district conduct a separate party registration vote. As discussed above, this will eliminate much of the work that goes into conducting the election by providing the candidate in question with the information from each registration voter they need to know in order to decide whether to file the requisite paperwork to be included on the ballot. The above described proposal would allow voters to have a direct impact on candidate selection at all levels of government, including federal, state, and local. It will eliminate the need for third parties to choose between nominating "extreme" candidates and not being included in the next election. And, like a variety of other election reforms, it would reduce the number of elections needed for a candidate to be elected. The combination of these two effects would greatly reduce the time between general elections and result in more timely elections that have a better chance of success because the voters are selecting actual candidates instead of just choosing to have a new one imposed upon them at some future date. Allowing the Voters to Decide Who May Serve as Candidates If you were to sit in a college classroom with political science students trying to explain the United States Constitution, and the topic turned to what was meant by the "natural born citizen" requirements to serve as President of the United States, I expect that most of the students would be confused and would say something like, "I have no idea," or "that's too confusing." The current way we elect people to serve as Presidents and Vice Presidents allows people to be eligible if they have a piece of paper saying that they were born in a particular state, and which citizen has been declared that person's parent or parents. However, the way in which we currently hold the election, it would be completely impossible for voters to know that the person they are electing has the proper qualifications to actually serve as president or vice president. They may indeed be qualified to serve but nobody could know that for sure. In order to eliminate this confusion, it should be possible to ask any voter, before voting for any particular candidate, the following question: "Do you have any information indicating that the person you are voting for is a) a U.S. citizen; b) a resident of your state; and c) would be qualified to serve as President of the United States if elected?" To the extent that voters have no idea about any of those things, they should not be allowed to vote. We are eliminating that confusion by making it possible for voters to take the following actions: a) Only voters who know that the candidate they are voting for is actually qualified to serve as President of the United States, should be allowed to vote. For this to occur, candidates would have to be asked whether they are eligible, qualified, and otherwise eligible for election as President. For the candidate who wants to serve as President, this is equivalent to "proving to the satisfaction of the electoral body (or electorate) that he or she is a member in good standing in a qualified political party and is otherwise eligible to be a candidate." It is the responsibility of the candidate to provide the political body with that information. b) It should not be possible to run for President unless the candidate has the information described above and also submits all of the information required by the electoral body for that office. c) The electoral body should be required to disclose this information to all voters. They should have the ability to access that information in one place so that all voters can see the same information. The same information should also be made available on-line. I don't believe that it should be possible to run for President without this information. If it is decided that that information is indeed required, then it must be possible to access that information and it must be publicly available, both before and after a candidate's nomination or election. d) This information should be made available in such a way that nobody can make use of it to "game the system." The candidate who is running for President should have no reason to suppress that information. Similarly, the electoral body that has submitted the candidate to the election should not have any reason to prevent other candidates from using that information against them, and no reason to prevent third parties from making use of that information, regardless of how hard they might try. e) It should not be possible for any state to elect as President a person who does not meet all of the requirements of the office that has been publicly disclosed. The first candidate who would be eligible to serve as President under the above mentioned requirement would have to serve for two terms to accomplish this. After two terms as president, that person would no longer be eligible to run for that office. f) It should not be possible for candidates to change their registration until after the primary election. This will eliminate one of the ways that states can make it easier for people to run for office. This, however, would have to be the case since the registration for an office that requires an elector to be a "natural born citizen" can not include any information that indicates that person is ineligible to serve as President of the United States. The information for a candidate would have to be the same as the information that would be used to support an electoral college decision to elect that person to that office. After the primary, the person could change their registration to the party that is going to nominate them for President, just as they now can change their party registration at any time before the primary election is held. But, in order to change their registration, they would have to first provide that information that would be used to determine their eligibility for the office they are trying to win. Voters should be encouraged to be vigilant about the information that is available for any particular candidate. To assist voters in that endeavor, all candidates should be given credit for providing voters with information about their eligibility. This should be considered a service to all voters who wish to cast informed ballots, especially those who have legitimate doubts about the information provided by a candidate. For example, any candidate who is not a natural born citizen, or who is not qualified for any other reasons to serve as President or Vice President, should be given a score of zero when they are listed in an election of "President/Vice President - Candidates." If a candidate becomes a naturalized citizen after being nominated, that fact should not be considered when determining the "Candidate Eligibility Score." It should also be acceptable for the electoral body to require all nominees to present evidence that they have met all eligibility requirements before the election. If it is accepted that some candidates could be disqualified from being elected, then they must not be included on the ballot. There is no question that there is a high level of uncertainty as to which candidate is eligible. As the Presidential Election of 2000 demonstrated, there is no way to be certain about a candidate's eligibility. This is especially true for presidential candidates, which are not subject to the same election processes as are used to select candidates for all the lower offices. It is possible that someone could decide to run for the office of President who is not qualified to do so. But the only way that it would be possible for anyone to be qualified for President would be to require them to be able to prove that they met all of the conditions described above. In practice, this will be the only way that anyone would be able to prove that they were eligible to serve as President and would preclude the ability of someone who was found to be ineligible to nominate themselves in order to ensure that an eligible candidate was not nominated. In other words, there would not be a valid reason to allow a candidate who is not eligible to serve as President to be nominated. Conclusion To summarize: It should be possible for voters to vote for any candidate regardless of that person's party affiliation. Voting for a person regardless of their party affiliation does not give that person any right to participate in or control the selection process. Voting for a person will increase the opportunities for a candidate to seek office, increase the diversity of views and viewpoints and opinions represented in a political party, and increase the pool of candidates and ideas from which the electoral bodies can select the candidates that will run. In order to receive votes, candidates must demonstrate that they have met all of the qualifications required to be on the ballot. The electoral bodies should be required to publicly disclose this information so that voters have a chance to look at all of the information that would be considered to determine a candidate's eligibility. Those who have gathered or received political party identification cards should not be allowed to change their registered party identification until after the primary election, if they are going to run in the general election. After the