My idea is multi member districts, where the top 2 or 3 people advance to congress if they have the majority of the vote in that district. I don't know if we'll feel better represented until there's a way to elect multiple people in a district and I think this would also weaken gerrymandering.
Beth mentioned how people who vote against the majority in their districts can feel like their vote doesn't count. Well, the same thing can happen for people who mostly agree with the majority. If you know your neighbors will inevitably vote to keep a district/town/state the color you moved there for - Blue or Red - why bother voting? For that matter, why pay attention to local politics at all?
The passionate of the majority party set the agenda, whether you vote with them or stay home. That's what I encountered in Seattle. Most people spoke the party line and checked the boxes the party told them to, and basically checked out of the process. Unless someone is really passionate about homelessness, or addiction, or public schools/transit, or minimum wage, or progressive taxes, they aren't going to bother to pay attention to the issue day-to-day and do the work. They just maintain the status quo, even if the status quo no longer serves them.
It's the activist whose ball cap color matches that of the dominant party who gets what they want, election after election, while the average majority voter just keeps checking the socially approved boxes.
Could more representatives help change that? Could ranked voting? I think both are worth experimenting with, but at the end of the day voters need to stay actively informed. We need to be engaged citizens, and we need to be able to discuss and debate with each other reasonably; we need to listen and learn from each other, instead of just giving in or shutting down. Because sometimes the majority party is approaching problems badly, consistently, and needs to be redirected. Maybe the dissenters votes would matter more in a monoculture if we had more representatives, more shades of Blue and Red, who could modulate the dominate party's approach.
Isn't this were AI could help? Based on data, couldn't districts be drawn in such a way that at least every voter is equally represented across all districts in a state?
I have always been a registered Independent and it happens that every state I've ever lived in has closed primaries so I've never been able to vote in one. I'd love to see rank choice voting and more representatives!
However, I also worry that adding more members will make it even harder to get legislation passed. And we'd have to pay for them all.
I'd like to know how all these committees on specific issues actually work. Is there a way to improve this existing structure and function to give them more decisive power and break apart the overall consensus rule for every single thing? As it stands now, it seems very inefficient.
I have a lot of experience working with Boards and if every single thing has to go through the full board for approval it takes forever. Adding even more board members lengthens that timeline significantly.
Also, can we please get rid of this culture of adding completely irrelevant bullshit onto a bill at the last second? If it's not directly related to the bill itself, you shouldn't be allowed to add it in to sneak a vote through or kill the whole thing.
My husband and I switched from Independent to Democrat just so we could caucus in the Washington state primary, which led us to getting involved with the local Dems for presidential and local campaigns. In Seattle, being a registered Dem was really the only way to be involved and have a voice in local politics. I imagine the same is true in Red cities.
Very helpful! And when you mention your friend’s experience locally, it reminded me of my neighborhood discovering a few years ago that the county school board member we vote for is not the school board member responsible for the schools we are zoned for. CRAZY! You would think aligning school zones and school board member districts would be easy. All this to say it’s very hard, but we can do hard things if we really want to!
Absolutely fabulous explanation with possibilities for fixing the voting debacle we're in. Too bad we don't have a congress interested in addressing the problem and they certainly lack the motivation to fix it and lose their precious seats. UGH.
Thanks to Sarah, Uncap the House is my new battle cry. I mention it at every opportunity. It will be my primary question for my House Congressional candidates. Seriously, if they don't want to discuss increasing Indiana representation, I don't want them as my representative.
My idea is multi member districts, where the top 2 or 3 people advance to congress if they have the majority of the vote in that district. I don't know if we'll feel better represented until there's a way to elect multiple people in a district and I think this would also weaken gerrymandering.
Beth mentioned how people who vote against the majority in their districts can feel like their vote doesn't count. Well, the same thing can happen for people who mostly agree with the majority. If you know your neighbors will inevitably vote to keep a district/town/state the color you moved there for - Blue or Red - why bother voting? For that matter, why pay attention to local politics at all?
The passionate of the majority party set the agenda, whether you vote with them or stay home. That's what I encountered in Seattle. Most people spoke the party line and checked the boxes the party told them to, and basically checked out of the process. Unless someone is really passionate about homelessness, or addiction, or public schools/transit, or minimum wage, or progressive taxes, they aren't going to bother to pay attention to the issue day-to-day and do the work. They just maintain the status quo, even if the status quo no longer serves them.
It's the activist whose ball cap color matches that of the dominant party who gets what they want, election after election, while the average majority voter just keeps checking the socially approved boxes.
Could more representatives help change that? Could ranked voting? I think both are worth experimenting with, but at the end of the day voters need to stay actively informed. We need to be engaged citizens, and we need to be able to discuss and debate with each other reasonably; we need to listen and learn from each other, instead of just giving in or shutting down. Because sometimes the majority party is approaching problems badly, consistently, and needs to be redirected. Maybe the dissenters votes would matter more in a monoculture if we had more representatives, more shades of Blue and Red, who could modulate the dominate party's approach.
Isn't this were AI could help? Based on data, couldn't districts be drawn in such a way that at least every voter is equally represented across all districts in a state?
I have always been a registered Independent and it happens that every state I've ever lived in has closed primaries so I've never been able to vote in one. I'd love to see rank choice voting and more representatives!
However, I also worry that adding more members will make it even harder to get legislation passed. And we'd have to pay for them all.
I'd like to know how all these committees on specific issues actually work. Is there a way to improve this existing structure and function to give them more decisive power and break apart the overall consensus rule for every single thing? As it stands now, it seems very inefficient.
I have a lot of experience working with Boards and if every single thing has to go through the full board for approval it takes forever. Adding even more board members lengthens that timeline significantly.
Also, can we please get rid of this culture of adding completely irrelevant bullshit onto a bill at the last second? If it's not directly related to the bill itself, you shouldn't be allowed to add it in to sneak a vote through or kill the whole thing.
My husband and I switched from Independent to Democrat just so we could caucus in the Washington state primary, which led us to getting involved with the local Dems for presidential and local campaigns. In Seattle, being a registered Dem was really the only way to be involved and have a voice in local politics. I imagine the same is true in Red cities.
Very helpful! And when you mention your friend’s experience locally, it reminded me of my neighborhood discovering a few years ago that the county school board member we vote for is not the school board member responsible for the schools we are zoned for. CRAZY! You would think aligning school zones and school board member districts would be easy. All this to say it’s very hard, but we can do hard things if we really want to!
Wait it's not?!?! That feels like a mistake!!!!
Thank you J, for asking this question! I was left wondering the same after the discussion of gerrymandering the other day. This was so helpful!
Absolutely fabulous explanation with possibilities for fixing the voting debacle we're in. Too bad we don't have a congress interested in addressing the problem and they certainly lack the motivation to fix it and lose their precious seats. UGH.
Thanks to Sarah, Uncap the House is my new battle cry. I mention it at every opportunity. It will be my primary question for my House Congressional candidates. Seriously, if they don't want to discuss increasing Indiana representation, I don't want them as my representative.