A Better Way to Vote

In each election cycle there are several proposals put forward to improve our voting system. Although most of them, if instituted, would provide for a more representative election, none of them addresses the major failure in our electoral process.

The most common proposed alteration of our electoral system is the direct popular election. Unfortunately, that proposition, if enacted, will not necessarily put a candidate in office who is the most preferred by the electorate.

Given a choice of candidates, some voters will vote for one of the candidates because they believe that that candidate is better than the others. That appears to be a straight-forward, direct selection.

Yet many voters opt for one candidate over the others because he is the "least of evils". Although this type of choice is direct, it is not straight-forward. The voter would rather not have any of the candidates, but he is limited to voting "for" only one candidate on the ballot. When, as in this year's presidential election, there may be several candidates, the voting choices become more complex, especially for those that dislike some or all of the candidates. Should the elector vote for a third candidate to demonstrate his dislike of the other two candidates? Would that be a "wasted vote" or would his vote negate a vote for a secondarily, but acceptable, candidate?

What, then, If the voter doesn't want any of the candidates. This does happen in our current electoral situation. I know of several registered voters who would not vote in some campaigns where they did not like any of the candidates. Perhaps this is why we have a generally lower turnout for voting than many other countries, the voters just prefer not to vote rather than vote for any of the ballot candidates. Truly wasted votes.

Another oft mentioned proposal is for the elector to vote for all candidates approved by the voter. That form of voting would still disenfranchise a voter who does not approve any of the candidates. By not voting approval of any of the candidates, his vote is not counted. This is a truly wasted vote.