What would you change about election campaigning in the US?

Restrict the individual celebrity endorsements, individual corporate sponsorships, stop the campaign workers' door-to-door, and forget the party nominees. Leave it up to the people.
1. Devise a selection criteria for candidates that "the people" nominate.
2. Provide media events for ALL of the candidates for equal exposure.
3. Make the "campaign trail" a publicised cross-country tour for the GROUP.
4. Let the people tune in on t.v., attend the events, and vote for who they want.
This, in turn, should follow for any other "elected" public seats.

...let us know what you think...
http://www.facebook.com/pages/We-The-People-Can/327455860649381

You can't reform a broken system. I say we be rid of the whole mess and this time instead of being foolish enough to think that "this time it will be different, this time we'll make it work", for once we just say to hell with it and just get on with our lives.

Get rid of politicians. Seriously every single one of them. Politics should not be a career goal for anyone.

The people who run for office should be educators, doctors, engineers, business men and women. People who have real ideas on how to fix problems. People who will actually want to actually fix things because they want to move on to other problems. Or get back to their own lives.

Politicians don't fix things. They only do enough work to get reelected.

They should create a program that displays election results as the votes are cast. The government is too shady for us to believe they have no say on the final election results. This way it would be easier to determine whether or not a poll was taken correctly and not rigged.

a politician's proposed policies should be outlined in detail in terms the normal citizen can understand and he/she should be held legally responsible for promises they have no reasonable ability to bring forth , punishment may include loss of wages , fines , there job and prison if the infringement is severe enough.

Example: dont tell me your gonna pull troops out by such and such date when you have not even spoken to a general or commander in the field to see if its even feasible.

If we are to maintain any democratic powers with our growing population we need more than ever to be an informed public and have politicians with there ass on the line if they outright bullshit the public supporting them , we need to squeeze more honesty out of these politicians, not make a mistake electing a liar and wait 4 years to fix it.

Put all Political Conversations on PBS. They do great fundraising lol.

Prohibit all lobbyists from working 1000 miles from the White House.
All of Obamas people would have to commute lol.

1.) Forbid ANY contributions that do not come from individual US citizens and limit that amount to $100. This means banning all contributions from PACs, corporations, unions, "non profits", lobbyists etc. If anyone bitches that their right to free speech is being attacked by not allowing millions in contributions from these entities, remind them that in matters of federal campaigns, their single vote is their free speech in action and ask them to shut the fuck up.

2).Initiate government funding of all federal campaigns. It levels the playing field for all parties involved such that no one candidate has an unfair financial advantage over the other UNLESS he/she is able to garner the single donations outlined in #1.

2)Overturn the SCOTUS decision that granted corporations "person-hood".

3)Overturn the recent SCOTUS decision that permits unlimited corporate donations to campaigns.

4)Permit lobbyists to speak to federal officials under one condition: the conversation is recorded verbatim and immediately placed in an easily accessible online data base. Any violation of this law is a federal offense that is punishable by fine and/or imprisonment.

This would be a good start.

OUTLAW ROBOCALLS.

Mandate a "NOTA" ("none of the above") option for all races. If NOTA wins 50% +1, then new candidates must be run in that race. That would probably put an end to a lot of the negative crap flying around these days. (We gave up our land line a couple of years back because of robocalls, and don't watch local television because of the god-awful political ads.)

Instant-runoff voting for everyone!!!

Voting machines to be nationalized!!!

Equally funded elections..... everyone gets the exact same amount to spend!!

No undisclosed donors!!

how crazy is it that those who consider themselves tea party are espousing totalitarian views?

What would I do to change election campaigning in the USA ? I would:
1. Have a comprehensive, thorough Federal Statute enacted detailing
minimum legal standards for all candidates on every level, including
total disclosure of all campaign contributions over $100. 2 Mandate
that a series of 3 live public debates be scheduled, with 20 questions
specifically worded that the public interests groups compose and which
the candidates have no chance to know of in advance, and no chance
to rehearse. 3. Train a camera calibrated to obtain a facial heat signature
from all candidates which functions more accurately than a galvanic skin response. Analyze the veracity of each candidate's response by means
of both the heat signatures & a logic vocabulary using the reductio ad
absurdum rational analysis. 4. Publish the findings 1 month before the
elections inthe local newspapers allowing time for letters to the editor
to comment on the published findings. With screening that dilligent,
90% of the crooked politicians who figured they'd breeze through their
sleeze would not run. The remaining 10% would be closely scrutinized.

no voting machines. just ink ballots.

I think every time a political ad tells an lie or half truth, they should get a fine. And after 3 strikes, you're out. You can't run for office.

(This has more to do with the election, in general)

Force or provide an incentive for people to take a US Government class (free of charge) before voting.This eliminates the excuse that they are not informed enough to make a decision. It also clues people in on the fact that their vote does, indeed, count. Whether your being persuaded or not by media is another thing.

Make November 2nd a paid holiday. This 37% voter turnout is pathetic. We should make it as big of a deal as we do with independence day, or dare I say the consumerism holiday, Christmas.

The entire approach of what a campaign ought to be about should be transformed. Keep it simple. Every person looking to be elected to any position should put out a legitimate resume/record of experience. I want to know where the candidates grew up, what school they went to, what type of degree they earned, what type of jobs they have taken on, and most importantly, who provided them a salary of any kind. The emphasis ought to be on transparency and integrity. The people have a right to know who the candidate has worked for and what they accomplished in their time.

When it comes to running a campaign to get their name known and gain support, candidates ought to be subject to Q & A's from the residents that are being rallied, such as town hall meetings, except for the fact that it should be mandatory. Candidates ought to be able to tell citizens what direction they seek to take on certain topics and issues. The candidates should put out official statements of proposals, amendments, referendums, policies, actions, etc, that they would support or deny, along with their reasoning. The representatives in government positions should explain to its people what their plans are, how they came to make these decisions, and how these actions will effect the citizens.

**If you have read this far and realized that representatives already do this, well done; The problem is that people depend on media outlets and journalists to chase after these answers that citizens should have a right to. Now that it has become clear the Corporate media has put a strangle on filtering information, the people can no longer trust these outlets. Journalists were the ones that investigated the powerful to inform the rest of us on what was taking place. Technology has developed well enough that we should not have to rely on journalists to chase after every bit of information. Public officials should be subject to answering the people and making their position known. Lets cut out the middle "foxes"... oops, I meant middle men. Freudian slip :P

I just want the entire process of electing public officials made much more simple. There should be transparency of the candidates' past, present and future.

I already said this in another thread. Less campaigning, more governing!

I would take the money out of it because it has been hijacked by people with money shutting the majority of Americans out completely

If I could change something it would be that politicians would no longer be allowed to lie, exaggerate, mislead, etc., and that each time they did lie, exaggerate, mislead (even if they did so without knowing they lied, exaggerated, mislead, etc.,) it would cost them 1,000 votes. Always remember that it is not illegal to lie, and the freedom to say anything just to score some votes is one of the most dangerous things about our political system. Too many people vote in favor of the politician(s) who is the most deceiving without realizing the impact their gullibility has on the future of this nation.

Politicians should be held to a standard of high social responsibility and accountability, but sadly, they are not. Without some sort of sanction in place for dishonesty, we will always have people like karl rove or dick cheney, who, when confronted with facts that completely debunk their argument, say things like "75% of NPR listeners were Saddam Hussein." We need a sanction for this because there are unintelligent, gullible people who lack critical thinking skills and think when they hear that sort of fallacious statement, "holy shit, I didn't know 75 out of every 100 people who listen to NPR are Saddam Hussein! People who listen to NPR must be fascists! What does Glenn Beck think we can do to make this better?"

public finanancing of candidates and mandatory disclosure of all campaign donations.

campaign funding and campaign ads. that stray from a canadates focus in office.

I would stop the adds completely, they dont bring anything to debate.They only make me hate both canidates.

I would cap how much the GOP, and DNC contribute to each canidate.

I would make outside donations illegal. So people like you, and I who are not millionares could have our views in contention.

1. Putting a spending cap on election races, like is done in England! I believe it sits at 100,000 pounds! Probably won't happen because Corporate Media depends on the 3 billion dollar bailout every other year. In other words too much money to be made!

2. Public financed elections, and getting the Corporate money out of the equation! Probably won't happen either, again because there is just too much money to be made!

3. By public financed elections more party's will be included in the process! Probably won't happen either because the grip of the two party system has and they would be the ones who would have too vote to change it. Cutting their own throats, are you nuts?

4. Make a fine of say 100 dollars if you don't vote! It works in Australia! Probably won't happen either because people would be outraged about a fine of 100 dollars cause after all it only takes minutes too vote.

5. Vote by mail, it's safe and works darn good here in Oregon! This could actually happen.

6. Get rid of the electronic voting machines once and for all! Paper ballots work and are counted on election day in several country's around the world including Canada, and Germany! This could actually happen with a citizen measure placed on ballots throughout the country!

That it doesn't cost 5 million dollars just to have your name be known.

(Hyperbole/Exaggeration)

Here's some stuff that should happen, but never will:

1. Reforming campaign financing to encourage new political parties. If we had four or five significant political parties and a few small but electable ones then the people in power would actually have to work together. Imagine if no party had a majority in congress, and the largest minority had to get other parties together to make a majority to elect a speaker (parliamentary style).

2. Mandatory voting. A lot of countries have mandatory voting laws. More people would educate themselves about the candidates if they couldn't blow off voting, and that would have a bit of a limiting effect on the influence of special interest groups.

3. Change rules about campaign ads. Make it so all ads have to be approved by an independent board for reasonable factual accuracy.

4. Finally, shorten the campaign season. Make it illegal to campaign anytime before August on an election year. Primaries happen on the first Tuesday of September. General elections happen on the first Tuesday of November.

no corporate donors to any campaign. it is supposed to be about who will best represent the people's interests, not business interests.

every business has people and people's interests are often at conflict with the business mandate; more profits!

our government was formed and designed to protect people's rights!

I agree there should be a ban on political advertisements, there all bias and mostly factless, I don't care what your opponent did last year, what are YOU gonna do for my vote? I'm also not intellegent enough to answer this sanely or logically, but UtopianSky does a wonderful job .. +^d

here is a good idea....somewhat unrelated..

all voters should be employed..hence all politicians will try to assure everybody has a job..

I posed this in another thread:

I think it would be best if:

1.) All political advertising of any kind- TV, street signs, whistlestop tours, etc, should be banned. A government website should be created called VOTE.GOV that is a single source of information about the candidates, provided by the candidates.

2.) Presidential candidates have a series of debates- three group debates per party before the primaries, and then three between the two candidates, and one between the VP candidates. These debates would be televised live on all news channels, and streamed live on YouTube, Hulu, etc, and available after on VOTE.GOV.

3.) People running for Governor, Senate, and Congress would have three debates each, broadcast in each state, and available on VOTE.GOV.

4.) Lower offices would also have debates, that would air on the local news and on the Public Access Channel, and streamed on the VOTE.GOV website, if uploaded to it.

5.) No News source should be allowed to take polls or predict outcomes of elections. That just becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

This way, a person with NO money but good ideas and charisma could run for any office.

But will we ever see change like that?
Nope.
Because it would take politicians to vote for it.

Remove all campaign financing and instead use public money to fund a platform where all the candidates could debate the issues. Commercializing our political system is not the way to go. The voters need to be well-informed on the issues. Stupid dishonest infomercials about the candidates serve only to confuse the people.

Now that corporations can buy elections by basically funding their favored candidates, our elections are shams. It's a fucking circus and it has to stop. There is no reason why anyone needs to personally give money to a candidate. The entire idea is ridiculous to me.

The electorate needs to be well informed about where the candidates stand on issues and that's all we need. We don't Jerry-Springer-like propaganda, nor stupid superficial ads packed with bullshit.

Death panels for senators, let me explain!

Most Republican senators feel they can do what ever they want, some Dems too.
Republicans try to obstruct Democrats from having discussions with their constitutes various ways, that's off topic tho.

So it should be required that they answer all questions then put them up on an elevated platform with only their chest exposed and an extra thick bullet proof vest.

Then everyone can let them know how much we disprove of them!

This is meant as a joke btw.

The people doing the campaigning.

everything...

There should be a campaign season. Not right from one campaign to the next. Constant campaigning, leaves no one to govern. It just divides us 'all the time'. I am sick of campaign spin and commercials.

Politicians are allowed to lie. No one holds them accountable when they do it. I think if politicians were accountable for lying, they would stop campaigning on lies. The lies and distortion just goes on and on and on.

I'm afraid the 1012 campaign will start tomorrow. Politicians will be positioning for the next campaign starting tomorrow. Campaigning has become 'business as usual' in America. 'Business as usual' is tearing us apart. That's no way to run a country. Sad, sad, sad!

there should be an equal spending limit for both party's and equal air time for both candidates. no more and i guess no less.

abolish electoral system

Do what France does, ban campaign ads the month before the election.

There's plenty wrong with the campaigners themselves, but we as mass consumers are also part of the problem in (among other ways) allowing ourselves to be suckered and victimized by simple and shameless rhetoric. Some of the most offensive ads, from any side of the elections are ones that use otherwise meaningless trigger words. They're not even attacking an opponent: They're just calling them names that we're trained to recognize as "the other side." Until we demand that the electorate and elected raise the quality of the conversation, we'll face the same problems in most every campaign.

They need to make a law that prevents people running for office telling outright lies about their opponent. When they get caught they should be made to drop out of the race. This would be a start in cleaning the election cycle up. Also they should be a set limit on what they can spend on a campaign. The amount they spend now days is just unreal, any money they bring in above that limit should be used to pay off the Nat'l Debt or donated to charities.

Publicly-financed elections.

Rules that prohibit "snipeing"

( that WAS HUMOR )

Limit campaigns to 60 days, allow a max of 50 million per campaign for national campaigns. NO CORPORATE DONATIONS!!! Let the people fund the campaighns by tax checkoff. If you want to donate, do it in April each year. Corporations are not people, they should not have a voice.

No-party system

Instant runoff voting

I would further limit the amount of funding that any politician from any party can spend on advertisements for their campaign.