This semester my POL 330 “Parties, Campaigns, and Elections” class at Centre College has been examining a variety of proposed electoral reforms. At the end of each discussion, we held a vote on whether or not to stick with the status quo on a particular issue (e.g. campaign finance, primary electoral systems, direct democracy, etc.) or go with a proposed alternative. I recorded the plurality winner for each electoral domain, and then the last week of class I presented the batch of reform choices to my class as a single up-or-down “package” of reforms. By a 2-1 margin, my students voted to recommend the following slate of electoral reforms:
- Abolish direct elections to state judicial offices
- Promote more state-level direct democracy (initiative, referendum, recall) throughout the country
- Limit legislative redistricting to once per decade
- Maximize the number of uncompetitive elections
- Replace open/closed primaries with a Top-2 primary system
- Eliminate the current presidential nomination process with a single national popular Top-2 primary vote
- Eliminate the Electoral College and replace with a direct popular vote
- Retain the current campaign financing system with the exception of reversing Citizens United
