What's Wrong with This Picture?

Our democracy “by, for, and of the people” permits “the people” to influence national politics once every two years, in exactly three ways:

The Presidential Election: You battle it out with 120 million other voters over a choice between two career politicians you've only heard about on TV. Third parties or other choices aren't viable, and your vote only really matters if you live in a swing state.

The Senate: Because each state gets two senators regardless of population, your vote carries 57 times more weight if you live in Wyoming than if you live in California.

The House: Representatives get to design their districts around their agenda, so your vote only matters if you live in one of the 4% of districts that are at all competitive.

But you probably already knew these things – which is why only 59% of eligible citizens actually voted in the “record turnout” 2004 election, and why the U.S. historically ranks in the bottom 20% of democratic nations for voter turnout.

Building a Better Alternative

Other electoral systems are possible – systems that make every vote count and give people real choices. Other countries already using such systems in Europe and elsewhere routinely see voter turnouts above 80% as a result. But Americans are naturally wary of meddling with a system that has “more-or-less” worked for over 200 years and has served as a role model for democracy throughout the world. We want to “test-drive” anything new and unfamiliar before committing. Fair enough.

So let's build and test-drive a new system of democracy.

Individual Representation

Join us in forming a completely neutral and nonpartisan organization designed along the principles of individual representation:

Every voter should have an individual choice of whether to participate in the democratic process directly and actively, or indirectly through representation.

Voters who choose representation should have an unrestricted choice of candidates to represent their interests, not a choice “between tweedledum and tweedledee.”

Every person should have an equal vote; no one may be disenfranchised for any reason.

We will not only serve as a model for how a democracy can and should be run, but in the short term we will provide a public forum for constructive political debate, and a democratic, non-financial means by which people can support the activists and causes they care about as an alternative to privately-funded, mass-media propaganda campaigns.

www.indrep.org

Based on Voting-Eligible Population 2004, U.S. Elections Project, George Mason University.

Election 2004 by the Numbers, Rob Richie, Center for Voting and Democracy. November 5, 2004.

Turnout in all elections 1945-1998, Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, www.idea.int.

2004-11-21T14:10:54