The name for this method is "Selection for office by electors representing voters" Voters want to choose someone who is knowledgeable, competent and has values close to their own. Voters also want to believe that the elected office holder has no political obligations to anyone or anything not included in the obligations of the office.
Imagine a televised convention where a president will be selected. No one has yet been nominated to be a candidate. There are just over 4,000 people in attendance who will choose the next president. Two of those presidential electors will represent you and the other voters in your presidential election district. One elector was chosen by the majority of voters in the district. The other, the minority elector, received the next highest vote. 100 votes for president will be split between the two.
Nominations for presidential candidates will start the convention. Those nominated are expected to be Governors, large city Mayors, presidents of corporations or universities, military officers or none of those. The only requirement for nomination is that one of the electors is willing to nominate the candidate. Each candidate is permitted to give a short address asking for support.
Then voting rounds are conducted until one candidate receives more than 50% of the votes. The candidate receiving the low count of votes is eliminated after each voting round failing to select a winner. Then the remaining candidates engage in a question and answer session with the electors who lost the candidate they supported in the previous voting round asking the questions. The next voting round follows the Q & A session.
The over 4,000 electors at the national convention results from dividing each current presidential election district into four near equal voter count parts. The elector selection process starts with your vote for one of the people of your voting precinct offering themselves as a presidential elector candidate. Hopefully you had the opportunity to meet with and ask questions of the candidate you choose. The electors from your district are chosen at a local convention in the same manner as will be done for the national convention. The only difference for the local convention is that the elector receiving over 50% becomes the majority elector. The 2nd place finisher becomes the minority elector. The portion of the 100 votes carried forward to the national convention is computed after the lower count elector candidates have assigned their vote counts to one of the top two finishers.
What will have we have wrought. We will be free of what has become a three year ghastly expensive advertising process of party presidential candidate selection then meaningless party conventions followed by more TV pandering to the voters by each party choice and TV adds, day after day after day. All this blather is tossed at the voter who has no means to question what has been said. We put a stop to being forced to make a "lessor of two evils" choice. Candidates must answer questions asked by non supporters. Electors representing us should be able to determine the values and competence of the candidates. Candidates will not be forced to raise an enormous sum of money by making quid pro quid promises selling their integrity. They only have to be persuasive in explaining their experience, values and abilities.
And we will know for certain who has won because each elector may review the tabulations of their votes for correctness.
This TV convention method should also be used for selecting Governors. I surmise that a few small states will adopt using this method for selecting their leaders. The demonstrated success will convince the nation to do the same.
Core Ideas: A method where one making a choice from a set of candidates can do so by making an informed judgment about competence, integrity and values of each candidate. The best method for making an informed judgment about competence, integrity and values of an individual is by asking questions and carefully listening to answers. Each voter has a connection to one elector representing the voter at every step of the selection process and can know what the representing elector has chosen.
Significant steps: ...Voter making a choice of elector from within the voting precinct. Initial voter choice of an elector where the voter has had the opportunity to meet face to face with candidates to make an informed judgment based on questions and answers. The initial voter choice step results in a majority elector, the one receiving the most votes, and a minority elector, the one receiving the second highest number of votes. ...Vote assignment to one of the top two by precinct electors receiving less than the second highest vote count. Each runner-up precinct elector will meet face to face with the majority and minority precinct electors and decide which of the two will receive delegated votes cast for the runner-up. ...Choice by electors made in televised convention. A local convention is conducted to choose the two electors who will represent the presidential election district at a national convention.
Cost of conventions paid by TV networks. Each convention is televised. The cost of the convention is covered by the televising companies. Time is divided into twenty five minutes of convention business then five minutes of TV adds. The TV add time can not interrupt a speech or question-answer session of a candidate. TV commentators may overvoice while vote tabulations are being shown but not during vocalization of convention business. The conventions are for choosing while showing voters at home the process. They are not for pundits to gain fame while making comments. That can be done at the end of convention sessions and after selections have been made.
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We need one or more small states to create a state constitutional referendum to elect their governor by the modern method. When passed, voters in other states can observe and demand the same for them selves. Next would be to change to the new method for majority and minorty state legislative elections.
