The 2008 Election Results, Dysfunctional Democracy and Constitutional Crisis

On November 4, 2008 after another bruising andDemocracy Day Holiday.
divisive campaign as the night wears thin itTo create a one person one vote election, all
becomes clear for the second time this decadeadvocates agree the path to reviving democracy
that the Presidential candidate with the mostin America starts by reforming or removing the
popular votes is not the winner of the Electoralundemocratic Electoral College system. To do this
College system. That next morning Americansrequires either a Constitutional Amendment or the
wake in disbelief with the world asking how didpassage of state compacts. Several states have
this happen again.already taken legislative action to allocate their
As the weeks pass the popularly chosenElectoral College votes to the candidate with the
candidate decides not to concede, as Democratmost popular votes. The organization National
Al Gore did in 2000, leading to a ConstitutionalPopular Vote at is leading the effort to create a
crisis. In this state of confusion, many Americansone person one vote democracy in America.
take to the streets in support of their favoriteTo have confidence in the election results, an
candidate, further dividing the nation while believingimport democracy reform is a national and
that their visible show of support could sway theverifiable voting system. For instance, the Count
Supreme Court. However, this time the SupremeEvery Vote Act of 2007 (HR 1381) is national
Court is demanding a political resolution to thelegislation that would create a nonpartisan uniform
crisis.election standard. The current highly political fifty
The United States of America is now the onlystate election system with voting machine
country in the world with an Electoral Collegecorporations donating to candidates creates a
system, which has four times prevented thesituation where our vote can not be guaranteed.
candidate with the most popular votes fromFor instance in 2004, the state of Ohio, the state
becoming President. The Electoral College systemthat ultimately gave the election to George Bush,
was created as a compromise to the slavethe Secretary of State was Bush's campaign
owning states, offering greater electoral powerco-chair and the state's electronic voting machine
without requiring them to extend voting rights tocompany donated heavily to the Bush campaign.
African-Americans. Currently voters in smallerIn a democracy, elections are transparent,
states like Wyoming and Delaware have moreprofessional and non-partisan.
than four times the voting strength for PresidentSpecial interests with big money spent over two
as do Californians and New York voters. Withbillion dollars influencing the outcome of the
most states either strongly Democratic orPresidential election. Taking the special interest
Republican, this divisive system leaves only a handmoney out of the political system has proven to
full of states, or swing states, to determine thebe very difficult. The 2007 Supreme Court
final outcome of the election.decision gave the big corporations, wealthy
Now we now know the signs were all around us.individuals, and Political Action Committees even
In March 2007 an Associated Press poll found thatgreater influence over the outcome of the 2008
75% of Americans believed our country wasPresidential election. In dissent Justice David
moving in the wrong direction. The percent isSouter warned, "This kind of corporate and union
even higher after another divisive election seasonspending seriously jeopardizes the integrity of
with the candidates, political parties, and specialdemocratic government." After the results of
interests spending over two billion dollars2008, Americans are now willing to listen to
advocating for their candidate while criticizing theiradvocates of publicly financed elections, the only
opponent. During the final weeks before theway to ensure that the people own the political
election, again the two battleground states weresystem and not the special interests.
Florida and Ohio. Hundreds of millions of dollarsLike most Tuesdays on November 4th Americans
were spent in the final days to sway those fewwere busy working, some with two jobs and thus
undecided voters and to suppress the turnout ofthey found it difficult to go vote. In many
their opposing voters. Once the beacon ofdemocratic countries the election-day is a national
democracy, how did the United States ofholiday. The National Democracy Day Holiday
America become a nation with such aResolution (H.R.) 63, entitled Democracy Day Act,
dysfunctional democratic political system?proposed by Rep. John Conyers to celebrate
What is democracy? As President Lincolnthose who have dedicated their live to the
proclaimed, "Government of, by and for theadvancement of democracy and to give all
people." According to many democracy advocatesAmericans the time to vote is finally getting the
there is a three step process to creating aattention it deserves.
government of, by and for the people. The firstWill it take a Constitutional crisis for us Americans
and most important step is the belief that it isto act to revive democracy? To create a
possible and desirable. The second is to learnfunctional democracy with Constitutional integrity,
more about democracy reform efforts. The thirdlets start today by believing we have the power,
step is doing something specific to revivelets take the time to learn more about
democracy. Additionally, advocates include at leastdemocracy and then lets do something to revive
four reforms: Electoral College, national votingdemocracy.
system, campaign financing and a National