ROW Episode 45

In this episode, we're going to consider one significant respect in which we've been able to successfully reimagine and reform our electoral system in the United States. in the years since this country was born, demonstrating that further reforms are possible if we can muster the conviction that they are achievable and work tirelessly to achieve them.

Transcript

Sovaida: 0:08

Hello and welcome to Reimagining Our World, a podcast dedicated to envisioning a better world and to infusing hope that we can make the principled choices to build that world. In this episode, we're going to consider one significant respect in which we've been able to successfully reimagine and reform our electoral system in the United States. in the years since this country was born, demonstrating that further reforms are possible if we can muster the conviction that they are achievable and work tirelessly to achieve them. Now this subject is definitely top of mind in the run up to the elections this year in the United States. We have just about two weeks left to go, and I've been reflecting on the various ways in which many of us, regardless of political persuasion, yearn for a system that is fit for purpose for the nation that we have become, the nation that we have evolved into. And what I've noticed is that this is the funny thing about us humans is that on the one hand, we yearn for change, but then we immediately tell ourselves, oh, but it's not possible. We have a tendency to make things seem more difficult and complicated than they need to be. Especially when it comes to change. And it's no big surprise because change for many people connotes a sense of uncertainty, which causes a lot of anxiety. But what we end up doing as a result is that we shoot ourselves in the foot before we've even given ourselves a chance thus depriving ourselves of the potential benefits of positive change and hindering our progress. If you'll notice, we all know that we do this in our individual lives. You know, we wanna make a change, as soon as we start to consider taking the first step, we come up with all the reasons why we really shouldn't, or"now's not the time," kick the can down the road,"maybe I'll try this next year," or tomorrow, or when something else happens, when I'm healthier, or when my kids have gone off to college, or when I get that promotion. We wait. And the same is true about our collective lives. We do the same thing. We know that we yearn for change and yet we hold ourselves back by telling ourselves all sorts of stories, coming up with all sorts of justifications why now is not the time. One of the things that I've come across that I wanted to share with you in a moment is that we have in this country made significant change to our system of elections before, and therefore, surely we can do it again. Because one of the things that one realizes in life is when we get stuck, when we want to make a change and feel that we can't--we're not good enough or we're not capable enough or it's not the right time-- it's often very helpful to go back and look at other times in our lives when we've made significant leaps and changes. And to ask ourselves, What was it that helped us get over that hurdle? And also, just to remember the fact that we did it. The fact that we did it demonstrates that we're capable, that it's doable, that we don't need to be afraid, and that it's worth taking the courageous step to make change. Now before I delve into this nugget, this insight of something that we've done in this country before, I wanted to remind us that in a prior episode of this series, reimagining our world in episode 20, we imagined a world in which our system of elections would change in some significant ways. I'm not going to rehash that episode. I would invite you and encourage you to go back and listen to it. But some of the top line items were to imagine a system in which there are no political parties, where we don't have this divisiveness, where we don't have the sense that they're two sports teams rivaling each other and the only quest is for one to win at any cost whatsoever. Instead, we would vote for individuals who had qualities and motives that made them worthy and fit to be leaders. We also imagined a system in which there would be no nomination of candidates or campaigning, based on the insight and understanding that those who seek power are those who often should least be trusted with it. We envisioned a system in which there was not only a secret ballot, but that we would all learn and decide that it was best if we didn't discuss the people we were going to vote for in order not to create divisiveness. And there were other aspects, a system in which corporations especially would be barred from making monetary contributions to political campaigns, getting some of the corrupt influence of money in politics out. And beyond that there were other suggestions. That we have a system in which every member of the community in the country has a way to have input into the system of decision making by bringing up topics for consultation and making suggestions and recommendations for consideration by those in power, by elected bodies, and in which the electorate in return would readily and wholeheartedly support and obey their institutions, and if they didn't like what they were doing, then to make changes the next time they went to the ballot box. Now, all of this can seem utopian, but what's fascinating is that things that seem impossible of achievement today become very achievable tomorrow. And to look at instances where we've done this before, especially within the system of electoral reform, and to take courage from it and say, okay, we've done it before, we can do it again. So my message today is change is possible. Here is the nugget that inspires us to believe that it is truly so. We've done it before. We can do it again. How so? When we take our current system of voting by secret ballot in the United States into account, we realize this is something we actually all just take for granted. And yet, it was a system that evolved painstakingly over time. It was indeed a revolutionary departure from the system we originally had in place. Now, we should begin by pointing out that the U. S. Constitution did not provide for any sort of voting system. So it was left up to us to figure out what kind of process we wanted to engage in over time, and it's something that has evolved. What many of us may not know or may have forgotten is that initially the way votes were cast was by voice voting or viva voce, in which individuals eligible to vote--generally at the time white men who were landowners or paid taxes-- would stand in the market square and would say out loud, I vote for this person, this candidate, or I vote for the other candidate. Or those who voted who were going to vote for one candidate would move to one side of the market square, and those who were voting for the other would move to the other side. In other words, everybody could see whom they were going to vote for. Now as time went on, one of the things that evolved, which incidentally did not exist, and this is another really interesting point, political parties did not exist at the beginning, but they gradually evolved. despite the warning given by George Washington in his farewell address in 1796, that it would lead to a lot of headache and could ultimately be the cause of us undermining our very system of democracy that we so cherished in this republic that had been so painstakingly created. Anyway, as these political parties evolved, the parties started to devise schemes to ensure that their members voted for the candidate of choice of their party. So what ended up happening was that each party would print out these tickets. They were large pieces of paper, party tickets, in distinctive colors. So each party had its own color, you know, bright red. Bright blue. And they were large so everyone could see them. And they would dole them out to the members of their party. And on election day people would walk along in town with their party tickets, these huge pieces of paper. And again everybody around could see exactly which party you were going to vote for. These were called party tickets. Unfortunately, as we discovered over time, this system lent itself to some terrible things, including intimidation and fraud. The party bosses really became like mob bosses. They would send people to watch to make sure that their people were casting votes for their particular candidate. They're voting the right way. So that was the first thing. Sometimes they would force these electors to go out and cast their ballots several times. So they would like shove them into, you know, go and vote. And as they came out, they would change their clothes, put on disguises, send them in with another ballot, which of course the parties were printing up, so they could print whatever ballots they wanted, send them in to vote again. So this system lent itself to voter fraud, which was not a good thing. And it lent itself to intimidation. People were beaten up. Sometimes there was violence in the market square on election day. One of the favorite tactics of these political party machines was to try and stop people from the other party casting their votes. Sometimes it means that they would come at them with sticks and beat them up and get in their way, tackle them, do whatever was necessary. So we can see how this very unpleasant process got to the point where a lot of people were yearning for change. And there were many attempts made over time to try and have a secret ballot so that people wouldn't be intimidated, people wouldn't know whom you were going to vote for, and couldn't then pressure you to vote one way or the other. And it came along in progressive steps. It's all very interesting. We're not going to get into it in detail, but at some point people in some places, were allowed to fold their tickets and put them in their pockets so that as they're walking through town, to cast their votes, people wouldn't know what the color of that ticket was. Eventually, after much research. agitation and insistence that there be a change in the system of voting, we finally adopted what was known as the Australian ballot, which was the secret ballot process that we now have. It was first envisioned and imagined in Australia, and it was first put into place there. England then adopted it, learnt from the Australians, and we then eventually learnt it from England. So, this Australian ballot, which is the secret ballot, then became the system according to which we voted, which is a system we basically still have today, in which it's not the parties who print the ballots, it's the government who prints it. There are private booths. You cast your votes. Nobody pressurizes you. There's no intimidation. People aren't whacking you on the head with sticks or standing in your way to stop you from approaching the ballot box. So, the path to this current system was imperfect and very tortuous, but it finally got us there, and we now take it for granted. The encouraging fact in this story, and the reason I wanted to share it today, is that if we could re imagine the change regarding secret ballots, and change our collective minds from believing that it was bad, best to openly know where everybody stood, to understanding the downsides of the system, and then making the changes. If we could do that with respect to secret ballots, there is no reason why we shouldn't be able to make other changes, like getting rid of political parties, or implementing some of the other ideas mentioned at the top of this episode, or in episode 20, if you want more details. The thing, folks, is that we shouldn't have to wait until the pain of the system we're in is so great and so excruciating that we finally say, okay, we will make changes. Surely we're intelligent enough to look ahead and see that the system isn't working, and to intentionally and in a consultative manner come up with a different and better system. It requires that we, first of all, recognize, open our eyes and accept the downsides of the system that we have and that it far outweighs any benefits. Secondly, that we harness our free will choice in order to work hard and tirelessly until we affect the change. And thirdly, that we recognize we don't have to wait until the process gets so painful in order to make change. If you're interested in this topic and are interested in learning about the suggested changes that one could imagine to the system of elections we have in this country and in other countries around the globe, please look for the video podcast episode 20, either on the CPGG YouTube channel, or all our episodes are also now available as audio podcasts, on your favorite podcast platforms, so, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podmeet, Bean, any platform on which you prefer to hear your podcasts. So that is it for today. Thank you for giving me your time and to reflecting and reimagining with me how our electoral system could be. See you next month. Bye bye. That's all for this episode of Reimagining Our World. I'll see you back here next month. If you liked this episode, please help us to get the word out by rating us and subscribing to the program on your favorite podcast platform. This series is also available in video on the YouTube channel of the Center for Peace and Global Governance, CPGG.