A century ago, the rules of electing our US Senators was changed. Previously, US Senators were voted on by a State's legislature. One could argue that this system allowed for voters to pay attention to who their Assembly or State Senator was on issues, because they would be the ones picking our two upper-house representatives.
Today, Senators are by popular vote and chosen like all other state-wide candidates. Their elections are also staggered where a third of the country votes for a US Senator every two years.
Just this morning, I thought of a new concept for electing our Senators. Non-partisan elections where you field multiple candidates and the two highest vote getters become your US Senator for six years.
It would have to be done in a way that can limit the field of candidates, of course. On primary day, you take the five highest vote getters and run them in the General and the two highest in the General would win the seats.
The idea behind this system is that then, the US Senate could possibly be more than just Republican - Democrat and that new coalitions could form.
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written by Jay Golub , July 02, 2009
Democrats in NY State would never go for that, Danny, just like they were the main opponents to Non-Partisan elections here in NYC.
To them, the Primary IS the election of importance. Giving control of the process up to better system of elections will never occur under their watch...
written by Daniel Peterson , July 02, 2009
I'm not saying it would. I just wanted to open a discussion to an alternative way of electing US Senators. Even if it's an idea or concept that could and would never happen, we can all daydream whle we work, right?
written by Jay Golub , July 02, 2009
I would suggest going back to the old-style of appointing senators to represent each state - overturning the 17th Amendment.
One of the reasons for this would be to make the election of our local state legislatures more important to the average voter. As we can see in Albany, where no one is paying attention to who is representing us at the state level, the quality of representative dwindles.
If the state legislature selected each state's U.S. Senator, maybe we'd start to pay closer attention....
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