Our bicameral electoral college plan gives states elector shares in the electoral college near to the proportions they hold in Congress. It awards each state's slate of electors to the various candidates in various proportions as opposed to all-or-nothing thus orientating a presidency more for the whole union as opposed to one more geared for the solid red or blue states won out in the swings. The score or range vote can be incorporated making for further competition as opposed to a greater concentration between two evils.

In addition to reforming our election system and abolishing the two-party menace, we should increase the refresh rate of our public offices to prevent the specter of career politicians putting office before constituents or country.

http://www.commonwealthparty.net/tft.htm

'Is fusion voting - judged purely on its own merits - a good idea? On the plus side, it probably is somewhat helpful to third parties. It allows third parties to grow (unfortunately for them with a rather weak definition of both "party" and "grow") without dying in infancy due to the spoiler trainwreck.'

'Fusion voting is mainly not a real change in the voting system, but rather a fake change. It will not break the grip of 2-party domination and Duverger's law. Voters still will, under plurality voting, be strategically motivated to vote for one of the top two candidates to avoid wasting their vote, rendering genuine third party candidates irrelevant. Fusion is a minor issue, an issue of style and surface gloss rather than genuine content...... In fact, the cynical / paranoid might even view the whole fusion idea as a conspiracy intentionally created to derail genuine voting reform.'

http://www.rangevoting.org/Fusion.html

Delayed versus Instant runoff

'The instant runoff system (IRV) attempts to compress those two rounds into only one round, but at the cost of increased complexity, and also at the cost that the resulting system is really not equivalent to the old one.'

'In the usual runoff system ("delayed runoff") the election is carried out in two stages. The first stage is a regular plurality election. If nobody gets over 50% of the votes, then there is a second ("runoff") election, which is a 2-contender election between the two candidates with the top two vote counts in the first round. '

Author decries notion of IRV (instant runoff voting) being cost-effective despite eliminating secondary runoffs because new voting machines need to be purchased for IRV.

http://www.rangevoting.org/HonestRunoff.html

A tabulation of various congressional polls over the years. Congress has not had much popularity historically, but it has been really low the last few decades and especially now. Wouldn't having a higher refresh rate of congressional members bring some improvement? Not to mention breaking down the main two parties' overwhelming occupation of the body.

http://www.pollingreport.com/CongJob.htm

Congress really sucks. Not only do we have to enlighten the voters and cure the education system - we need systematic reforms to how we choose our leaders.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/congressional_performance/

Back in the day, Republican Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts who took the seat from Democrat Ted Kennedy decided to vote for the questionable $15 billion jobs bill. Two votes were needed for passage and Scott was one.

"All of us, Republicans and Democrats, have to work together to get our economy back on track. I hope my vote today is a strong step toward restoring bipartisanship in Washington."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/02/scott-brown-to-back-democrats.html?wprss=44

Some Republicans sure know how to screw up things. The RNC backed a Republican candidate in the New York 23rd that was more Democrat than the Democrat opponent was!

'New York's 23rd congressional district has historically been one of the most Republican districts in the United States. The district's seat had been in Republican hands since 1873. '

'Scozzafava was designated as the Republican nominee and Hoffman later received the nomination of the Conservative Party of New York. On October 31, 2009, Scozzafava suspended her campaign and, on November 1, 2009, endorsed the Democratic candidate for the seat.'

'On Election Day, Owens (D) appeared to defeat Hoffman with the margin initially reported as 49.0% to 45.5%. Scozzafava, whose name remained on the ballot, reportedly received 5.5% of the vote.'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York%27s_23rd_congressional_district_special_election,_2009

'Another Gallup finding that should alert Democrats is the ongoing collapse of public confidence in government. A survey released earlier this week found that Americans now believe that the federal government wastes 51 cents of every dollar it spends, the highest estimate ever recorded. Twenty-five years ago, that figure stood at only 38 cents. '

'By contrast, the Obama team spent most of 2011 in what turned out to be a failed effort to win over the Independent voters who deserted Democrats in droves last November, in the process alienating substantial portions of the base.' ~ William Galston, September 24, 2011 | 12:00 am

http://www.tnr.com/article/the-vital-center/95296/democrats-ideology-republicans-independents

Democrats Obama, Reid and Pelosi demonstrated their success and popularity by latching onto health care "reform".

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xchfat_snl-health-care_news

'This is the new mainstream in American politics, and it's growing among younger voters. More than 40% of college undergraduates identify themselves as independents, according to a summer 2008 survey by Harvard University's Institute of Politics (IOP). "Half of young Americans do not identify with traditional party or ideological labels - they are the new center in American politics," says John Della Volpe of IOP.'

'This trend extends to 30- to 45-year-old Generation X voters as well, says the author of "X Saves the World," Jeff Gordinier: "Gen Xers tend to be pretty post-ideological and pragmatic, there is less allegiance to any one party or any one way of thinking." ~ By John P. Avlon - Wall Street Journal : October 20, 2008

http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/miarticle.htm?id=3192

'USA Today reports that the Democratic and Republican parties are shrinking at a rapid pace. Faced with few choices at the ballot box, American voters are increasingly holding their collective noses to vote in (D) or (R) candidates while simultaneously detaching themselves from party affiliation.'

'Nowhere is the public rage against party politics seen more clearly than in the widespread unpopularity of Congress. Gallup has been tracking public approval and disapproval of Congress for more than 30 years, and the numbers they report this month are the worst ever seen. General congressional approval is at an anemic 13 percent, and both Democrats and Republican on Capitol Hill get similarly wretched numbers.' ~ Posted by Matt Parker at 12:20 pm

http://sunstateactivist.org/ssablog/2011/12/28/democratic-and-republican-parties-shrink-as-third-party-buzz-rises-in-time-for-2012-election/

'Scozzafava has been endorsed by the Republican leadership in Congress and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and has received roughly $1 million from the National Republican Congressional Committee.'

'But much of the conservative establishment in Washington is throwing its support behind Douglas Hoffman, an accountant from the Adirondacks who is running on the state's Conservative Party ticket. '

http://www.newsobserver.com/2009/10/27/159785/republicans-work-to-defeat-one.html