We have a serious problem with the accountability of representatives in this country. Campaign promises are made to win votes, then ignored. Career lobbyists work relentlessly to sway representatives to put the interests of well-financed entities over the people who elected them. Additionally, many candidates who bring innovative and popular ideas to the table are gatekept by a controlled primary system.
Proposed Solution - A Proportional General Legislative Caucus
In a nutshell: The people vote for delegates in their districts. All the delegates go to a legislative convention. The delegates group up with other delegates who share similar goals, and vote for representatives. And the representatives with the most votes are elected to the legislature.
There are many details of this system I’ll need to outline; but first, let me describe some of the main benefits:
Delegates are Closer to the People: There will be many more delegates than seats in the legislative body. If there are approximately 8 delegates per seat, that means on average each delegate will have a constituency about 1/8th the size. Therefore they are considerably more accessible to the average person.
Delegates Compete with Lobbyists: Although delegates would have no direct power in the legislature, they would command a lot of influence. During a legislative session, I expect many delegates to be in constant communication with their representatives. This time spent with delegates is time not spent with lobbyists speaking in their ear.
Delegates can Replace bad Representatives: Each representative will answer to the delegates who voted for them; it’s like a board of directors to keep them accountable. If enough delegates feel their representative needs to be replaced, for any reason, they can do so by majority vote (with some restrictions, of course). This also covers all emergency situations where a seat might otherwise be left vacant. Therefore recall elections or special elections would be unnecessary.
The Process - Utah House Example
I will be using my home state of Utah as an example, to explain how I envision this would work to elect the Utah House of Representatives.
For reference, Utah has:
- 75 House districts
- About 1.5 million active voters
- ~20,000 voters per district
0 - Districts, and District Points
Before describing how to become a delegate, I ought to establish the mechanism of delegates transmitting votes from the voters, to votes in the convention.
Each district will be allotted a number of points, to be distributed among the candidates. These points will be very important to elect seats. I would call them “votes”, but to avoid confusion with the votes cast by citizens, I will refer to them as “points”.
For the simplicity of this example, I will assume each district has an equal number of voters, and I will allot each district 200 points - 1 point for every 100 voters. With 75 House districts in Utah, this means in total there will be 15,000 points in the pool at the convention. Remember this for later!
*Note that in practice, you would not choose such nice round numbers. It turns out that for practical reasons, 229 points per district is better, but that doesn’t matter for the sake of the example.
1 - Ballot Access
It should be reasonably easy for a delegate willing to put in some effort to get on the ballot. I think signatures from 1%, or around 200 active voters in their district, is a reasonable hurdle.
2 - Partisan Endorsements
After it is known who has met the threshold to be a delegate, there should be a period of time for delegates to seek partisan endorsements. It is important that parties retain control of their brand, and that delegates retain freedom of association. Both the party and the candidate will have to consent to partisan endorsements. Note that delegates need not obtain a partisan endorsement to run, or even become a delegate. However, getting one will be extremely helpful.
Candidates will be listed on the ballot in affiliation with partisan endorsements. This is important to help keep the process simple for the voter, since the number of options on the ballot should increase.
In Utah, I would expect the parties to make slight modifications to the caucus system to aid in finding delegates.
3 - Voting
Voting in this system should be very simple. All the voter has to do is choose one delegate. And because of the process in the next section, the voter does not have to worry about strategy to avoid their vote being wasted.
4 - Apportionment of District Points
The district’s points will be distributed to delegates proportionally to their vote count. However, to avoid crowding the convention with superfluous delegates, we will need to establish a threshold. Delegates below the threshold will not go to the convention; though they may surrender their points to another delegate in their district.
For our purposes, I’ll establish a threshold of 10%. This ensures each district can send a maximum of 9 delegates, because it is statistically impossible that voters will spread their votes exactly evenly among 10 candidates.
Suppose we have a district with 5 delegates running: Adams, Butler, Cannon, DeMille, and Edison. And recall that each district is allocated 200 points.
If the vote percentages are as follows…
– Adams - 40% (80 points)
– Butler - 25% (50 points)
– Cannon - 15% (30 points)
– DeMille - 13% (26 points)
– Edison - 7% (14 points)
Since Edison is below the 10% threshold, he cannot go to convention. However, before the election, he agreed to surrender his points to Cannon if he failed to reach the threshold. So the district points are ultimately allocated…
– Adams - 80 points
– Butler - 50 points
– Cannon 44 points (+ 14 from Edison)
– DeMille 26 points
… and these four delegates are allowed to proceed to the convention.
5 - The General Legislative Convention
The purpose of the convention is to distribute all the delegates’ points into 75 legislative seats, to represent the state. Delegates will group up, declare points for a candidate they select, and the 75 candidates with the most points will be elected. Note that delegates are free to commit points to each other, themselves, incumbent legislators, or anyone else who is eligible for the office.
- Strategy
From the perspective of a delegate or a candidate, the most important strategic consideration is to secure a seat. So in practice, no one will declare support for a candidate unless they are sure to get the seat.
With 15,000 points and 75 seats, it is natural to assume this quota where you are guaranteed to fill a seat is 200 points (a district’s worth). But it’s actually slightly less… 198 points. So in practice around 1% of points won’t help fill a seat.
- Partisan Agreements
Naturally, parties will expect delegates they endorsed to select from their approved lists. Additionally, voters will expect delegates to make good on these partisan promises. Therefore it is completely reasonable to legally obligate delegates to fill their side of these types of agreements, before committing any free points outside the party.
- Delegate Accountability
How delegates commit their points to representatives will be made public, so voters can hold their delegates accountable.
6 - Post-Election Contingency and Oversight
After the election, delegates retain some authority over their points, for both emergency and accountability. If their representative is incapacitated somehow, they can convene and choose a replacement. This is far more efficient than holding a special election to fill a vacant seat.
Delegates may also issue a recall, and replace their representative, if he fails to meet their expectations, or betrays their trust. Naturally, these decisions would require a high degree of consensus from the delegates involved:
- A supermajority of 2/3 (going by committed points) should agree on a specific replacement
- Frequent recalls should be prohibited. A group of delegates shouldn’t be frivolously hot-swapping themselves in and out of representative office.
Closing Thoughts
One of the strengths of a republic is the way it enfranchises the rights of those in the minority. Unfortunately, the main institution meant to enfranchise minority interests - our lower legislative chambers - continually falls short of this goal.
This is one of my favorite excerpts from John Adams’ Thoughts on Government…
This… “An exact Portrait” …is the high goal our representative assemblies must strive to embody. The less accurately a House of Representatives portrays the interests of the people, the less accountability it must have to them. In such a body there is no majority supremacy; there is no exclusion of rural interests by clever districting. A truly representative body contains “the People at large”. Not just a part of them.