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.

Episode Transcript

Sovaida (00:08):
Hello and welcome to Reimagining Our World, a podcast
dedicated to envisioning abetter world and to infusing
hope that we can make theprincipled choices to build that
world.
In this episode, we're going toconsider one significant respect
in which we've been able tosuccessfully reimagine and

(00:31):
reform our electoral system inthe United States.
in the years since this countrywas born, demonstrating that
further reforms are possible ifwe can muster the conviction
that they are achievable andwork tirelessly to achieve them.
Now this subject is definitelytop of mind in the run up to the

(00:54):
elections this year in theUnited States.
We have just about two weeksleft to go, and I've been
reflecting on the various waysin which many of us, regardless
of political persuasion, yearnfor a system that is fit for
purpose for the nation that wehave become, the nation that we

(01:15):
have evolved into.
And what I've noticed is thatthis 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 makethings seem more difficult and
complicated than they need tobe.

(01:36):
Especially when it comes tochange.
And it's no big surprise becausechange for many people connotes
a sense of uncertainty, whichcauses a lot of anxiety.
But what we end up doing as aresult is that we shoot
ourselves in the foot beforewe've even given ourselves a
chance thus depriving ourselvesof the potential benefits of

(01:59):
positive change and hinderingour progress.
If you'll notice, we all knowthat we do this in our
individual lives.
You know, we wanna make achange, 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'lltry this next year," or

(02:22):
tomorrow, or when something elsehappens, when I'm healthier, or
when my kids have gone off tocollege, or when I get that
promotion.
We wait.
And the same is true about ourcollective lives.
We do the same thing.
We know that we yearn for changeand yet we hold ourselves back

(02:42):
by telling ourselves all sortsof stories, coming up with all
sorts of justifications why nowis not the time.
One of the things that I've comeacross that I wanted to share
with you in a moment is that wehave in this country made
significant change to our systemof elections before, and

(03:04):
therefore, surely we can do itagain.
Because one of the things thatone realizes in life is when we
get stuck, when we want to makea change and feel that we can't
--we're not good enough or we'renot capable enough or it's not
the right time-- it's often veryhelpful to go back and look at

(03:24):
other times in our lives whenwe've made significant leaps and
changes.
And to ask ourselves, What wasit that helped us get over that
hurdle?
And also, just to remember thefact that we did it.
The fact that we did itdemonstrates that we're capable,
that it's doable, that we don'tneed to be afraid, and that it's

(03:46):
worth taking the courageous stepto make change.
Now before I delve into thisnugget, this insight of
something that we've done inthis country before, I wanted to
remind us that in a priorepisode of this series,
reimagining our world in episode20, we imagined a world in which

(04:09):
our system of elections wouldchange in some significant ways.
I'm not going to rehash thatepisode.
I would invite you and encourageyou to go back and listen to it.
But some of the top line itemswere to imagine a system in
which there are no politicalparties, where we don't have

(04:29):
this divisiveness, where wedon't have the sense that
they're two sports teamsrivaling each other and the only
quest is for one to win at anycost whatsoever.
Instead, we would vote forindividuals who had qualities
and motives that made themworthy and fit to be leaders.

(04:50):
We also imagined a system inwhich there would be no
nomination of candidates orcampaigning, based on the
insight and understanding thatthose who seek power are those
who often should least betrusted with it.
We envisioned a system in whichthere was not only a secret
ballot, but that we would alllearn and decide that it was

(05:14):
best if we didn't discuss thepeople we were going to vote for
in order not to createdivisiveness.
And there were other aspects, asystem in which corporations
especially would be barred frommaking monetary contributions to
political campaigns, gettingsome of the corrupt influence of
money in politics out.

(05:35):
And beyond that there were othersuggestions.
That we have a system in whichevery member of the community in
the country has a way to haveinput into the system of
decision making by bringing uptopics for consultation and
making suggestions andrecommendations for
consideration by those in power,by elected bodies, and in which

(05:59):
the electorate in return wouldreadily and wholeheartedly
support and obey theirinstitutions, and if they didn't
like what they were doing, thento make changes the next time
they went to the ballot box.
Now, all of this can seemutopian, but what's fascinating
is that things that seemimpossible of achievement today

(06:22):
become very achievable tomorrow.
And to look at instances wherewe've done this before,
especially within the system ofelectoral 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 ispossible.

(06:44):
Here is the nugget that inspiresus to believe that it is truly
so.
We've done it before.
We can do it again.
How so?
When we take our current systemof voting by secret ballot in
the United States into account,we realize this is something we
actually all just take forgranted.

(07:06):
And yet, it was a system thatevolved painstakingly over time.
It was indeed a revolutionarydeparture from the system we
originally had in place.
Now, we should begin by pointingout that the U.
S.
Constitution did not provide forany sort of voting system.
So it was left up to us tofigure out what kind of process

(07:30):
we wanted to engage in overtime, and it's something that
has evolved.
What many of us may not know ormay have forgotten is that
initially the way votes werecast was by voice voting or viva
voce, in which individualseligible to vote--generally at

(07:51):
the time white men who werelandowners or paid taxes-- would
stand in the market square andwould say out loud, I vote for
this person, this candidate, orI vote for the other candidate.
Or those who voted who weregoing to vote for one candidate
would move to one side of themarket square, and those who

(08:11):
were voting for the other wouldmove to the other side.
In other words, everybody couldsee whom they were going to vote
for.
Now as time went on, one of thethings that evolved, which
incidentally did not exist, andthis is another really
interesting point, politicalparties did not exist at the
beginning, but they graduallyevolved.

(08:32):
despite the warning given byGeorge Washington in his
farewell address in 1796, thatit would lead to a lot of
headache and could ultimately bethe cause of us undermining our
very system of democracy that weso cherished in this republic

(08:53):
that had been so painstakinglycreated.
Anyway, as these politicalparties evolved, the parties
started to devise schemes toensure that their members voted
for the candidate of choice oftheir party.
So what ended up happening wasthat each party would print out

(09:13):
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 everyonecould see them.
And they would dole them out tothe members of their party.
And on election day people wouldwalk along in town with their

(09:35):
party tickets, these huge piecesof paper.
And again everybody around couldsee exactly which party you were
going to vote for.
These were called party tickets.
Unfortunately, as we discoveredover time, this system lent
itself to some terrible things,including intimidation and

(09:55):
fraud.
The party bosses really becamelike mob bosses.
They would send people to watchto make sure that their people
were casting votes for theirparticular candidate.
They're voting the right way.
So that was the first thing.
Sometimes they would force theseelectors to go out and cast

(10:17):
their ballots several times.
So they would like shove theminto, you know, go and vote.
And as they came out, they wouldchange their clothes, put on
disguises, send them in withanother ballot, which of course
the parties were printing up, sothey could print whatever
ballots they wanted, send themin to vote again.
So this system lent itself tovoter fraud, which was not a

(10:41):
good thing.
And it lent itself tointimidation.
People were beaten up.
Sometimes there was violence inthe market square on election
day.
One of the favorite tactics ofthese political party machines
was to try and stop people fromthe other party casting their

(11:02):
votes.
Sometimes it means that theywould come at them with sticks
and beat them up and get intheir way, tackle them, do
whatever was necessary.
So we can see how this veryunpleasant process got to the
point where a lot of people wereyearning for change.
And there were many attemptsmade over time to try and have a

(11:26):
secret ballot so that peoplewouldn't be intimidated, people
wouldn't know whom you weregoing to vote for, and couldn't
then pressure you to vote oneway or the other.
And it came along in progressivesteps.
It's all very interesting.
We're not going to get into itin detail, but at some point
people in some places, wereallowed to fold their tickets
and put them in their pockets sothat as they're walking through

(11:48):
town, to cast their votes,people wouldn't know what the
color of that ticket was.
Eventually, after much research.
agitation and insistence thatthere be a change in the system
of voting, we finally adoptedwhat was known as the Australian
ballot, which was the secretballot process that we now have.

(12:11):
It was first envisioned andimagined in Australia, and it
was first put into place there.
England then adopted it, learntfrom the Australians, and we
then eventually learnt it fromEngland.
So, this Australian ballot,which is the secret ballot, then

(12:32):
became the system according towhich we voted, which is a
system we basically still havetoday, 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 onthe head with sticks or standing

(12:54):
in your way to stop you fromapproaching the ballot box.
So, the path to this currentsystem was imperfect and very
tortuous, but it finally got usthere, and we now take it for
granted.
The encouraging fact in thisstory, and the reason I wanted

(13:15):
to share it today, is that if wecould re imagine the change
regarding secret ballots, andchange our collective minds from
believing that it was bad, bestto openly know where everybody
stood, to understanding thedownsides of the system, and
then making the changes.
If we could do that with respectto secret ballots, there is no

(13:38):
reason why we shouldn't be ableto make other changes, like
getting rid of politicalparties, or implementing some of
the other ideas mentioned at thetop of this episode, or in
episode 20, if you want moredetails.
The thing, folks, is that weshouldn't have to wait until the

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pain of the system we're in isso great and so excruciating
that we finally say, okay, wewill make changes.
Surely we're intelligent enoughto look ahead and see that the
system isn't working, and tointentionally and in a
consultative manner come up witha different and better system.

(14:22):
It requires that we, first ofall, recognize, open our eyes
and accept the downsides of thesystem that we have and that it
far outweighs any benefits.
Secondly, that we harness ourfree will choice in order to
work hard and tirelessly untilwe affect the change.
And thirdly, that we recognizewe don't have to wait until the

(14:45):
process gets so painful in orderto make change.
If you're interested in thistopic and are interested in
learning about the suggestedchanges that one could imagine
to the system of elections wehave in this country and in
other countries around theglobe, please look for the video
podcast episode 20, either onthe CPGG YouTube channel, or all

(15:09):
our episodes are also nowavailable as audio podcasts, on
your favorite podcast platforms,so, Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
Podmeet, Bean, any platform onwhich you prefer to hear your
podcasts.
So that is it for today.
Thank you for giving me yourtime and to reflecting and

(15:31):
reimagining with me how ourelectoral system could be.
See you next month.
Bye bye.
That's all for this episode ofReimagining Our World.
I'll see you back here nextmonth.
If you liked this episode,please help us to get the word
out by rating us and subscribingto the program on your favorite

(15:52):
podcast platform.
This series is also available invideo on the YouTube channel of
the Center for Peace and GlobalGovernance, CPGG.