|  |
|
 Why We Need Election Reform Now
Our democracy is founded on the principle that we the people have the right to elect leaders who will represent our views and act upon our needs. And yet, over the last few decades, our representatives in Congress have become increasingly partisan, more responsive to the extreme wings of their parties than to the needs of mainstream Americans.
But it doesn't have to be this way. Through fundamental election reform, we can reverse this troubling trend.
Due to a broken process by which congressional districts are drawn, incumbent politicians and political parties have been given control over which voters live in their districts. Essentially, representatives are now allowed to choose their voters rather than the voters choosing their representatives.
Before the 1992 congressional elections, after redistricting under the 1990 census, the Cook Political Report listed 121 House seats as "competitive." By 2004, that number had dropped to just 36. Thirty-six races out of 435 — that translates to 8%. And, in all House races, 98% of incumbents are routinely reelected.
Would Americans stand for elections that were 8% competitive if they took place in another country? Would Americans stand for elections in another country where 98% or more of all incumbents are regularly reelected — a result, as The Economist has noted, "which would hardly shame North Korea"?
We don't believe they would. The Centrist Coalition joins a variety of public interest groups in calling for voters to take the redistricting process out of the hands of self-interested incumbent politicians. We urge action at the state and federal levels to create non-partisan, independent commissions in each state charged by law with redrawing congressional districts based on common-sense, geography-centered standards.
Real Democracy only comes when voters have Real Choice.
To find out what you can do, click here.
|
| |
|
|
|
