How would you improve the US electoral system?

[Azathoth]

13. Well...

1) Mandatory voting. Pros and cons have been debated for decades. Tends to be rooted in the myth that there is a large bloc of would-be progressive voters out there who need to be forced to the polls. 2020 exploded that myth. Extremely high turnout benefits both sides. If Trump had been only slightly more sane, he might have won. Obviously, then, it comes down to whether the political process in general benefits by forcing a large group of people into it who don't want to be there and likely have no idea what's going on. And that avoids the theoretical difference between a right and a legal duty. Having the right to mandatory voting is like saying you have the right to pay taxes. There's a strong argument to be made that the right to vote for whoever you choose necessarily entails the right to not vote at all.

2) There's been discussion about a federal election commission for some time. There's a couple problems. First is US Federalism. States are sovereign entities and for the most part have the right and responsibility to conduct their own elections, which the federal government can regulate only in certain ways. Then there's the unique problem with presidential elections and the monkey-assed Electoral College system. The state legislatures pick the Electors and no one else. Presidential elections are complete fictions; despite what's written on the ballots, the voters are not actually voting for candidates, nor are they voting for Electors. They're essentially voting in a referendum on which electors the legislature should appoint. There will *always* be the possibility that the legislature could change the law or find a reason not to comply with the referendum. Finally, there is no such thing as an electoral commission that is "apolitical and independent." Everyone votes and has political views and partisan allegiances. Either members of the commission are voted in directly by the public, in which case they're by definition political figures, or else they're appointed through some process that must ultimately be the product of, and subject to, politics (see also: the courts, civil service positions, etc.) When one of the major parties becomes a corrupt death cult, no electoral commission will be immune from that corruption for very long. The basic idea of vote certification is that you cut out all the extra nonsense and have representatives from both parties vote to confirm the election results. If one side flagrantly cheats, the system will grind to a halt and no one will get elected, which is not what any party wants.... except in the special case of presidential elections, where jamming the system doesn't actually prevent someone from being elected, it merely shifts the voting power to another body.

3) This sounds like a prime minister-type system. Ironically, the Electoral College actually *does* work that way when the system functions as originally intended. Originally, the Electors were supposed to function as full-fledged representatives who would meet and debate and investigate and bargain and compromise until they could settle on a president.