Solving Our Political Divisions by Ending Winner Take All Presidential Elections.

Instead of right and left pointing fingers at one another we need ideas and solutions if we want to come together as a country.

One flaw in our Presidential Elections is that they are winner-take-all. It doesn't matter that Trump won a substantial amount of states, those voters get nothing. Same thing if the election goes the other way. In 2016 while Clinton lost there were lots of voters who got nothing out of that election.

This is not what the Founding Fathers envisioned. Prior to the election of 1804 there were no President-Vice President tickets. The person who had the most electoral votes was elected President and the person receiving the second most votes would become Vice President.

We need to go back to this system, with an important modification for today. This would let the majority of Americans have a say in who is President while giving the consolation prize of the Vice-Presidency to the loser.

The current system was abolished after the 1800 election because the parties at that time would run two candidates for President in order to game the electoral college to get a President and Vice-President of the same party. After this contested election the Constitution was amended to the current electoral system we have. At time our leaders had no idea that this would make our elections even more partisan, divisive and would lead to the division that we have today.

We can make our Presidential elections better, more uniting and less partisan by moving away from the current winner-take-all system by giving all Americans a "winner" in the outcome. This can be done without abolishing the Electoral College.

I propose that a Constitutional amendment be adopted that does these three things:

1. The person receiving the most electoral votes becomes President, and the person receiving the second most electoral votes becomes Vice-President.

2. That primaries be eliminated. Candidates seeking to appear on the ballot shall be nominated by filing a petitions in each state with the signatures of at least 1500 registered voters in at least 3/4ths of the States. Candidates who meet this threshold are on the ballot in all states.

3. The General Election for electors to the Electoral College be conducted by Instant Runoff Voting. When a candidate receives 50% or more of the popular vote in a state after exhausting all of the the rounds of Instant Runoff Voting, that candidate will receive the electors for that state. This will narrow down the amount of candidates for the Electoral College down to two eliminating the need of Congress to get involved in a contested election.

What is Instant Runoff Voting? Instant runoff voting (IRV) is a ranked choice voting system for single-winner elections that, in a single round of counting, accomplishes the goal of a two-round runoff election. Sometimes called "ranked choice voting," "preferential voting," "majority voting" and "the alternative vote," IRV avoids the undemocratic outcomes of plurality voting that occur when so-called "spoilers" split the majority vote. By allowing voters to rank candidates in order of preference, IRV enables voters to vote their hopes instead of their fears, upholds the principle of majority rule and avoids the expenses and campaign spending associated with two rounds of voting.

Unfortunately when it comes to solving our political differences through political reform, most people see the glass as half empty.  However if we do not resolve to take action to find a political solution that everyone can live with, the results will be far more dire.  Ask any soldier and they will tell you that war is not pretty.  We do not want another Civil War on our soil.  In Matthew 5:9 Jesus Christ said "blessed are the peacemakers."  It's time for a new generation of peacemakers to rise up in politics by bringing forth bold solutions like this that bring Americans together.