How to Organize the Direct Election of US Presidents in a Way Which Will Restore Reason and Eliminate Costs to the Candidates, Based on Internet Voting

Abstract

My previous essays, posted here on SSRN, have shown:
1) that Internet voting can be as secure, private, fast, convenient, and accurate as an online purchase or e-banking transaction;
2) what the original intentions of the Framers were for US presidential elections; and,
3) how our current presidential election process is definitively controlled by the contributing class, as Barack Obama’s campaign financing shows.

The present essay will show, in detail, how US presidential elections can be organized so as to restore the original intentions of the Framers for a process based on rational deliberation, free of the irrational influences of campaigns, and cost-free for the prospective candidates. Federal matching funds will not be necessary. Unlimited spending on candidate promotion by special interests and political parties will be permitted, but its affect on the voter will be neutralized by the very structure of the new system.

Contrary to the intentions of the Framers, this suggested process will empower the voters to directly elect their president and vice-president. This variance from their original intentions is justified by the growth in sophistication of the American people since the 18th century, when a majority was illiterate. Also not intended by the Framers, is the system of Internet voting which makes the new process possible. (This book was written before the emergence of Blockchain Technology, which can further enhance election security.) But our Constitution is a living document, and has often adapted to technological change.

Keywords: presidential election reform, election reform, internet voting, electronic democracy