After the US national voting fiasco of 2004, my goal was to increase voter participation and empower democracy. In 2004-2008 I contacted the US Govts and the State of Calif about my inventions. I got no replies, but was was protected by a series of evolving applications and patent pending laws.( see www.securevote.biz then search US Patent Office and Canadian Patent Office for Computerized Voting System ). Every document submitted had patent pending info and copyright notices. Refer to wikipedia.org - US Copyright laws and Derivative Works. So I saved Calif. tens of millions of dollars, get my ideas "borrowed", but no fair payment for use of my inventions - patent pending ideas and copyrighted materials. However-I also note that Calif applied one or two of their own new methods. All in all, they did a fabulous job of getting this democracy initiative working for their people - 2 cheers !! Why am I not too put out ? Well, millions of people fought and died in many wars around the world to give us democracy - freedom of choice. The least we could do is to give this some thought and sincere efforts to improve democracy. Possibly more than any nation, this is something that Americans empower very seriously - they back democracy concepts with lives, money and sincere court democracy initiatives reflected in actual practices to voting for judges and leaders at all levels of public government (something we need in Canada ).
I also contacted our Canadian Govt ( Federal, Provincial and Mayors of large cities ) way back in 2004 explaining the concept - I got a few "good idea" comments, but no support (except Halifax, which I was not ready for at the time ). Our Canadian Govts are very happy to keep wasting billions of dollars every election and tolerate low voter turnout because it usually keeps the incumbents in power. I still say that my Vote-By-Mail method we could save taxpayers 80-90% of election costs - I once calculated we could do ALL Elections in Canada (Federal, Provincial, Municipal, School Boards ) for about $60-80 million - compared to over $300 million for just one Federal Election !! visit my website www.securevote.biz
(soon to be mirrored at evote.com.co ). All we need is public pressure to create political will and a few million and we will improve democracy for everyone.
What do I think future democracy may be ? Ideally, TRUE democracy must become proportional representation, whereby each vote does count to elect a proportional number of officials of a political party. This can be done with a flexible number of extra seats allocated to achieve that essential goal. Then every political position of government is then also proportionally distributed - if party X gets 40% of the votes, they should get 40% of elected positions - with all positions (except the leader) being randomly assigned. Who fills the positions are then decided within each political party, the government leadership should be a vote by the public or by all elected officials from all parties to ensure that the best person gets the job to represent the government. That is why I agree that second choice balloting is also a great idea (eg San Francisco Civic Govt).
For the public, this ensures that a sensible consensus and the best people for the jobs are empowered rather than the most dominant personality or a single empowered individual (and their personal biases, corporate loyalties, political or religious opinions).
Each elected official should also have controlling voting rights for the spending of their proportional percentage of the total annual budget - if party X got 40% of the vote, then they should directly control 40% of the annual govt budget. That way each elected official and their political party truly gets a direct say in controlling how the publics money is spent - how much each govt dept and govt programs are supported. This also prevents the tyranny of destitution being used to starve out the losing parties and to punish their supporters - forcing them to become part of the "winning team" no matter how cruel, idiotic and grossly prejudiced their ideas (eg 1930's Nazi Germany).
So TRUE democracy actually encourages true freedom of thought, if I think party X is the best choice, then even if your local candidate does not win, then your vote still helps your political party choice in the larger picture. You are allowed to believe and support what you want to - and thus human innovation and fair questions are empowered. Why must we all be forced to conform to the most recent ideologies currently in vogue or the most successful (best funded) election campaign ? Truly, all advances in every human endeavour arise from innovative thinking that improves upon, or otherwise challenges conventional thoughts and practices. That is essential to the advancement of the human species. The structure of the political process should not impede progress, nor impose psychological constructs of such restrictions upon a truly "free" society.
Our problem in Canada is we are too deeply programmed in our own version of The Matrix (a movie metaphor for us to wake up and look at our societal constructs) to actually realize that we are in a paternalistic society where politics is far too often the tool used to subsidize wealthy corporations ( banks, oil ) rather than providing affordable mortgages (rules & rates) for more people, more quality jobs and industries. Canada donated over 75 BILLION dollars to the big banks last year (they had over 400 Billion in assets). As far as the Law Courts go, it is clear that as long as you are politically connected (cocaine trafficking/possession), or a corporate big-shot, in Canada you are exempt from the written laws (pollution, negligence, public exposure to toxins). Laws are meted out only for we (and wee) common folks of the public (taxpayers, adults, youths, seniors). Far too often our media system carefully redirects attention elsewhere and avoids pressing the fact those white-collar criminals get off totally free. This garbage goes on in most professions too, as long as you are politically connected, you can be the devil incarnate and get away with it. Complaints against politically appointed members of professional boards (and public utilities) are buried, downplayed and fall upon deaf ears. So I really think we do need to empower the public more to be able to elect members for an overseer board, to watchdog the Canadian & Provincial Law Courts which enjoys unquestioned, uncontrolled private abuses of power. We need regional/provincial overseer boards to enable professionals to have a empowered third party, outside politics, that will act in the best interests of the public and the professionals who work well to serve us all. We should not tolerate allowing undeserving people getting ahead, abusing or wasting a job space that other hardworking, honest decent people are denied - or- subject to unreasonable silence on issues or abuses of governing members power to revoke their licenses.
Give professionals an external mechanism to effect control on their professional governance. Give people the democratic right to select people to review and police our justice system outside of the hands of politicians and big business lobbyists.
People died horribly in many wars to create democratic societies and Freedom of Choice ( good song by DEVO-early 1980's ). So the least WE can do in our relatively peaceful, comfortable world of today is to honour their efforts, complete their mission to diligently improve democracy - for everyone's sake.
