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A direct democracy is difficult to manage on a local level, let alone a national level. It is because of this that representative democracy must be used. The question then becomes what form of representative democracy is the most democratic? How could such a thing be measured? Some say the more elections you have the more democratic you are. Others say the more political parties you have the more democratic you are. Let us consider instead, the percent of the population represented after an election. For the purposes of the examples only the voting populace is taken into account, as the people who have the opportunity to vote yet don’t, forfeit their representation.

In the United States the senators and congressmen are directly elected. Traditionally it is a two-party system. Therefore the minimal percent of votes required to win is greater than 50, which means the number of people who vote but are not represented is just under 50%. In reality these minimal numbers don’t happen that often, yet these minimal numbers aren’t even the lowest possible. With the inclusion of additional parties the candidate needs only the plurality of the vote in order to win. This is known as “The first past the post” style of election.

During the 2008 United States Senate Election in Minnesota, there was a heated series of court cases between candidate Al Franken and incumbent candidate Norm Coleman. In the end Al Franken was declared the winner by 215 votes. What makes this case so interesting is not that the fact that Franken won the seat by court decision, or that it was so close that just under half of the voting population wasn’t represented. What makes this case so interesting is that the majority were not represented. Al Franken and Norm Coleman got only ~42% of the vote each. Third party candidate Dean Barkley got ~15% of the vote, which means that ~59% of Minnesota voters were not represented in the election.

The President of the United States is elected via the Electoral College. As of the 2000 Census there were 538 total Electoral College votes, meaning 270 are needed to win. Since Electoral College votes are distributed by state population, in a best (or worst) case scenario, a candidate only needs to win California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina, and New Jersey to win the presidential election. Also take into consideration that in order to win a state the candidate just needs a plurality of the vote. The combined populations of the above 11 states are ~171,000,000. Assuming that voter turnout is 100% and only two candidates are running in each state, of the 11 states a candidate needs only ~85,000,000 votes in order to secure the presidency. Using the 2000 census, ~30% of the people are represented. A situation where a candidate loses the popular vote but wins the presidency does not occur often, but it is not unheard of. In fact this situation has occurred four times in U.S. history; in 1824, 1876, 1888, and most recently in 2000.

During the 2000 presidential election former Vice President Al Gore received 543,895 more votes in the popular count than former Texas Governor George W. Bush, but lost the Electoral College by 5 votes. Also like the legislature, these aren’t truly the lowest votes a candidate needs in order to win an election. The inclusion of third party candidates makes it lower.

The justices of the Supreme Court of the United States are selected by the President and therefore 0% of the people are represented. However it should be noted that the justices are non-partisan. At this point some may be shocked by the numbers. Others may be saying that the numbers are so extreme that they skew realistic election results. In fact these numbers are unrealistic, but are theoretical possibilities. Keep in mind that the proposed form of government will be put under the same scrutiny.

“Every five years from the ratification of this constitution, there shall be an election on the first Tuesday in February. The population shall vote for the party they think would best run the government. The seats awarded to each party shall be proportional to the population that voted for that party. Seats where several parties have a partial claim, shall be awarded to the parties with the greatest partial claim.

The party’s leadership shall fill the position with the candidates they think are best. On the first Tuesday in November of the same year, an election will be held to determine how much weight the vote of a member will count. The weight will be equal to the number of people who voted for them.

A person shall be able to cast one vote per council per election.” – Article IV

The Government of The United Peoples of Earth has a theoretical minimum representation of 100%. Some may say this is impossible. However this can be accomplished by reworking the structure of the Executive, Judicial, and Legislative. The restructuring will be discussed in greater detail later, however for the time being, keep in mind that there are multiple Presidents, Supreme Court Justices, and Congressmen. Let them be known as Executive Council Members, Judicial Council Members, and Legislative Council Members, respectively. Also keep in mind that the number of council members will be based on total population.

There are two election rounds. During the first election round, the people will vote for the party they think should win seats based on their issue positions. They may vote for only one party per council. The results of the election will be used to divide the seats proportionally. Unless the vote count comes out perfect, multiple parties will have partial claim to multiple seats. These contested seats will be awarded to the parties with the greatest partial claim. In this particular round representation will be less than 100% due to the fact that some smaller parties might not get enough votes to secure a single seat, and parties with a small partial claim would not have all their voters represented. However these issues are corrected in the second round of elections.

In the mean time, the parties will need to select people to fill the seats. The party may fill the seats in any way they see fit. Ideally they should fill the seats through a democratic process, but do not have to, despite the fact that the party risks the loss of votes should they use non-democratic methods. Once the seats have been distributed and filled, the power of their fillers must be determined.

During the second round of elections each person shall cast their vote for a member on each council. The final weight of a council member’s vote is equal to the number of votes received in the second round, in that each vote represents power conferred upon the council member. Since the voters’ selected council member will hold a seat and have a vote, representation is 100%. The first election may be thought of as a vote of ideology, where the people will vote for the party that aligns most with their way of thinking, and the second election as a vote of competence where the voter will select the council member they feel to be the most qualified to do the job.

I. A More Secure Voting Machine

Every polling place should use a standard electronic voting machine. The production and distribution of these voting machines as well as all supplemental hardware and software should be managed by a government organization as opposed to a private organization for greater security. The machine should provide a simple and easy to use method of voting such as a large font, multilingual touch screen and should yield two paper trails. One of the two paper receipts are for the voter and the other for the polling place to be kept as a hard copy backup. Each paper receipt should have a printed bar code on it that corresponds to the results the voter cast. The voter should be able to see the printout that the polling place keeps to reduce the chances of computer error. Each voting machine in a polling place should connect to a central server in the polling place to store the vote tallies. This connection should not be wireless nor should it be accessible outside the polling place. This server will contain several redundant hard drives. These hard drives shall be escorted to destinations at various levels of government for the votes to be calculated and verified. For example if you live in the EU you may cast several votes that apply to the local, regional, national and international level. Therefore at least four hard drives would be required as votes will be verified by four different bodies of government.

If several hard drives fail, a good hard drive can be used as a backup until blank replacements can be installed. If all the hard drives fail the polling place can quickly scan the bar code printouts to back up the information once blank replacement hard drives are installed. Furthermore, hacking the system will be extremely difficult from an outside source due to the fact that voting systems will be on a closed wired network.

II. Increased Voter Identity Verification

A central voter registration database should be created that holds a registered voters name, polling location, and an ID number. Ideally the ID number should appear on a government issued photo ID. For most people this would be a Drivers License or government issued ID. When the polling places servers are loaded with the required ballot information a government body overseeing voter registration will distribute the voter information to the respective polling places. When a voter goes to vote they will be required to present their government issued photo ID to verify their identity. Once done the voter will sign into the voting machine using their ID number. After they have cast their vote they will not be able to cast a second ballot nor will they be able to cast a ballot at another polling place as their voter information is stored at only one polling location.

III. Increased Voting Efficiency

If a person has access to the internet and a printer, they should be able to go a government run website that contains all ballot information for the various polling places. This website should be vigorously tested for security on a daily basis. On this website a voter may cast a ballot and print out a voting receipt with the barcode corresponding to their vote choices. For security purposes this ballot will not be recorded as an official vote but the voter will be able to bring their voter receipt to their designated polling place. Once there and after the voter has verified their identity they may swipe there voter receipt, verify their vote and leave. This should greatly reduce the time it takes to vote and shorten voting lines. The voter should receive a copy of their receipt as recorded by the voting machine and so should the polling place as if they filled out their ballot at the polling place.

Whether a voter swipes their ballot or fills it out at the polling place they should have the option to change their vote prior to finalizing it. The reason being that if a voter changes their mind or made a mistake during the voting process, they may correct their ballot.

On another note I have created a small music video that talks about the origins of the UN. I Hope you enjoy it.

The song is Union by Sabaton off their new album Art Of War.

The maps were gathered from various internet sources. The UN map consists of the members of the UN charter not the UN declaration.

The posters are part of the WWII UN series put out by the United States Government.

The UN flag is the original one designed when the UN was formed. Though the flag hasn’t changed much over that time.

For more information on Sabaton visit Sabaton.net

For more information on WWII and the United Nations visit Wikipedia.org

Video Assembled by TUPOE.org

I. It should be a challenge to alter a constitution.

A constitution is the highest legal document in a government. By default, it should be harder to change then a national law otherwise its purpose is defeated. That having been said that doesn’t mean it should be too much harder, for if it was change would be almost impossible.

II. A constitution should be moderately simple.

A constitution’s stability is in its simplicity. It should address several basic issues and not much more than that. A constitution should address:

1. The setup of a government that the constitution governs directly.

2. The relationship between said government and the smaller governments that it encompasses.

3. The relationships between the smaller governments within the encompassing government.

4. The relationship between the smaller governments and foreign governments through the encompassing government.

5. The relationships of the people to the encompassing government as well as smaller governments to which certain inhabitants are not citizens. In particular an outline of human rights, freedoms, and liberties.

III. Be moderately generic.

When addressing the above issues try not to address them specifically. For example you do not want to address the required mpg rating of a type of vehicle. Instead you would want to empower a branch of the established government to deal with that issue. The reason being addressing specific issues could deadlock the government since it would require a constitutional change every time an issue needed to be revisited.

IV. Equal Treatment equals broad acceptance.

Finally, if you want to get your constitution accepted by all you must treat all equally so one group doesn’t think they are getting cheated. Laws that apply to one smaller government should apply to all smaller governments. Laws that apply to one person should apply to all peoples. Etc.

Thank You

Thank You