The Constitution distinguishes between the states and the District of Columbia, and it authorized only the states to vote for the President, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. Therefore, the residents of the District of Columbia were not allowed to vote for the President or the Congress.
In 1961, the following constitutional amendment was thus necessary to enable the residents of the District of Columbia to vote for the President – but not for Senators or Representatives.
The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as Congress may direct:
A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than the least populous State; they shall be in addition to those appointed by the States, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State; and they shall meet in the District and perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment.
The reason that the Constitution prevented the residents of the District of Columbia from voting is because that would have been such an unhealthy conflict of interest.
The intent was clear, but the mechanism was clumsy and inadequate for the leviathan that is government today, so why not amend the Constitution to let the residents of DC vote, while removing unhealthy conflicts of interest?
Such an honest voter amendment could lead to very small numbers of voters in some places like the District of Columbia, so let’s also fix the electoral college while we’re at it.
The Honest Voter Amendment:
Only an individual human being may vote.
One may not vote while one voluntarily seeks employment with the government, loans money to the government, borrows from the government, receives a check from the government, or works for a business that sells goods or services to the government.
No American citizen shall be compelled to serve the government, loan money to the government, borrow from government, or work for any business.
A state or district whose proportion of the nation’s eligible voters is less than one half of one percent shall have no Senators. A state or district whose proportion of the nation’s eligible voters is equal to or greater than one half of one percent, but less than 1 percent, shall have one Senator.
That's too complex.
ReplyDeleteHow would you determine if most of business' profit is coming from government?
You can determine if most of revenue is coming from government, but even then - such information could be a trade secret that low level employees may not know about.