Help Depolarize America’s Political System

My name is Paul Curtis. I’m an ex history and government teacher with two decades of experience with changing people’s behavior.

I’m devastated to see our political system so broken. It’s too easy to blame politicians for what’s wrong … the reality is the system needs to change. It encourages partisanship over cooperation, rewards campaigning over governing, protects the Democratic and Republican parties, demonizes those with different perspectives, and has turned friends and family against each other.

But it’s not hopeless. With a few changes to how our political system works, I think we can get America back on track.

I created Vote5 to improve the way our politicians behave. Vote5 proposes five popular changes that would depolarize the discourse, give voters more choices in candidates, and encourage our elected officials to work together.

1. Implement Ranked-Choice Ballots - Allows voters to rank their candidates from first choice to last choice instead of just picking one.

2. Eliminate The Electoral College - The out dated institution artificially divides us into Red and Blue states and puts the election of the president into the hands of a few swing states. It’s time for it to be abolished.

3. Income Tax Earmarking - Allowing tax payers to direct at least some of their tax obligation toward agencies and programs they support takes the fire out of the anti-tax arguments and helps people feel better about the taxes they are paying.

4. Prevent Gerrymandering - Gerrymandering allows political parties to manipulate voting district in order to keep them in power. It is done by both parties and it is inherently undemocratic. It’s the very definition of “rigging the system”.

5. Campaign Finance Reform - The recent Supreme Court decision in Citizens United has removed many of the campaign finance regulation that helped protect our election system from big donors and dark money that can corrupt our government. Campaigns should be a contest of ideas, not bank accounts.

If even a few of these ideas sound good to you, consider donating a few bucks the cause.

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How the money will be spent:

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