Ballot Initiatives

This last election and the defection of just-elected Democrats to the Republican party, which in my mind constitutes Voter Fraud, has shown a spotlight on the corruption and deception in Mississippi politics.  The electioneering that went on behind the scenes had to have been (and the little bit I witnessed was) astounding.

In order to fight this entrenched corruption, I am suggesting some ballot initiatives.  Read up on the Mississippi Initiative process before continuing here...


There is not a 'single subject' requirement for ballot initiatives in Mississippi, so the following five could be lumped together.  However, I do believe that keeping it simple and trying for each on it's own will get us at least some of them passed.


Proposal One: ( Prevent after-election party switching - we could call it "The Gray Law" after Tollison)

"Be it enacted by the People of the State of Mississippi

Article IV of the Constitution of the State of Mississippi is hereby amended by the Addition of a New Section to read :

Section ##. For all purposes the Party Affiliation of Legislators shall be the party under which they were elected until such time as the term shall expire."

Proposal Two: ( Protected Primaries for Limiting Electioneering )
SECTION 247 of the constitution states :
The legislature shall enact laws to secure fairness in party primary elections, conventions, or other methods of naming party candidates.

Since the legislature has failed miserably in following Section 247 (for example, 100,000 more people voted in the Democratic Primary than the Republican primary, 170,000 more people voted Republican in the general election governor's race than voted Democrat) :

"Be it enacted by the People of the State of Mississippi

Section 247 of the Constitution of the State of Mississippi is hereby amended by inserting "(1)" before the existing text and the Addition of the following :

(2) Only registered members of a Party or those who are not affiliated with any Party may vote in a Party's Primary election."

Proposal Three: ( Allowing for Same Day voter registration )
Since we must now show an ID to vote, we should also allow same day voter registrations.  Currently, if you are not registered to vote four months prior to the election day, you can not vote in the upcoming election.  This is supposedly to allow time to print the voter registration roll that poll workers use.

"Be it enacted by the People of the State of Mississippi

Section 251 of the Constitution of the State of Mississippi is hereby amended by changing the full text to read:

Electors may be registered up until and on the same day of any election in which they may be eligible to vote.  Voters registering up to four months before any election shall be given documentation of their registration.  Such documentation shall include all information required to allow voter and poll officials to verify proper voting location. Voters registering up to four months before any election shall be required to show said documentation to poll officials prior to voting."

Proposal Four: ( Requiring Cascading Voting - see below for example and Instant Runoff and Fair Vote for more information.)

"Be it enacted by the People of the State of Mississippi

The Constitution of the State of Mississippi is hereby amended by addition of a New Section to read:

Section ###. (1) Voting in State Elections shall be done by Cascading Vote. Voters shall be allowed to rank their preference for each candidate in each contested race where there are more than two candidates.  There shall be up to four ranks allowed in each race.  If the first choice fails to acquire a higher percentage of votes than the top two candidates in the race, the second choice shall be given that vote.  If the second choice also fails to acquire a higher percentage of votes than the top two candidates, the third choice shall be given that vote. If the third choice also fails to acquire a higher percentage of votes than the top two candidates, the fourth choice shall be given that vote.

Proposal Five: ( No Confidence on a ballot line )

"Be it enacted by the People of the State of Mississippi


The Constitution of the State of Mississippi is hereby amended by addition of a New Section to read:

(1) In addition to candidates on the ballot for each General Election a ballot line with "No Confidence" shall be included.
(2) Should "No Confidence" get a majority of votes in any race, the Secretary of State shall be required to solicit new and different candidates for that race and to hold a special election to decide all such races."

What are your thoughts?

An example of Cascading Voting (aka "instant runoff" voting)

For example :
On the Ballot are Ron (R), Doug(D), Genny(Green) and Reggie(Reform)

Jimmy casts his vote for 1 (Genny), 2 (Reggie), 3 (Doug) 4 (No Confidence)
Mary casts her vote for 1 (Ron), 2 (Reggie)
Sam casts his vote for 1 (Reggie), 2 (Doug), 3 (No Confidence)

Votes are tallied in Rounds, first round results are :
Ron (R) – 5000, Doug(D) – 4900, Genny(Green) – 2000 and Reggie(Reform) – 2500 with “No Confidence” getting 1000

Second round becomes :
Ron (R) – 5100, Doug(D) – 5800, Reggie(Reform) – 3000 with “No Confidence” getting 1500

(Genny has the least votes, “No Confidence” never goes away. All who voted for Genny as 1, their votes move to their #2)

Third round becomes :
Ron (R) – 5600, Doug(D) – 6800 with “No Confidence” getting 3000

Doug wins! But he can see he was not a first choice for 10500 people – and for 3700 who ended up voting for him. 3000 people wanted to toss out all candidates and start over from scratch.