It's probably not a big surprise, but there was a good deal of consensus at the American Constitution Society that the electoral system in the United States is a flat-out mess.
Agreeing on how to fix the problems is another matter.
In a Saturday discussion titled "Picking the President: Parties, Primaries, and the Democratic Process," panelists discussed the numerous hiccups that arose during the 2008 primary season and paid particular attention to the Democratic nominating process.
Panelists included Chris Bowers, co-founder of the OpenLeft Web site; Jan Baran, a partner at Wiley Rein; Hendrik Hertzberg, a former Jimmy Carter speechwriter and senior editor and staff writer at The New Yorker; Stanford Law Professor Pamela Karlan; Ronald Klain, vice president and general counsel at Revolution LLC and former chief of staff for former Vice President Al Gore; Joe Trippi, chief executive officer and long-time Democratic presidential campaign adviser. Melody Barnes, executive vice president for policy at the Center for American Progress, moderated the discussion.
Hertzberg argued for a move to a national popular vote that makes the Electoral College. He said that a national popular vote wouldn't need a constitutional amendment if states with at least 270 electoral votes agreed to a compact that would require their electors to vote for the candidate that won the popular vote.
Klain, who was portrayed by Kevin Spacey in Recount, the recent HBO movie about the 2000 election, called the Electoral College a "horrible legacy" that will continue to negatively affect future presidential elections.
Bower called for doing away with nominating caucuses in some states to increase voter turnout. He also argued for a uniform secret ballot for all state primaries.
In perhaps the most passionate argument of the panel, Karlan argued that current minimum requirements for voting are disenfranchising prospective voters and are outdated.
"Do you really need to know how to drive to vote? No, I don't think so. It's as if the government believes a bunch of foreigners are going to sneak into our country and influence the election. That's not going to happen. We fear aliens and disenfranchise nuns," Karlan said, referring to a group of nuns who were not allowed to vote in the Indiana primary because they did not have photo IDs.
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