The U.S. has ‘worst elections of any long-established democracy,’ report finds
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Source: Washington Post
What do Argentina, Costa Rica and Brazil have in common?
They all outranked the United States in a comparison of election standards and procedures conducted by the Electoral Integrity Project. The United States ranked 47th worldwide, out of 139 countries.
The survey is a measure of dozens of factors, including voter registration, campaign financing rules, election laws, the voting process and vote count...
In the United States, "experts expressed concern about the quality of the electoral laws, voter registration, the process of drawing district boundaries, as well as the regulation of campaign finance," the report states.
"In the United States, the 2012 Presidential election and the 2014 Congressional elections were ranked worst of any long-established democracy, especially on campaign finance and electoral registration," the report's authors concluded.
"It remains to be seen how experts assess the 2016 US presidential contest,"the expert commission assesses. "But the overall country ranking seems unlikely to improve given persistent problems of campaign funding, heated partisan polarization over registration and balloting procedures, claims of fraud in the Iowa GOP primaries, and an early primary campaign season characterized by the politics of personal attacks, dissatisfied voters, and populist appeals."...
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/03/21/the-u-s-has-worst-elections-of-any-long-established-democracy-report-finds/
hereforthevoting
(241 posts)Too bad we fail on almost every level.
Bad Dog
(2,025 posts)pat_k
(9,313 posts)Bad Dog
(2,025 posts)All the fanfare and razzle dazzle alone seemed really weird for politics.
EdwardBernays
(3,343 posts)Visit Europe and it makes America look really really really poor in this (and many) respects.
and the proof is in the pudding... the leading candidates are both widely distrusted and disliked... the primaries are full of lies and dirty tricks and no one cares at all...
And everyone everywhere thinks the system is corrupt...
Bad Dog
(2,025 posts)Not to the same extent as Trump mind you. Britain was criticised for our first past the post system. That won't change, when we had a referendum on preference voting it was seen as a reward for Liberal Nick Clegg. People who would normally have been in favour of electoral reform voted against it because they hated Nick Clegg.
EdwardBernays
(3,343 posts)But the system itself does produce a much more representative government than the US one does. And every election isn't marred by endless controversy and irregularity. And money isn't a deciding factor to the same degree, because of the shorter election cycled.
In Ireland people don't live the politicians, but the main winner the last election was a variety of independent parties... They didn't win enough to form a government - yet - but they are in government and are much more likely to actually represent people than those that are part of the major parties.
Bad Dog
(2,025 posts)Full of those whose parents could afford to send them to the best public schools. They're not remotely representative of normal people.
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)Skwmom
(12,685 posts)Fast Walker 52
(7,723 posts)we need to mend our own house very badly.
zentrum
(9,866 posts)
..any more. It's an oligarchy nationally, with undertones of a religious state, in some areas. And our oligarchical MSM slowly lulls the masses into a passive compliance.
Fast Walker 52
(7,723 posts)stillwaiting
(3,795 posts)runaway hero
(835 posts)when you base democracy in the celebrity arena, this is what will happen.