Campaigns Reformed

Are you sick of the campaign bull shit? With the possible exception of the leeches known as political pundits and the advertising firms who reap in vast amounts of money to air inane ads I am willing to bet the answer is yes.
And the longer the campaigns the more time for hate mongers to spin their inevitable lies. Who would have believed “Swift Boating” would become a verb? And more importantly, why did the people behind those false statements and offensive slanders not pay for their crime? How did those ads help our country fall into the hands of such a moron? Perhaps we all fell asleep at the switch. We are all to blame so we must all find a way out of our rut and learn from history instead of blindly repeating it?
Here is one solution, or at least a start toward one. Let me know what you think and if you like the idea please pass it along to your friends and congressmen.
FROM NOW ON – NEW RULE:
Campaign season for major elections may start one year prior to the election in question and not a day earlier. This means that for a Presidential election the candidates throwing their hats in the ring may do so starting the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November one year before the election. This will also stop anyone from campaigning before the previous years elections have taken place.
Everyone who wishes to run for office may then campaign until the end of March. Monies donated to the campaigns may still be accepted but only a certain amount may be used for the campaigns. The amount may be indexed against inflation but these days both sides certainly should be able to get their respective points across for $100 million. This way the public will hear the message but not be sickened by it. Anything else the electorate needs to know about the candidates may be gleaned by watching or reading about the debates or by researching the previous public service records. Any excess money must be donated to charities. These charities must not be special interest groups or PACs. To be fair generally the parties should agree to donate to charities the other side would like to support.
The month of April is then primary month. All primaries must be held within the middle two weeks of the month and be over by April 21st. The parties may then hold their respective conventions the end of April or any time in May. Then the head to head battle of those left standing should begin.
Both or all parties then have the months of June, July, August, September, and October to debate, stump, and generally campaign to state their cases. The general election should be held as always on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. And the winner shall be determined by the sum total of the popular vote. There shall be no more electoral college.
I think we all need a break from the ever increasing campaign season which this time started just after the current President stole his second election.
And that brings me to the second NEW RULE:
We must come up with a fool proof method of voting and having the votes counted. Read my lips, no more chads. Companies with obvious ties to certain political parties or groups MUST NEVER BE ALLOWED TO RIG ELECTIONS AGAIN. Not that they ever did mind you, I’m just saying…
And since we will never be able to do this I propose that we go back to the old method of pulling the lever or using paper ballots with bonded security guards at all polling places across America. I love our elderly population, in fact I am quickly becoming a member of the group according to the SOBs at AARP but I am never happy about seeing people older than dirt in charge of securing our votes.