Shuffle Republic

It's too easy for politicians to remain in office. All they have to do is convince their constituents that they're fighting for them, whether or not they actually are. And even assuming they are, the fighting part is troubling. After all, if you're winning, somebody else must be losing.

The “obvious” solution is to have all voters elect candidates from regions except their own, swapping them randomly at each election. So you might vote for the state comptroller of Florida one year, and a Senate seat from Nebraska the next. But that would negate any concept of constituency, since you never know who you're supposed to be representing.

So let's tweak that a bit. As each election cycle comes, a random number between, say, 1 and 10 is drawn for each candidate. An 8 or lower means candidates are voted on by citizens within their locality, as usual. On drawing a 9 or 10, however, that race enters the “pool”. Once all numbers are drawn, pooled races are distributed randomly to regions that were selected to be in the pool.

This way, you're *probably* going to be re-elected by your primary constituency. But you might not be, and that should give you something to think about the next time you try to pass legislation that only benefits the members of the regional Pork Barrel Producers' Association.