Every citizen has a marker. You cast your marker with whatever candidate you favor. The one who has the most markers ***at any time*** is the elected official. But, here's the fun part: you can also vote at any time and change your vote at any time! Campaigns can start at any time! And YOU can elected ANYONE even if they aren't on the ballot. It's like the draft. You get elected president? Tough luck, get your bum to the white house, fool. Woo hoo!

So, whenever a politician ticks you off by doing something... anything... you storm down to city hall, or go online in a huge rage or something and change your vote right then and there. BAM! BOOM! THAT POLITICIAN IS UNVOTED!

To keep this system from being *too* wild, however. I shall introduce the following incentive for people NOT to change vote every single day. You see, in this system, the longer your vote stays with a given candidate the more it is worth:

1st year it's worth 1 vote... 2nd year it's worth 2 votes... 3rd year it's worth 2 votes... 4th year it's worth 3 votes... 5th year it's worth 3 votes... 6th year it's worth 3 votes...

(from then on out it's worth 3 votes)

I also think we could make this a continuous function of some kind, so the power of your vote grows day by day until it reaches maturity at a strength of 3 votes. (Or maybe it could be logarithmic? And then we could do away with the upper limit of 3 votes.)

Term limits still apply. Voting is compulsory, but you can choose to officially cast your marker with "nobody" and leave it there for life. Votes for "nobody" are only ever worth 1 vote. If "nobody" has the lion's share then the government is over.

You can also cast your vote for "anybody" this vote is worth zero and indicates acceptance of the will of other voters to make the choice for you. I know it sounds sheep-like, but some people really don't care and this gives them an option.

Although voting is compulsory, it's unobtrusive, since you only need to do it once in a lifetime-- if you vote for "nobody" or "anybody"-- or as the term limits come up. (People with religious/moral objections to participating in politics would be exempt-- as it works for the draft.)
-- futurebird, Feb 21 2008

The write-in version of this, in a way. real-time_20forest_20voting
[jutta, Feb 21 2008]

Not a bad idea amongst the collection of terrible voting systems mooted on this site. It would encourage short-termism amongst our great (and glorious) leaders - but then, they're pretty short-termist already.
-- wagster, Feb 21 2008


This is just election by popularity poll.
-- DrCurry, Feb 21 2008


That's what an election is.
-- wagster, Feb 21 2008


[Something about the fickle nature of the mob and how you can't let it control things in such a direct fashion]

This would lead to exactly where we are, if not complete anarchy.
-- daseva, Feb 21 2008


I'm thinking it's going to take exactly one election cycle for the majority to vote "nobody", especially if it's compulsory.
-- Noexit, Feb 22 2008


I like this. Only thing is, there would have to be a system by which a citizen would get a "Your candidate is passed away - please re-vote" notice (when appropriate).
-- globaltourniquet, Feb 22 2008


<onboard AirForceOne>Mr. President, the new polls just came through, and you're out. Here's a parachute.<obAF1>
-- lurch, Feb 22 2008



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