In Australia, they have preferential voting. You can have as many candidates as you like, and either you can do it manually, or each candidate specifies their directions. What that means is that if your candidate comes out at the bottom, your vote then goes to who you or they specified next. And it all cascades through until one person ends up winning a majority of the vote. This allows you not to waste a vote, and to have more parties. It's a winner on both.

They also make voting mandatory, with a small penalty not to vote. Which I also think is a good idea. Although sometimes I wish that people had to pass a test on an issue before they can vote. Of course, then the question would be who gets to write the test. If only our education system was as effective as you'd expect from this nation of incredible potential.

What we've got wrong in this country is more fundamental, however. For one, the electoral college has it's good and bad points. The good point is that the rural areas still get representation. The bad point is that the representation is disproportionate. So a Wisconsin voter is worth many Los Angeles voters.

This is exacerbated by gerrymandering. Here districts can be drawn to isolate particular segments. While it's been done by both parties, not surprisingly one has dominated. The point is that it's wrong by either side. What California has done, with an independent committee doing the decisions is the right way to go.

Another problem is voter suppression. Whether taking people off the rolls by name, closing polling places in disadvantaged areas, restricting voting hours, or more, there are many methods that have disproportionally affected minorities and other segments that may vote in opposition to the vested interests.

One last problem surfaced in our last election, and has not been addressed: outside interference. Our current administration has not been proactive in addressing this, perhaps not surprisingly since it was to their benefit.

There's much room for making America truly a land of the people, not the rich. We need to move in this direction. I think we've taken a step back, but hopefully that's the last gap that will push the pendulum in a more positive direction. We have room for improvement on energy, the environment, the economy, and more. Let's make it so.