Episode Two: Redesigning the Election
The presidential candidates are spending a lot of time and money in Iowa and New Hampshire these days, but historically elections have been decided by voters in Ohio. In this episode, John Hockenberry and Adaora Udoji head to Cleveland to pose the question: What if the Ohio primary came first? And they talk to people around the country about how they would change the election process.
Listen to the entire episode:
Read the full episode transcript
Why Not Ohio?
So, what if the Ohio primary went first? Ohio perhaps better represents the U.S. than Iowa or New Hampshire does — it's more diverse both geographically and racially, it has more people, and it has a better track record for picking winners (the voters in Ohio have been wrong in the presidential election only twice in past 104 years). Adaora and John talk about how our system got the way it is and then talk to some Ohio voters before running the whole thing by Dan Moulthrop, the host of WCPN's The Sound of Ideas.
Mrs. Kunkel's Fifth Grade Class Redesigns
From Boiling Springs, PA - Mrs. Jan Kunkel's fifth grade class present their election redesign ideas.
Mrs. Kunkel's class made posters to go along with their election ideas. Watch this slideshow to get a sense of what's on their minds.
You Call This Democracy?
Tova Andrea Wang is an expert on election reform and a democracy fellow at the Century Foundation. Be sure to check out her report on why the Iowa caucus system is undemocratic.
Roberto Lovato is a contributing associate editor with New America Media, a frequent contributor to The Nation and the author of the blog, Of America.
Election Process Side Effects
Voting is good for you, unless…
Praying for Rain
Daniel Tokaji is a law professor at Ohio State's Moritz College of Law and the associate director of Election Law @ Moritz, which focuses on laws governing elections at all levels. He's one of the authors of the non-partisan report, From Registrations to Recounts: The Election Ecosystems of Five Midwestern States.
Fannie M. Lewis is a member of the Cleveland City Council. She was featured as part of the short film, No Umbrella, about the 2004 election in one of the nation's poorest neighborhoods. Here's a preview:
Also, we hear redesign ideas from two students at Cleveland's John Marshall High School - Jewel Dunner and Francisca Ong.
Margin of Error
Charles Stewart is a political science professor at MIT. He's studied elections for a long time and we talked to him about whether you can determine a margin of error for the general election. We asked him if there comes a point where the margin of error is close enough that the result is the same as flipping a coin.
Election Splendor
We talked with Cleveland cartoonist Harvey Pekar about our idea that Ohio should go first.
Then, Los Angeles-based community leader and activist Joe Hicks explains why he believes our election systems isn’t so broken that it needs fixing.
And, Toledo based blogger, Lisa Renee Ward, says her favorite redesign is instant run-off voting. She blogs at: Glass City Jungle.
Take a look at Harvey Pekar's Your Billion Dollar Comic Strip
First Time Voters
Sandip Roy and Odette Keeley from New America Media have recently become American citizens. Their experience of voting in their native countries gives them some interesting suggestions for redesigning a process they will soon be taking part in for the first time, a U.S. presidential election.
And, we have a quick redesign idea from Jonathan Lykes. He's a senior at Shaw High School in East Cleveland.
Super Tuesday is a Redesign
Mary Ann Giordano is a deputy political editor at The New York Times. She's learned a thing or two about how the pressure on candidates to compete in Iowa and New Hampshire can change their campaigns. She says this year's Super Tuesday (February 5, 2008) when more than 20 states will hold their primary, is the biggest redesign idea already underway.
