Letter: Centralize voting process to make it superior

Thursday, Dec. 7, 2000 | 10:14 a.m.

1. Candidates should be selected at "open" primary conventions at the state level, then the states' representatives would bring to the convention the name of the person selected to represent the party in the subsequent campaign. Also, the "planks" of the party would be determined by issues, identified at the local level, and brought by these delegates to the national convention.

2. Campaigns would be limited from the time the national convention closed until Election Day. The candidates would have to speak out on the issues identified at the national convention and minimize their own thoughts and objectives. Voters would then know what the party stood for and not be charmed by the charisma of the candidate.

3. All votes for the president/vice president would be forwarded to a central, national office with no information divulged until all of the states had closed the polling booths. This would eliminate any influence of the voting in the Midwest and Western states.

Centralized voting would identify the presidential winner the day after voting, without any question to the validity of the count. The popular vote would be the deciding factor and the Electoral College no longer used. The college may have been a valid system at the time of inception (I wasn't around then), but with this new method proposed, who needs it?

EDWARD MAZNICKI