How about a ten-step election program to bring a meaningful vote back to the people?

Here are a few ideas:

1. No soft or hard money will be available for campaigns. All TV and radio stations will make adequate broadcast time for the top five Presidential and Congressional candidates that appear on ballots in most States, in return for the right to use the public's airways.

2. The President shall be president of all the people, relinquishing any party membership at his inauguration, will not be available for fundraising events or make endorsements while in office.

3. There will be just one six-year term for the President and the Congress. Campaigning cannot start earlier than nine months preceding the elections. Without fundraising obligations, candidates will have time to get much more done.

4. The people will vote on political pay raises via National referenda, but the amounts finally awarded may never be less than the national average income (now more than three times the minimum wage) nor more then three times the average wage.

5. All political / bureaucratic personnel shall be required to pay into the same Social Security system as the public and receive the same benefits.

6. The Electoral College shall be eliminated and replaced by the popular vote.

7. All politicians' votes shall be on public record, along with any connection they may have to companies, industries and people that will be affected by their vote on each issue, and be widely publicized before and after the vote.

8. Every state will have a right to propose referenda in every primary election. The five referenda receiving the most votes in the primary election shall appear on the national ballots in their states.

9. Voters registered as Independent shall have their own primaries to vote for candidates other than those running for the two main parties. No less than the five top vote-getting candidates in these primaries shall receive equal time on TV and be invited to all debates.

10. The percentages of lawyers and retired career military personnel elected to Congress shall not exceed the percentages of practicing lawyers and active career military personnel in the general population.

Richard DeFeo