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T.RALL : THE CASE FOR A NATIONAL RECALL ELECTION [View All]

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tocqueville Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Dec-01-05 07:41 PM
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T.RALL : THE CASE FOR A NATIONAL RECALL ELECTION
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One solution is to establish a California-style recall system on the national level. If a significant percentage of Americans loses confidence in the president and his administration to the extent that they're willing to sign a recall petition, a special election should be held within three months. The number of required signatures should be high enough--California's system calls for 12 percent of the number of people who cast votes in the preceding election--to ensure that recalls are only held as the result of widespread disgust among the citizenry.

To avoid disruption, the constitutional amendment creating the recall provision could prevent such elections from being held more often than, say, annually. And a recall won't automatically result in a new party taking over the White House--just a new administration. But it would replace our current system of political stagnation with a more dynamic democracy.

The threat of recall would make sitting leaders responsive to the people more often than the current four-year election cycle, and would allow disastrous and unpopular leaders like Bush to be replaced posthaste. Of course, national recall elections wouldn't guarantee that the people would always be happy with their leaders. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the man who replaced Gray Davis after the recall, currently "ranks among the most unpopular governors in modern California history," reports the San Francisco Chronicle. But Californians don't have to wait until the next election to get rid of him.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucru/20051202/cm_ucru/thecaseforanationalrecallelection
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