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Once again, our national election for the president of the United States is in shambles. This has happened a number of times in the history of elections in the U.S. What I do not understand is the complex election rules that currently exist. Since the office of president, members of the house of representatives and senate are all federal government personnel, they should be elected by a set of rules created by the federal government. As it is now each state sets their own rules, which can change with each new state administration.

To make matters worse, each county in that state has their own election rules. This becomes partisan politics, not an unbiased method of electing anybody. In order to make elections totally honest, both parties, Democrats and Republicans, should work out a standard set of rules that each state should abide by. There are now too many conflicting rules that allow candidates to challenge the legality of those rules that go against the losing candidate.

It is interesting that Canada, in order to avoid these conflicts in each of their provinces, has farmed out their election process to an independent private company which sets their own set of rules. Not that we should do the same in this country; [that] is debatable, but if both of our two parties cannot agree on a standard set of rules, maybe that is a way to go.

Another controversial element to our election process is the electoral college. It is a very complex system developed to protect the votes of the vast number of American citizens who do not reside in major metropolitan areas. There have been several presidents elected because they won the electoral college while losing the popular vote. So, if it did not exist, we would be ruled by an elite body of citizens that are not faced with the same problems that exist in the vast areas of the country outside major city limits.

The above are my personal views on the subject which could be viewed as very naive and immature, but that is the way I see it. This nation, under God, has existed and grown to the envy of most of the world. If we can just get both parties to sit down together and work things out, it will last forever. The problem now, and maybe it has always been, is that both parties are fueled by the extremes. Most Americans are moderate and can sit down and talk to each other, while the extreme leaders hate each other and will not even listen to each other.

God help us.

Monte Lewis

La Conner