Can we fix American politics? Jon Stewart discusses what's wrong & we have a solution.

On a recent episode of The Weekly Show Podcast, Jon Stewart spoke with Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), co-chairs of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus to tackle a burning question: Can we fix American politics?

The answer? Only if we fix how we elect our leaders.

There are several challenges to our current election system. One of them is primary elections. Less than 15% of voters show up to cast a ballot in primary elections. In states that have closed primaries, millions of independent voters are shut out. The system incentivizes candidates to appeal to their partisan base, rather than the full electorate. The result is that more extreme candidates can win and voters end up choosing the “lesser of two evils” in the general election.

So how can we fix it? Consensus Choice Voting is a commonsense reform that makes a big difference. We start with open qualifying election to produce the strongest four candidates. In the general election, voters rank their preferences. As ballots are counted, the goal is to determine the Consensus Choice, that is, the candidate who has the broadest support from across the electorate. We do so by comparing each pair of candidates by counting the number of voters who prefer one over the other. The candidate preferred by more voters in a given head-to-head matchup wins that matchup. The candidate who wins all head-to-head matchups is the Consensus Choice and therefore wins the election.

CCV changes the incentives so that candidates must appeal to voters across their electorate to win elections, not just their partisan base. As a result, leaders are accountable to more voters and have to balance the preferences of voters from their electorate when they make governing decisions.