League of women voters want overhaul of US electoral system

For the first time since the enactment of the 19^th Amendment to the US constitution which guaranteed women voting rights 96 years ago, a woman is on the cusp of being elected president of the US.

However, the League of Women Voters (LWV), a nonpartisan organization with local chapters in all states in the US contends that regardless of who gets elected president next week, an overhaul of the US electoral system is long overdue.

"There is need for serious structural changes in both our democracy and our electoral system regardless of who gets elected next week.

The issue of money in our elections needs to be tackled head on and the process of parties selecting their candidates need to be cut short," Annie Betancourt, the Director of LWV in Miami-Dade Florida told foreign journalists on US election reporting tour on Friday.

Betancourt, a retired diplomat and erstwhile legislator in Florida had Susan Windmiller, president of LWV in Miami-Dade County and Maribel Balbin, the Voter Service Chair in tow.

The issue of powerful lobby groups is an integral component of the US electoral system with some sponsoring candidates for elective offices.

LWV contends that a candidate who rides on the back of powerful lobby groups to get elected to public office rarely represents the interests of voters.

"We have seen lobby groups supporting particular candidates who ounce elected are given Bills to push through state legislatures almost verbatim. This issue ought to be addressed," Betancourt said.

 LWV is a nonpartisan political organization made up of women and men of all ages and backgrounds which encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy.

One of its core functions is to encourage women of every political hue to run for public office because, according to Windmiller, "women see things differently."

"Its sad that my daughter is facing the same challenges i faced decades ago as a young mother. Things like affordable child care should have been a thing of the past if we had more women in positions of influence," Windmiller said.

Windmiller avers that more women in elective offices will help bring issues such as the need for equal pay for the same work between sexes, tackling crime and climate change to the public domain.

On the increasing vitriol on the campaign trail heading into the final days, Windmiller and Betancourt conceded that the LWV was concerned about the shrinking space of civil discourse in American politics.

Although nonpartisan, the top brass of LWV in Miami-Dade County were frank about their delight in having a woman running for president on a ticket of one of the two biggest political parties in the US.

The first female Candidate for US President was Victoria Claflin Woodhull whose shot at the US presidency in 1872 was unsuccessful.

Ratified on August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted American women the right to vote—a right known as woman suffrage.

At the time the U.S. was founded, its female citizens did not share all of the same rights as men, including the right to vote.

The decision to deny women and people of color the right to vote for long made a mockery of the heart stirring preamble to the declaration of US independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Meanwhile, Donald Trump's supporters are leaving no stone unturned in their quest to make sure that the Republican contender coasts to victory in the key battle ground state of Florida.

Florida with 29 electoral colleges together with Ohio will play a big role in deciding who is elected America's 45^th president next week.

At one of the early voting centers in Miami, a number of Trump supporters holding placards poured vitriol on Hillary Clinton saying her election next week will continue what they described as the failed policies of President Barack Obama over the last eight years.

"We want legal not illegal immigration. America is the only country in the world that welcomes 1m legal migrants a year. And that is what Trump supports," Catherine Vidal, 60 said as she passionately made a case for Trump.

Decked in Trump paraphernalia, Vidal who claims her husband is Cuban also thinks Trump will help revive the US economy which she alleges has been stagnated at a 2% growth rate.

Florida is one of the states in the US with a big Hispanic community. With Trump describing Latinos as "rapists and criminals" earlier in his campaigns and promising to build a wall on the US/Mexican border to stem their influx into America, there is concern in his camp that he will struggle to appeal to one of the most influential voting block in US today.