Listening to George Bush and John Kerry you might start to believe that America is the only true and free democracy on earth. On the contrary, though our system was revolutionary in 1787, today our system is inadequate, and it may be getting worse.
Our country is enormous and extremely diverse, yet we only have two viable political parties, why is that? Most democracies today have a multi-party system but in the US the cards are stacked against third parties. They're pushed out of the presidential race, citizens are forced to vote for a candidate they don't completely support, because they may 'waste' their vote, or 'spoil' the election by 'stealing' votes from the most popular candidate. If we had Instant Runoff Voting we wouldn't have this problem, Instant runoff voting allows all voters to vote for their favorite candidate without fear of helping elect their least favorite candidate, and it ensures that the winner enjoys true support from a majority of the voters. And it's supported under the Constitution.
Third parties are also locked out of congress because of our winner-take-all method of elections. In most other democracies the congress/parliament is elected by Proportional Representation. Whereas the winner-take-all principle awards 100% of the representation to a 50.1% majority, full representation allows voters in a minority to win their fair share of representation alongside voters in the majority. For election of State Assembly members this method may be particularly advantageous.
Not to mention Electronic Voting, on machines that are untested, unregulated, have disrupted elections, failed countless times, are controlled by republican companies who refuse to hand over the software, and where recounts are impossible because the results are labeled as property of the company so the voting record cannot be legally examined. And 1 out of 3 people are about to use them to vote for president this year!
