On Wednesday, the election will (hopefully) be over and the fight over the rules of the game will resume. Here is what I think should be done:

1) Abolish the Electoral College

It’s an undemocratic constitutional legacy that causes voters in 30-40 states to be ignored in favor of a handful of battleground states. People claim small states would be neglected without the Electoral College, but most of them are not getting much attention right now anyway (see Rhode Island, Wyoming, the Dakotas, etc.). And any candidate who shunned vast swaths of the country would pay a heavy price. We should give voters more credit – they will punish national candidates who run regional campaigns. The only way this will happen soon, of course, is if Kerry follows in Bush’s footsteps by losing the popular vote and winning the presidency, but that is actually a distinct possibility.

2) Repeal McCain-Feingold

As Kevin Drum points out, it didn’t limit the total amount of money in the system – that’s an impossible goal (and not a desirable one). Instead, by banning soft money, it diverted funds into 527s that aren’t politically accountable, freeing them to be as deceptive and nasty as they want. We should have unlimited individual donations and instant disclosure online, which would keep more money flowing to parties and candidates who are directly accountable to voters and make it possible for more challengers to wage well-funded campaigns. Let people make up their minds about the sources of campaign funds, rather than weakening parties.

3) Create Iowa-style non-partisan redistricting commissions and give free airtime to major party Congressional candidates

The freshmen I teach at Duke were stunned to find out how few challengers beat House incumbents. As David Broder argues in the Washington Post today, we need to level the playing field by creating competitive districts and giving challengers exposure. Combined with unlimited donations to parties and candidates, this could create more close races nationwide.

Unfortunately, it’s much more likely that we’ll go through another cycle of attempting to “reform” McCain-Feingold further by attempting to close its alleged loopholes. But the First Amendment makes it impossible to make campaign finance law as restrictive as its misguided proponents would like. And the unintended side effects – like turning 527s like America Coming Together into quasi-parties – are likely to continue to mount.