There is a vast portion of this country that is not represented in spirit by either party and this is on the increase. If the lack of representation is not solved this country will not remain united and we will very likely face civil unrest not seen since the late 1800s. Maybe new parties could be developed solely by the locations of the population. Urban party, Suburban Party, and Rural party perhaps. Yes. I understand that any one of you may not want that to occur because it may benefit a portion(s) of the population that you do not share values with. Good. Me too by the way, but those people need a real voice in the system.
Leave the electoral college alone. It was put in place to avoid historical true democracy pitfalls, essentially avoiding peoples trends of the times, heated emotion, political disinformation, and resulting tyranny. Pure democracies as a form of rule just never worked out and became worse with the size and power of the nation. They have a place in a representative democracy, just like many socialist structures do, but are unwise as a determining portion of the election of a major political office. Before you argue this read up on the failures of similar institutions throughout history when this was employed. The EC allows for in effect a capacitance of outcome at the end of elections. In essence it was a way to tweak in some basic form if stoicism into an election known for a distinct lack of it. The other option is to do a priority weighted average based system that is -- just deleted -- yes it is essentially the ranked choice voting as noted by Mike. This might really muddy and or fragment the system. What I see in current elections is that when you listen to the top say twenty or so of the candidates of either party including the odd non democrat or republican, the most reasonable policies with the most likelihood of improving our nation for the better are always the first ones eliminated by said parties. This is a large portion of why our current crisis of extremism has happened and will continue to do so. None of the above addresses this. The real question is, how does reasonable obtain a voice?
I think all of our ruling political offices need significant overhaul. Say a single six or eight year term per office without the ability to ever run for any other national or state political office afterwards. Including president. Serve your term as president, representative, or senator and move on. No more dynasties and overpowered mini-empires. Yet enough time in office to make foreign powers play ball.
The supreme court might consider mandatory retirement at a reasonable age say 70 and be elected by each party in turn without congressional oversight to the current extent. Pay, benefits, and retirement would be based solely on the national average. Domestic protection details would have the same limitations as that of any law abiding citizen.
This is where Charlie pukes on me. Let the beatings begin!