Unicameral Nonpartisan Legislature

Unicameral - Just One Legislative Body

House Joint Resolution M (2019) would replace both the 35-member Senate and the 110-member House of Representative with what would simply be called the "Legislature". Senate Districts and House District would become "Legislative Districts". Senators and Representatives would become "Members". The number of Legislative Districts would be 100. The term of each member would be 4 years with half elected in Presidential Election years and the other half elected in Gubernatorial Election years. Members would be limited to 4 terms or 16 years in the Legislature.

If this resolution were to move forward it would be placed on the ballot to amend Michigan's constitution.

The measure would eliminate redundancy and the added cost of redundancy. No analysis is provided for the resolution but the sponsor of the resolution claims that Michigan would save $50 million per year, no doubt the savings would be much larger.

Naming the Legislative Body

My own preference would be to call the new legislative body the "Senate" and to call the members "Senators". I'm NOT stuck with this, I would NOT object to calling the new legislative body the "House of Representatives" and calling the members "Representative". But, I am NOT excited about merely calling the new legislative body the "Legislature" and calling its members "Members".

The Number of Members and Terms

Many electoral advantages and disadvantages are associated with electing members in either the Presidential or the Gubernatorial Election years. To eliminate that advantage or disadvantage I would support electing members for 6 year terms with 1/3 of the members being elected in each even year General Election.

The number, 100, is a lovely number but it is NOT divisible by 3 and opens the door for tie votes. The number of members might be 99, 93 or better yet 87.

Term limits are insanely popular with voters. I do NOT support term limits. They do NOT work and they never have. The best way to term limit a problematic member is to elect someone else. And a member who represents their district well should NOT be term limited.

Nonpartisan

The house joint resolution represents itself as a measure to establish a "unicameral nonpartisan legislature" but none of its provisions appear to have the effect of ending partisan elections. The sponsor of a very similar 2018 resolution also put forward House Bill 5930 (2018) to remove political party names on General Election ballots. While the measure would remove the name of the political party from the ballot it would NOT end the partisan practice of selecting candidates in Primary Elections and at conventions. To be truly nonpartisan, more sweeping change is called for.

What could be done:

Runoff Elections Instead of Primary Elections

We already elect judges in nonpartisan races. The candidate must submit a qualifying petition with the required number of signature. All of the candidate names are placed on a ballot in August and the two candidates with the highest vote total appear on the November ballot.

Better yet,

Simple Qualifying Petition Requirements

We elect city council and village board members in nonpartisan races without Primary Elections; all they need to run is a qualifying petition with the required number of signatures. Eliminating the Primary Election altogether would greatly simplify the electoral process AND reduce the cost of elections.

Or, even better:

Replace Primary Elections and Conventions with Rank Choice Voting

Winner take all elections by simple majority discourage voters from giving their vote to the candidate they truly and honestly prefer and redirect those votes to the most acceptable candidate that they view as a likely winner. Rank choice voting, also called instant runoff voting, allows voters to cast their vote more honestly because they know that if their preferred candidate loses in the first round, their second preference will be taken into account for the second round of voting and so on until one candidate emerges with more than 50% of the votes.

Rank choice voting may have been difficult in years past but technology has made it very feasible in modern elections. Rank choice voting is already used in Michigan by the cities of Ferndale and Eastpointe.

What about Political Parties?

Like minded people could still organize and join political parties; they could then endorse candidates of their choice; and they could also work together to give their candidate an advantage in elections. BUT, they could no longer do so at the expense of taxpayers. AND, they could no longer cut out dissenting party members who are determined to have their names considered in elections.

Reduced Political Spending

It may NOT be possible to overstate the quantity of opposition that will rise to any serious effort to establish a unicameral nonpartisan legislate due to the reduced political spending. Fewer legislative body members would also mean fewer people employed to support them. Longer terms coupled with few members would be mean fewer people employed to help get members elected. A smaller role for political parties in the electoral process coupled with the possible elimination of Primary Election would further reduce the number of people employed to help nominate and elect candidates. And fewer elections would also mean less money being spent on commercials, advertisements, literature, surveys, phone banks and robocalls, postage and delivery, etc, all of which means less profits and less employment.