Lesser of two evils. That is the choice our broken political system has given us in the view of many voters in this presidential election.

Several factors have contributed to this: treating the campaigns as a sporting event by “news” media, focusing on personalities rather than policies and substance, and the drawn out election season with different rules in every state.

There are major systemic flaws in the way presidents are elected, starting with the constitutional provision for an electoral college, which allows for a minority of the voters to elect the president. It is hypocrisy for the U.S. to castigate other countries for not having “one man, one vote” when we do not have that here. The second flaw is the institutional support for the two major parties, which ought to be abolished.

Why are the states supporting the Republican and Democrat parties to the detriment of all other parties and the will of the people? I am referring to the fact that the states hold primary elections and print separate ballots for each party and deny (in many cases) many people the right to vote for those candidates if they do not belong to their party. The states should have one ballot with all names on it, and let the parties pick out the candidates they want to support from the information that comes out of open elections.

The constitution provided for the electoral college and representative electors, and left it to the states to determine the rules running their elections, at a time when communications were slow. This flawed system discourages third (or more) party candidates, who might be more attractive to a majority of voters if the choices of the Republican and Democrat parties are more extreme candidates.

I believe the people would be better served if the electoral college were abolished and run-off elections, or a series of primaries, were held, all on the same days. This would give all the voters a real choice. The first primary would narrow the field, and the final election would make the winner the one who received the most votes from all the people. With modern technology and communications, that would not be difficult, and it would make our presidential elections truly democratic.

Judith Truesdell

Shelburne