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Incumbents Retain Unfair Advantages in Elections

Elected officials at all levels have been receiving dismal approval ratings from the public.  Despite that, incumbents, from the President down to local city officials, continue to be re-elected at extraordinarily high rates.

A prime example can be seen in the New York State Legislature, which, despite numerous scandals, has a 96% re-election rate.

How does this occur?  Many believe it is due to the unfair advantages provided to incumbents.  According to a Rasmussen poll,  68%  of those queried think election rules are rigged for Incumbents.

Gerrymandering is among the most well known.  The ability of incumbents to directly shape the districts they run in certainly provides an exceptional advantage.  But that is only part of the problem.  There are numerous other practices that tip the scales in favor of incumbents. Some are unavoidable, but many can be eliminated.
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Incumbents, of course, can more easily garner publicity through their regular activities. They tend to receive more invitations to speaking events, providing them with greater opportunities to directly interact with groups of voters. This can be counteracted by including challengers in public forums in the months immediately preceding an election.

The practice of allowing incumbents to use government funds to print and distribute newsletters which feature their successes or activities essentially provides a voter-paid vehicle for what in reality is campaign literature. There should be a blanket prohibition on this practice for at least three months before election day. Indeed, in the era of the 24 hour news cycle and the internet, it can legitimately be asked whether snail-mail newsletters are necessary at all.

Arcane and complicated campaign filing requirements (which may have been personally approved by the incumbent) tend to drain the resources and time of challengers in a much larger degree than they do for elected officials, who have the staff and financial resources to deal with the problem. It is highly doubtful that the founding fathers envisioned an electoral system in which candidates had to answer to a collection of bureaucrats to practice their right to run for office.