It's really just turned into one long, ever extending, dark national

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It's really just turned into one long, ever extending, dark national
nightmare by now

Ah, Election Day! The end of our long, dark, national nightmare is finally
over! We now can look forward to a short, dark, national nightmare until
January 20^th, quickly followed by a very long, dark, four year long [DELETED
national nightmare-DELETED] election season leading up to Election Night
2020! Woo hoo!

Kidding aside, I would love to see the following changes to our national
elections to spare us the “national nightmare” feel:

1. Limit Presidential campaigns to the year of election only.

1. No more two year (or even four year) election cycles. There is no reason
for a Presidential election requiring more than eleven months to run
(and even there, I'me being generous). Personally, I'd like for it to be
even shorter, but I will concede that there should be some time prior to
the Conventions.

1. But yes, eleven months, tops. Starts in January, ends second Tuesday of
November.

2. No pre-results until all polling stations across the entire country have
closed.

2. And yes, if that means results aren't announced until 2:00 am Eastern
due to Alaska and Hawaii, then so be it. It must really suck to be
voting for President in those two states, because by the time the voting
stops there, the Main Stream Media has pretty much already called (and
possibly swayed) the results.

2. This should also put an end to exit polls. We don't need to know who's
elected this instant! We can wait a day. I mean, how did we survive
Presidential elections a hundred years ago?

2. Oh, and any TV or radio station that announce results early will have
their broadcasting license revoked by the FCC (Federal Communications
Commission). Make it really hurt for violators.

3. The Electoral College [1] needs to be addressed.

3. The current system (48 out of 50 states) of “winner take all” is not
good. Outside of abolishing it (requiring a Constitutional Amendment and
the mess that takes) there are two methods I see to make it a bit
better:

3. 1. Apportion electoral votes per popular vote in the state. That
means, if one candidate gets 60% of the popular vote in a state,
that candidate will get 60% of that state's electoral votes. This
currently happens in two states (Nebraska and Maine).
3. 2. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact [2] is another
solution (whereby the states will award their electoral votes to
the overall winner of the national popular vote), but it's one I
would only feel good about if all states followed this and not just
enough states to give 270 electoral votes.

3. Or, you know, we could keep the current system, as hated as it is.

4. Congress could grow a spine and claw back Executive (President)
overreach.

4. Congress has over time let the Executive Branch take more and more
power. If Congress grew a backbone and learned to say “No” then the
Office of the President wouldn't be quite so powerful as it is today.
Congress write the law, not the President. Then it would matter a bit
less who was President, like a goat [3] for instance.

5. Ban the 24-hour news cycle.

5. Not strictly necessary it is something I wish for though.

5. And the lack of a 24-hour news cycle could only help.

A wish list for sure. But it would be nice not to have to endure a multiyear
national nightmare every four years.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_College_(United_States)
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Popular_Vote_Interstate_Compact
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Society_(comics)#Election

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