The U. S Constitutional Council consists of six councilors elected from each state (for a total of 300 at the present), two being elected for a single six-year term only, at each biannual congressional / presidential election.
Nobody may ever serve as councilor for more than one term.
Nobody serving as councilor may run for any federal elective office for at least two election cycles after stepping down as councilor.
The individual states would pay for the costs of their councilors and their staff; they would not be beholden to Congress for their funding.
This funding would be according to a standardized schedule so that there would be no difference among the councilors of the various states.
No councilor may raise money for any cause or purpose while in office.
These clauses are to ensure that councilors do not use their office as Councilor for anything other than safeguarding the Constitution, and not for aggrandizing power.
Nobody who has participated in partisan politics is eligible to be a councilor.
This is to stress that fair and just government dominates the deliberations of the Constitutional Council, and not politics.
Also there needs to be a fairly accessible avenue for recalling and replacing rogue Councilors (details TBD).
Unlike politicians, who promote their name and reputation for the sake of getting elected, councilors will need to advertise their qualifications without raising money and attracting the taint that may go with it. Here are some ways to do this:
A) I would recommend that each state provide a webpage where each person running for councilor has a space to present his / her qualifications
B) Some states provide, a month or so before an election, to the voters a brochure presenting the pros and cons of the various election issues / questions. This could also be used to present the candidates for Councilor and their argument for peoples’ votes
C) Assuming there are several candidates for Councilor, I would recommend a ranked choice primary election, and then for the top three or four winners a ranked choice final election.
Whenever there is a ranked choice election it is important that multiple versions of the ballot be printed with the candidates printed in different orders so as to ensure that there is essentially zero chance that any candidate can benefit from the order in which he appears in the overall ensemble of ballots.
Because admittedly many of the voters will in general probably have less information with which to make an informed choice in the case of councilor than for candidates for congressional representative, senators and presidents, there is perhaps a greater chance that a rogue councilor could be elected. To rectify this matter the state should provide a fairly easy procedure for recalling councilors.
(Basic requirements, e.g., minimum years of age, minimum years of citizenship, etc., for holding the office of councilor TBD).
These matters are left open for others to make suggestions.
