Our public elections do not function correctly. Elections have never worked as well as people thought they did, and over the past 200 years, career politicians have found multiple ways (like gerrymandering) to rig elections and insulate themselves from their constituents. More recently, the integrity of elections also has been eroded, thus opening the door to fraudulent manipulation. Elections are ultimately the only mechanism citizens have to maintain control of their government. That mechanism has to function properly. There are several serious problems that need to be corrected. Excellent solutions are now known for all such problems, but few people comprehend them. One might hope that clearly laying out the problems with their solutions will quickly lead to solid elections. Sadly, that is unlikely. It is politicians in office who must legislate the fixes. Only a small minority of them are sincerely motivated to do so. The primary objective for most of them has become simply to remain in office; that is facilitated to some extent by elections that do not function as they should. It is virtually impossible to get politicians to do anything they do not want to do.