There&#x27;s an interesting theory that shows a potentially simple way to reduce the harmful effects of lobbyists. The short version is that there was a change in Congressional procedure in the 1970&#x27;s that eliminated the secret ballot for Congressional voting on bills.<p>The downside of this is that lobbyists, for the first time, could know for sure if the money they spent trying to get a vote from a specific member of congress panned out or not. Prior to this change, a member of congress was able to vote their conscience, with no way for lobbyists to actually know how they voted.<p>So, the theory is that going back to a secret ballot could weaken the ability of lobbyists to buy votes. It would be difficult, of course, to change this, since going to a secret ballot would also prevent ordinary citizens from seeing how their elected representatives actually voted.<p>A video that goes into more detail: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=yJ4tTj6Pe_E" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=yJ4tTj6Pe_E</a>