The Presidential campaign and election process takes about two years in America, but we don’t spend much of that time talking about actual issues.

The cost of Presidential campaigns in the U.S. exceed every other country, and that does not include private contributions from corporate entities. The Hillary Clinton campaign has raised about $1.3 billion and the Trump campaign about $795 million.

The most unfortunate aspect of the election process it that evidence of voter disenfranchisement, and restrictive voting laws, suppress the democratic process, so the U.S. continues to have some of the lowest voter turnout rates when compared to other nations.

America should take a few pointers from these countries:

In Canada the longest election was 10 weeks.

The U.K. limits their political parties to only spend $30 million the year before the election.

Germany limits presidential campaigns to one television ads for about 90 seconds.

In Australia voting is required.

Sweden has automatic voter registration.

American Presidential elections have not always been this long. President John F. Kennedy didn't seriously start his bid with financial backers until 10 months before the general election. President Abraham Lincoln didn’t even travel the country when he ran for re-election.

Singer and songwriter, Sheryl Crow, has even started to lead a push to shorten the presidential campaign season. She is asking the DNC and RNC to spare the country another “lengthy slugfest.” We as Americans should look to shorten our campaign season, even to six weeks as some countries have done.

Can the length of Presidential campaigns actually be shortened? The Presidential election is scheduled for every four years, it’s written into the constitution. The most practical solution would be that campaigns start later, or reduce the number of primary elections. Americans shouldn’t rate Presidential candidates based their ability to run a good campaign, rather, we should simplify the process so that the best candidate wins the election in the shortest amount of time.

Making election day a national holiday wouldn’t be a bad idea either. Then American’s would have no excuse, not to participate in the democratic process.