David Stack asked about the percentages re the proportional repsentational model
I presented.
I see how my incomplete description led to the confusion
The complete idea is to use what they call a "compensatory" mixed member model
which means that:
1. first you look at a party's/list's overall share based on the how people
voted for the city-wide lists.
2.Then you look at who won the single member wards and include those winners as
the first seats that make up each party's overall share and so the 7 at large
are used to compensate and equalize any inaccuracies in the ward votes.
So, let's say that the city voted 50% for the ROAR Party/List. That should give
ROAR a 6/13 share of the council seats. Then we look and see that the ROARians
won one single member ward seat, so we use the list to compensate and the
ROARers get 5 additional at large members.
There have been instances with this model when the proportions are not perfect
because of who wins the single member wards. If a party with little or no
support city wide was able to win several single member ward seats, for example,
because of strong individuals, even compensating with the 7 at large seats may
not be enough to have a council that exactly refleced the electorate,... but
generally with this system the elected body does reflects the electorate.
I do hope that helps makes more sense.
It is complex, but it does offer the best chance for the fairest result while
still maintaining geographical representation and I think that is what the
group was after last round. Perhaps we can look to a simpler model, but one
that would also be more fair.
It should be noted that it would also be possible to do a mixed member system
without the compensatory idea in which case the 7 at large would be the
proportional part and then the threshold for winner a seat would be 1/7 or the
14.3 % David mentions.
When New Zealand looked at reforming its elections some years back, a Commission
was assigned the task of developing and presenting several models and the voters
decided. I think it would be wonderful if the citizens of Minneapolis could be
persented with several options - - several using proportional representation ---
and we could determine the best option.
In message <001001c02369$cb203e00$5338b2d0@stack> writes:
> > From: Cameron A. Gordon >
>
> >> ... City Council will still be made up of 13 Council Members but only
> six will come from wards ... The other seven 'at large' council members
> will be elected from among independents and party lists by all the voters in
> the city. ... each voter will have two votes, the first for the ward
> council member, the second for one of the lists of up to 7 city-wide 'at
> large' members. ... A party's (or list's) number of council members will
> be determined by its share of the total vote. One thirteenth, or
> approximately 7.7 %, of the vote will be enough to elect one candidate. If
> a party receives 16% of the vote, they win 16% (or 2) of the seats on the
> council. If the receive 56% vote they win 56% of the seats. ... >>
>
>
> I am glad that Cameron Gordon brought up the concepts of
> proportional representation and instant runoff. I do not think that these
> two ideas were mentioned on the previous posts by Daniel Boivin and others
> about Charter Commission dialogue. These are the two reform ideas that I
> find most exciting and appealing.
>
> However, Cameron, or anyone, please tell me why I am confused by the
> percentage vote point in the above description of proportional election of
> the City Council. I am thinking that if only 7 members are elected
> proportionally, then wouldn't it take one-seventh of the at-large votes, or
> 14.3%, to elect one member?
>
> Instant runoff would be great. It would greatly reduce or eliminate the
> anguish over whether or not to vote our "true preference" or vote for the
> "lesser of two evils".
>
> Dave Stack
> Harrison
>
>
>
In peace and cooperation,
Cam Gordon
914 Franklin Terrace
Mpls. MN 55406-1101
612 296-0579, 332-6210, 339-2452
Seward Neighborhood, Ward 2
=====================================
"Significant, enduring change will require an institutionalized
shift of power from corporations and government to ordinary
Americans."
- RALPH NADER
www.jimn.org/gpm/gpm.html (MN Green Party)
www.mngreens.org
www.votenader.org
