Rich McMartin misses the point of having at-large seats on the City Council.
To have this make sense, the at large seats need to be reserved for Parties
that get a certain percentage of the vote city wide to deserve some seats,
but do not get enough seats in any one ward to win a ward seat. For
example, say we had a system that had 13 wards and 5 at-large seats. Then
in each ward the DFL got 55% of the vote and the Green Party got 45% of the
vote, except the 13th Ward where the Republicans got 34%, DFL 33% and the
Greens 33%.
So, with this vote the DFL would win 12 ward seats (with 53.3% of the total
city wide vote), the GOP would get one ward seat (with 2.6% of the total
city wide vote) and the Green Party would get no ward seats despite getting
44.1% of the total city wide vote.
City wide then, the DFL got 92.3% if the Council ward seats with 53.3% of
the total popular vote, the Republicans got 7.7% of the Council ward seats
with 2.6% of the total popular vote, and the Greens got 0% of the Council
ward seats with 44.1% of the total popular vote.
So, these 5 at large seats would be awarded to the Greens based on their
large percentage of popular vote compared with their low ward seat total.
I think that most fair minded people would think that over 44% of the total
vote should be rewarded with some representation. I believe the
Parliament of the United Kingdom is elected in just such a way -- correct me
if I am wrong. Perhaps others know of where such a system is in place now
and has a more detailed and specific description of how it works.
Dean Zimmermann
Commissioner District 3
Mpls Park and Recreation Board
Candidate for Mpls City Council, Ward 6
612-722-8768
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of
Richard McMartin
Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2001 9:20 PM
To: Issues Minneapolis
Subject: Re: [Mpls] Number of councilmembers
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> I don't know of anyone actively advocating a change in the # of
> councilmembers right now - except for an occasional suggestion to
> eliminate
> ALL of them <grin>. But I'd like to hear a lively debate on the
> subject of
> having some at-large council seats.
We already have one "at large" councilor: a.k.a: mayor. That is quite
enough at large councilors. At large elected officials at this level
just gives the majority party more power. Not that it would make much
difference right now with the current council makeup - but it could at
some time in ways that you might not like.
--
Rich McMartin
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://tcfreenet.org/people/mcmartin/
Bryant Neighborhood of Minneapolis
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