Darrell Gerber wrote: At large council elections by themselves will not increase the number of minorities but would most likely have the reverse effect. Numerous studies have shown that at-large districts lead to under representation of minority interests. This is the reasoning behind the Supreme Court rulings that at-large Congressional elections are discriminatory (except when a state has only one representative, of course). Anyone advocating for minority interests, be they racial or ideological, should reject at-large only representation schemes outright. The only way minority interests will be fairly represented under such a system is if it were coupled with some form of Proportional Representation.
Geographical-based representation has problems representing differing interests when the issue is not easily transferred to geographical divisions. It is very good in the case of issues that are. Single member districts strengthen two party systems. The current systems have problems but we should not change to a worse system just for the sake of change. Mark Anderson replies: Yes, as I said before, the benefits of at-large representation will only occur if we also have cumulative voting. Under cumulative voting, one could vote for one of each of the 13 at-large candidates, or one could put all 13 votes on one candidate. That way, minorities who realize they will never succeed electing a candidate by majority vote may nevertheless get some representation on the council, even if only one person. The school board elections are a good example of this. As it was, the at-large voting only resulted in success by the DFL endorsed candidates. But with cumulative voting, David Dayhoff might have succeeded in his bid, if Republicans put all their votes to him. Doug Mann also would have had a better chance -- I suspect his partisans would have been willing to pool all their votes for him also. Of course with only the three openings we had this year in the school board election, cumulative votes would only have a small effect, so it might not have put Doug into office. But it would work much better in a 13 candidate election. Minorities only succeed under this method if they have a committed group intent on getting representation, but that's the kind of minority that would be a good addition to the government. Mark V Anderson Bancroft REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
