[EL] Lopsided defeat for single-member districts in Amarillo -- end of this system's viability in the US?

[Leslie Graves]

In California last year, several cities voted on local ballot measures on
this subject.

* Madera's electorate voted to switch from at-large to by-district.
* Menifee's electorate, offered the option to switch to at-large, voted to
stay with by-district
* Sanger's electorate voted to have by-district elections of city council
members.
* Eastvale's voters chose at-large over by-district.
* In the Capistrano Unified School District, voters approved a change from a
system of by-district (voted on at-large) to by-district (voted on only by
voters in the relevant district).

Here are links to articles about those elections for further background:

http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/By-District_Election_of_Madera_City_Council_Members,_City-Wide_Election_of_Mayor,_Measure_E_%28November_2010%29

http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/At-Large_City_Council_Elections_in_Menifee,_Measure_DD_%28November_2010%29

http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/City_of_Sanger_Method_of_Electing_Mayor_and_City_Council_Members,_Measure_L_%28November_2010%29

http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Method_of_Electing_Members_of_the_Eastvale_City_Council,_Measure_B_%28June_2010%29

http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Method_of_Electing_Trustees_of_the_Capistrano_Unified_School_District,_Proposition_H_%282010%29




On Sun, May 15, 2011 at 6:46 PM, Rob Richie <rr at fairvote.org> wrote:

> Amarillo (TX) yesterday voted 76% to 24% against going from at-large
> elections to single-member districts -- see article below.
>
> Such a lopsided vote could suggest that single-member districts may no
> longer be a viable voting method in the United States.....Or just maybe
> sometimes people can read a bit too much into ballot measure results!
>
> Rob Richie
>
> #########
>
>
> http://amarillo.com/news/local-news/2011-05-15/single-member-districts-strike-out-again
>   Single-member districts strike out again
>  *Posted:* May 15, 2011 - 12:52am
>  By Kevin Welch
>
> Saturday saw a third pretty convincing strike for single-member districts,
> but the idea isn’t entirely out.
>
> The vote at the end of the evening was 76 percent of voters against carving
> up the city into four districts to be represented by a resident of that area
> as voted on only by residents of that area......
>
>
>
> --
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> "Respect for Every Vote and Every Voice"
>
> Rob Richie
> Executive Director
>
> FairVote
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> www.fairvote.org  <http://www.fairvote.org> rr at fairvote.org
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