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

Tue May 17 06:03:04 PDT 2011

Just so it's clear, my original message was tongue in cheek -- I've seen
some folks read too much into particular wins and losses for more novel
ideas, As to single-member districts,, they obviously have political
viability in the US, being used for all US House seats (by statute, not a
constitutional requirement, and not used in many states early on in the
nation's history and not used in Hawaii and New Mexico as recently as the
1960s) as well as most state legislative districts (although a century ago
more than half of state legislators came from multi-seat districts, and many
still do).

That said, there are those of us out there who would be interested in
further discussion of alternatives to winner-take-all elections in any form
-- and indeed Amarillo already uses cumulative voting to elect its school
board and college board of trustees, both coming in consent decrees to
voting rights challenges. Given current contortions over redistricting and
various political elites fighting over everyone else's representation over
the next 10 years, it's all the easier to be drawn to forms of proportional
voting where voters determine their own representation in every election.

Rob Richie

On Tue, May 17, 2011 at 8:17 AM, Doug Hess <douglasrhess at gmail.com> wrote:

> It is worth keeping in mind that a loss at the ballot box doesn't mean
> you have lost the issue. Some groups in the 1990s (maybe also 1980s)
> fought to convert at-large systems to by-district systems and lost,
> but were able to turn the organization they built and support they did
> get into pressure to win somewhat different reforms on the same issue
> later.
>
> Doug Hess
> 202-277-6400 (cell)
>
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>
>
> On Tue, May 17, 2011 at 7:47 AM, Leslie Graves
> <leslie.graves at ballotpedia.org> wrote:
> > 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......
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
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> >>
> >> Rob Richie
> >> Executive Director
> >>
> >> FairVote
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> >> www.fairvote.org  rr at fairvote.org
> >> (301) 270-4616
> >>
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> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
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-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Respect for Every Vote and Every Voice"

Rob Richie
Executive Director

FairVote
6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 610
Takoma Park, MD 20912
www.fairvote.org  <http://www.fairvote.org> rr at fairvote.org
(301) 270-4616

Please support FairVote through action and tax-deductible donations -- see
http://fairvote.org/donate. For federal employees, please consider  a gift
to us through the Combined Federal Campaign (FairVote's  CFC number is
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