R.I. Case

[DEMOREP1 at aol.com]

In Opinion to the Governor, 62 R.I. 316 (1939), the Rhode Island state
supreme court held that a bill proposing the Hare single tranferable vote
proportional representation system for a city in R.I. violated a section of
the state constitution which said an elector had the right to vote for all
persons to be elected to an office in a given electoral area.  

Persons wanting a copy of the opinion may directly contact me.

Many states have similar vote-for-all provisions.  The very difficult remedy
is, of course, state constitutional amendments specifying the use of
proportional representation in electing state and local legislative bodies.

The court's reasoning also applies to single winner (and multi-winner)
election reforms in some states having a plurality-elects section in the
state's constitution.