CV&D latest Update

[New Democracy]

Dear List members,

     Here is the latest Update from CV&D.

Don

Donald Davison of New Democracy at http://www.mich.com/~donald
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Date: Sun, 8 Jun 1997 14:36:24 -0400

From: Rob Richie, Center for Voting and Democracy
            http://www.igc.org/cvd/

Re:      Election/reform news from  Ireland, France, Canada,
            New York (school boards), Minnesota, Book Publishing

Greetings! I will be unavailable at this email address until June
16th, but wanted to get you the following news from Ireland and
the various places mentioned above.

* Correction:  In a recent update, we started with a "quick
quiz" of ten questions. I have a correction to pass along for one
of the most telling statistics mentioned in that quick. In 1996,
113 (not 103, which was a typo) Members of the House of
Representatives ran for re-election who had first been elected
in the 1980s (1980-88). All 113 won, and 109 won by more
than 10%. We will be issuing a report shortly chock full of
such statistics and their implications for reformers.

* Quote of the week, from AP story on Algeria's elections
held on June 5:  "The low voter turnout, 65.5 percent out
of 17 million eligible voters, also was seen as a sign of
low public confidence. It compares with the 75 percent
turnout for the November 1995 presidential elections."
     I'm no apologist for the government in Algeria, although
pleased that it used proportional representation for these
elections after its disastrous use of winner-take-all elections
in 1991. But note that in 1994, the voter turnout in U.S.
House elections -- comparable to what was being voted
on in Algeria -- was 36.6%. Of our 50 states, the highest
turnout was 58% in South Dakota. More than half of
eligible voters made it to the polls that year in only 7
states. In 1996, voter turnout in House races (several
percentages points lower than that for presidential
races) was still below 45%.

* News from France: In its recent elections, France
continued its merry dance with winner-take-all bizarreness.
In 1993, the center-right turned 39% of the vote in the
first-round of elections there into 80% of seats after
the second round (France uses a run-off system
where any candidate getting more than about 12%
of the vote goes to a second round if no candidate
wins 50% in the first round -- note that only a handful
of candidates won 50% on the first round.)
     Now the Socialists have turned 24% of the first-round
vote into a majority of seats, albeit with the support from
candidates from the Communists and Greens (who made
arrangements with the socialists to support one another's
candidates in various districts). Here is what the vote total
was after the first round, where the socialist coalition had
40% of the vote, followed by votes and seats after the
second round.

                   FIRST ROUND, FRENCH ELECTIONS

PARIS (AP) - Official results of Sunday's first round of
French legislative elections, with 100 percent of the
districts counted. (Note the conservative coalition
includes the RPR and UDF; the left's campaign alliance
includes the Socialists, Communists and Ecologists):

Rally for the Republic (RPR): 15.6 percent
Union for French Democracy (UDF): 14.3 percent

Independent Right: 6.5 percent

Socialist Party: 23.7 percent
Communist Party: 10.0 percent
Ecologists: 6.9 percent

Independent Left: 2.5 percent
Extreme Left: 2.5 percent
National Front: 15.0 percent

(The remaining votes were split among minor parties. )

SECOND ROUND, FRENCH ELECTIONS

                                 % vote        %seats
Conservative
coalition                44.63%    43.15%  (249)

Other right              1.41%      1.39% (8)

Socialist and
   other splinters   42.98%      47.31%  (273)
Communist          3.76%         6.59%    (38)
Greens                   1.62%        1.39%   (8)

National Front        5.60%        0.17% (1)

    It will be interesting to see what the new government
in France does about proportional representation. The
new prime minister Lionel Jospin advocated introduction
of a semi-proportional system in his losing bid for the
presidency in 1995. France already uses PR for elections
to the European parliament and for many localities.
    Note that many in France were pleased to double the
percentage of women in the parliament -- but it is still
only 10%, which makes France 14th in percentage of
women in its parliament in the 15-member European
union. Women in the British parliament also surged
this year, but still were only 17%, far behind most
European nations with proportional representation
systems.

* Canada: Most of you should have received information
on how remarkably unfair and polarizing the results in
Canada's recent plurality elections were. A few additional
tidbits:

      - The Liberals won a majority of setas with 38.5% of
the popular vote. The Liberals did not win 50% of the vote
in any province, and only won more than 40% in three
of twelve. The Reform Party won over 40% in two
provinces. None of the other parties won more than 40%
in any province.

     - Each of the five largest parties finished first
in at least one province, usually winning distroted
percentages of seats and making the party seem
more regional than it often was. For example, the
Reform Party won more popular votes in Ontario
than any other province, but its 19% of the vote
there won zero of the 103 seats, while its 41.2%
of the vote in British Columbia won 74% of the
34 seats there.

    - The flip side is that a truly regional party --
the Bloc Quebecois, which ran no candidates
outside of Quebec -- is the third largest party
in parliament despite finishing fifth in the
popular vote nationwide.

All of these facts are having an impact. The Toronto
Globe and Mail is pro-PR, former MPs who were
commenting on the election expressed support
for PR, and a debate on a Canadian version of
CNN's Crossfire ended with the anti-PR
person essentially agreeing that PR would be
a good reform.

* Ireland:  Ireland on Friday elected a new parliament
with its preference voting form of proportional representation.
Given that preference voting has an important history of
use and consideration in the United States -- see our
web site for more information -- these elections are
of particular interest.
     The American media -- AP, Reuters and the New York
TImes, at least -- have a near-perfect record of describing
the system as "complicated" in their news stories this
week on the elections.(The term is so regularly used,
one almost thinks the writers believe that the name
of the system is "complicated"!)  In light of this, I thought
the following articles from the Irish Times would be of
interest -- note that the Irish Times in one editorial below
says: " the Irish electorate has shown a very sophisticated
knowledge  of the proportional representation system."
The Irish Times has a web site with some excellent
coverage of the elections and several articles on
proportional representation: http://www.irish-times.com

HOME NEWS Thursday, June 5, 1997
                                 PR SYSTEM OF
                                VOTING PRAISED
     _________________________________________________________________
   The proportional representation voting system was praised at the
   assembly for allowing minorities a voice. Mr George McCullagh of the
   Adelaide Road/Donore congregation in Dublin said the political system
   in the Republic "used to be a monolith, but PR was now being more
   widely used by voters, with many strands of opinion (represented)."

   Looking to tomorrow's election, he said that due to the PR system "the
   marginalised look like winning, as politicians have promised so many
   things (during the campaign)". To those such as the speaker who
   wondered what to do when no politician in their area represented their
   views, Mr McCullagh advised contacting the elected representatives and
   asking what they were doing for the area. They should lobby them,
   "highlighting failures," he said, as had been done in the Republic.

   Mr McCullagh was speaking to two resolutions arising from a report he
   had prepared calling on the assembly to welcome and appreciate the
   changes which have taken place in the Republic. These included the
   "ever-deepening sense of belonging experienced by Presbyterian
   citizens" and "the increased openness of the society and the wider
   horizons which which people live their lives." The resolutions were
   agreed.
***
Excerpt from Editorial in Irish Times, June 6, 1997

       " ....The omens appear promising: the most recent opinion poll
in this newspaper indicated that some 77 per cent of the electorate
will definitely cast votes today. And the very high TV audience for
Wednesday's debate between the Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, and the
Fianna  Fáil leader, Mr Ahern, also provides encouraging evidence
that a large chunk of the electorate cares deeply about the task of
choosing the next government.
      "At this writing it still seems unclear whether either of the two
prospective governments - the Rainbow Coalition or Fianna Fáil
and the Progressive Democrats - will secure sufficient votes to gain
an overall majority. As our Chief Political Correspondent has noted,
the pattern of transfers will have a critical bearing on the final
outcome. In the past, the Irish electorate has shown a very
sophisticated knowledge of the proportional representation
system; but on this occasion it is especially important to make
full use of the system by marking the ballot paper right through
to the last preference. For the past three weeks the politicians
have had their say. Now it is the turn of the people to deliver
their judgment."

* New York City School Board elections: The Asian American
Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York City has
produced a report on "Asian American Participation in the
1996 New York City Community School Board Elections."
The Irish system of preference voting is used for these
elections. Unfortunately, many observers have dismissed
the system as complicated without trying to understand
the fairness of the representation that it has produced --
a problem magnified by the fact that most eligible voters
have little interest in these elections and that the ballot-
count administration is done with very primitive, slow
methods.
     But AALDEF reports that 11 of 15 Asian American
candidates were elected, despite the Asian population
being below 20% (usually much lowe) in every school
district in the city. The report found that "a majority of
the Asian American candidates who ran in the 1996
Schol Board election seem in agreement that the
proportional representation system of voting works
to the advantage of minority candidates and voters...
The majority of candidates did not support the
notion of abandoning the entire system when many
of its weaknesses are clearly due to mistakes of
elections officals at specific states of the election
process."

* In Minnesota, CV&D member Tony Solgard had
received a grant from the  Minnesota Historical Society
to research the history of proportional representation
in Hopkins, Minnesota. The research director said the
review panel, which included some political historians,
was intrigued by the project idea. The research will be
conducted over the summer and result in an article
to be submitted to the MHS journal, *Minnesota
History*, early next year.
     A series of "study circles" are taking this year in
Minnesota, where participants meet over a series
of meetings to discuss different aspects of PR. The
results of such meetings likely will be formation of
a group to work for PR in the state.

* New Books: Note the following new releases:

    - "Citizenship and Democracy: A Case for Proportional
Representation" (Dondurn Press, Toronto), by Nick
Loenen, a former member of the legislative assembly
in British Columbia

    - "Democracy Unbound: Progressive Challenges to
the Two-Party System," (South End Press, Boston) by
David Reynolds.  Coming from a left perspective, the
book analyzes current third party movements and offers
suggestions, including support for PR.

    - Sam Smith is editor of the Progressive Review
and a founding member of our advisory committee. Sam
has written a new book "Sam Smith's Great American
Political Repair Manual" with the major publisher WW
Norton  that is just hitting bookstores in both hardcover
and paperback. He has a chapter titled "How to Count
the Votes Right and Other Amazing Tricks You Can
Play on the System" which will be excerpted in an
upcoming update. Ask your local bookstore to reserve
a copy!