CV&D Update by Rob Richie

[New Democracy]

Date: Sat, 15 Nov 1997 03:41:41 -0500
From: Robert D Richie
Subject: 11/15: Voters' Choice Act, More

An interesting two weeks since my last update! Here's a quick review:

1. Rep. Cynthia McKinney introduces new, improved Voters' Choice Act in Congress

2 Los Angeles charter commission shows interest in proportional
representation -- as do charter commissions in Kalamazoo (MI) and Santa
Clara County (CA)

3. Election Day 1997:  "Shhh, don't wake up the voters....";
non-competitive legislative elections; black incumbents have trouble in
new, white-majority districts: voters over money in Des Moines

4. Cambridge's PR election and automated ballot-count:

5. Instant runoff voting gets increasing attention

6. Activism on the rise: Utah, Rhode Island, more

7. PR a part of new books / Jamaica / Parting query

                                    * * *
1. Rep. Cynthia McKinney introduces new, improved Voters' Choice Act in Congress

      On November 13, Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) introduced the Voters'
Choice Act, HR 3068. Original co-sponsors to the bill are: Eva Clayton;
James Clyburn; Chaka Fattah; Jesse Jackson, Jr.;  and Eddie Bernice
Johnson.
       We hope to see many co-sponsors -- please contact your members and
ask them their position on the bill. (U.S. House switchboard: 202-224-3121
/ for email, find address for your rep at
<<http://www.house.gov/Whoswho.html>>
      This year's version of the Act -- to be up on our web site next week
-- is more broadly defined than the 1995 version. It restores the
opportunity for states to use multi-seat districts for House elections if:
1, the system is constitutional and 2, at least one-third of voters will
win a "proportional" share of seats. (This high threshold is the maximum
threshold; the bill leaves it up to states to set a minimum threshold.)
        You will hear more from us on the bill. But cheers to Rep. McKinney
and her staff for putting PR before Members of Congress.

2 Los Angeles charter commission shows interest in PR  -- as do charter
commissions in Kalamazoo  (MI) and Santa Clara County (CA)

      The Center for Voting and Democracy arranged for Gwenn Craig to fly
down from San Francisco to make a presentation to the Los Angeles charter
review commission. Ms. Craig was chair of the task force in San Francisco
that recommended that the preference voting method of PR be put before
voters.
      The presentation was well-received, as were recent presentations on
PR in charter commissions in Santa Clara County (CA) and Kalamazoo (MI). An
October 29 article from the Kalamazoo Gazette is called "Charter study
looks at proportional voting" and presents the issue well. The chair of the
subcommittee handling election structure has been promoting preference
voting.

3. Election Day 1997:  "Shhh, don't wake up the voters....";
non-competitive legislative elections; black incumbents have trouble in
new, white-majority districts: voters over money in Des Moines

      Knight-Ridder News Service circulated two commentaries by the Center
in the wake of the election: one on instant runoff voting, the other on
voter turnout. Following is an excerpt from the voter turnout commentary
with information on turnout in the 1997 elections:

The Dinosaur in the Living Room By Rob Richie and Steven Hill

     Pardon me, but do you see the dinosaur in the living room? It's
standing there in the middle of the carpet, and nobody wants to talk about
it. We all just tiptoe around it, year after year, pretending it's not
there and hoping it will go away.
     After the recent elections, commentators generally ignored the glaring
fact that, once again, voter turnout decreased. It is typical for reports
on elections overseas to mention voter turnout on a near-equal basis with
election results, but you had to work hard to find references to turnout in
the latest round of voting -- or rather, non-voting.
   Let's take Virginia. Turnout in the 1997 governor's race among
registered voters was 48% -- as opposed to 67% and 61% in the state's last
two gubernatorial elections. And that doesn't even count eligible voters
who never registered. Turnout among eligible adult Virginians was an
abysmal 34%.
    But Virginians can take heart. Their turnout was better than Broward
County, Florida, where a mere 7% of registered voters made their way to the
polls. Such shockingly low numbers were found in numerous localities.
     Detroit's mayoral primary turnout was 17% of registered voters; in
Charlotte's primary, it was 6%. General election turnout was under 40% of
registered voters in Miami and New York City and under 30% in Boston and
San Francisco. And of course 25% of eligible voters typically remain
unregistered.
    The United States now has on average the lowest voter turnout in the
world among mature democracies. The long-term implications of our plunging
voter turnout surely are as serious as fluctuations in the stock market.
But because it like a crippling disease, creeping up slowly, the crisis of
our "political depression" generally goes unrecognized. .....
                                             * * *

      There weren't many legislative elections in 1997, which is probably
just as well. Hardly any legislative races -- truly, on the order of fewer
than one in twenty -- were competitive.
      In New York City, only one of 51 city council races was won by less
than 10%. Democrats won 45 seats, and every winning Democrat won at least
60% of the vote.  These Democrats had been nominated in primary elections
in which only 18% of registered Democrats participated.... It's certainly
good timing for an initiative effort for PR in New York City - you will be
hearing more about this effort.
       In New Jersey's lower house, no incumbent was defeated. There are 40
districts, each with two members. Although the media likes to play up New
Jersey's independent-minded voters, that doesn't translate into
unpredictable legislative races -- 39 of 40 districts have two
representatives from the same party. And do people still doubt that
redistricting -- and the resulting composition of voters in a constituency
-- matter? Please......
       And Virginia may be for lovers, but it's not for meaningful
legislative elections. As USA Today summarized, "While all 100 House seats
were up for election, only a small number were seriously contested." Two
seats changed hands, which is more than happened in U.S. House elections in
Virginia in 1996 when the closest of 11 races was won by "only" 25%.
       For those following the controversy over the "race-conscious
districting," South Carolina had two sobering results. Five black
incumbents were challenged in a special election following a court-ordered
redistricting. Two of the five were defeated by white challengers, even
though they had the advantages of incumbency and were in districts that had
many black voters -- 44% and 47%, respectively. But as followers of
winner-take-all mathematics know, 51% is the magic number for winning
elections in single-member districts, and not too many white voters
apparently supported the incumbents.
       In Des Moines, Iowa, however, black city council member Preston
Daniels was elected in a heavily white city. Daniels was outspent $230,000
to $42,000.
       Finally, Dave Harmon of the New Party won a hard-fought city council
race in Missoula (MT) by a handful of votes. Although promising to reach
out to all constituents, he acknowledged to reporters that many in his
district would prefer to be represented by someone else and that PR would
allow neighbors to have different representation if they so chose. Let's
hope more incumbents reflect upon this message.

4. Cambridge's PR election and automated ballot-count:

       Cambridge had its 29th PR (preference voting) election since 1941.
Reflecting the general status quo year, all nine incumbents were returned
to city council, maintaining its current diversity as measured by politics,
geography, race and sexual orientation. In the school committee election,
there were seat changes, with women winning four of six seats, and black
candidates winning two of six (in a city that is less than 20% black).
        For those hoping to see PR spread to other communities in the
United States, the big news was that the computerized ballot-count went
very well. Although write-in candidates caused some delays in starting the
ballot-count, results were released the day after the election rather than
the five days it had taken with hand-counts. Following are excerpts from an
article from the Cambridge Chronicle, November 6, 1997:

       Cambridge may be a Mecca of high-technology, but when it comes to
voting,  the city joined the computer age just this year.
       For the first time, election results were tallied by computer,
eliminating the time-consuming and labor-intensive task of going through
all the ballots and adding up votes by hand.
       The new system allowed election workers to announce unofficial
results as early as Tuesday night. Official results were scheduled to be
released   Wednesday, just one day after the vote.....
       Although there was concern that senior citizens might have trouble
reading the new ballot because of its many rows and columns and relatively
small print, conversations with seniors on the street during election day
indicated that was not the case.
      "I liked the new ballot. I think it's wonderful," said Lucy Doherty,
a senior citizen from North Cambridge who declined to say how old she is,
but added with a smile, "I've been voting here for years.....

5. Instant runoff voting gets increasing attention

     Mayoral runoffs in major cities like Atlanta, Houston and Miami are
reminders that logic does not yet rule our election law. Here we're asking
candidates to campaign for extra weeks, voters to come back to the polls a
second time and the taxpayers to foot a big bill -- when all we need to do
is ask voters how they would vote in a runoff between different candidates.
     That's the simple attraction of instant runoff voting, along with its
ability to provide majority winners (as did not occur in this year's race
for governor in New Jersey and did not occur in 9 governor's races in 1994)
and eliminate the idea of "spoilers." And we're seeing a surge of interest
in the idea -- we expect to see state legislation in California, New
Mexico, Pennsylvania, Texas and Vermont in 1998.
     There actually already was a bill introduced this year in Texas -- in
the bill the system was called "preferential voting."  It would have
allowed al local governments to replace runoffs with instant runoffs. It
will be reintroduced in 1998. Stay tuned.

6. Activism on the rise: Utah, Rhode Island, more

          More and more activists are getting involved in promoting PR. Rob
Latham in Utah has been a great sparkplug in his state -- just in the last
month he has had commentary on PR in local newspapers, recorded commentary
on PR on his local NPR affiliate and productive conversations with city and
state elected officials.
         Following is an excerpt from a news story about a press conference
held by several of Utah's minor parties -- the Deseret News also did a good
story on the event

Salt Lake Tribune 11/07/97
`Other' Parties Want Changes in Voting BY JUDY FAHYS THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

      For everyone who trudged to voting booths Tuesday to choose a
lesser-of-two-evils candidate, Utah's ``other'' political parties have a
couple of ideas for making your chore a bit more pleasant in the future.
        Utah's Green Party announced Tuesday it will push for a ``none of
the above'' option on Utah ballots so voters can register their displeasure
with all the candidates in a race.
   The Greens also are joining with other ``outside'' parties to campaign
for adoption of a new electoral system of a new electoral system based on
the concept of ``proportional representation'' rather than the
``winner-takes-all.'
      Libertarian, Independent, Green and Labor parties announced their
plans at a news conference in the Capitol, where only Democrats and
Republicans currently serve in elected office.
      ``Libertarians want an election system that allows voters to choose
candidates they agree with, rather than encourages them to vote for the
lesser of two evils,'' said Jim Dexter, chairman of the Utah Libertarian
Party.
       Dexter said preference voting, a form of proportional representation
that is common in democracies outside the United States, makes every
voter's ballot meaningful, so it encourages a greater diversity of
candidates and broader voter participation. He noted in Scandinavian
countries and Europe as many as nine of every 10 registered voters go to
the polls in a typical election, while in the United States turnout is
generally half that.
       The existing ``plurality'' system often forces voters to choose
between a Republican and a Democrat, simply because they do not want a vote
to be ``wasted'' on a outside-party candidate whose chances for winning
appear slim, Dexter said.
       If Utah adopted preference voting for its House of Representatives,
for example, voters could select as many candidates as they would like,
ranking them in any order they favor. District lines would evaporate. Seats
would be parceled out according to the number of votes a candidate receives
from all sources.
       The new system would apply to the state Legislature, the
congressional delegation and local offices, according to the proportional
representation advocates. They have asked the governor and legislators to
consider and implement the idea before redistricting begins after the 2000
census.
       Meghan Holbrook, executive director of the Utah Democratic Party,
had not heard about the proposal late Tuesday.
         ``Two-party control? I'd love to have two-party control again in
Utah,'' she said, alluding to the state's Republican dominance.
       All five members of Utah's congressional delegation are Republicans,
as are four of five statewide officeholders. And in the Legislature,
Democrats hold only 29 of the 104 seats.
       ``It's the American way for everyone to be heard,'' Holbrook added,
``but it's important for us to go back to a two-party system in this state
before we talk about any type of proportional formulas.''
        [CV&D NOTE: CATCH A CLUE! YOU NEED PR TO AVOID MONOPOLY POLITICS!]
          In addition, the state's infant Green Party said it will push for
an alternative election system as a tonic for voter apathy and a
Republican-Democrat stranglehold on Utah politics.....
       Those interested in learning more about changing the election
process  can visit the Internet Web site for the Center for Voting and
Democracy, http://www.igc.org/cvd.
                                         * * *

     Meanwhile, I was invited to speak earlier this month at a conference
in Rhode Island organized by Bryant College students, CV&D advisory
committee member Marsha Pripstein and several of the state's minor parties.
The five-hour event was well-attended and generated strong interest for
working for PR and instant runoff voting in the state.

7. PR a part of new books / Jamaica / Parting query

       Authors who have written well about PR in the course of recent books
about broader issues include Sam Smith, Kevin Phillips, Lani Guiner, David
Reynolds, James Campbell and Michael Lind. Here are two new books of note:

* "Multi-Party Politics in America," edited by Paul Herrnson and John
Green, Rowman and Littlefield (1997)

      - A collection of articles on minor parties in the United States, the
book has some particularly important pieces for advocates of proportional
representation -- one with remarkable statistics about the comparable of
new party growth in the United States and Europe, but the completely
different rates of success at winning representation. Approximately half of
new parties in Europe in the period studied won seats.

* "The Law of Democracy: Legal Structure of the Political Process," by
Samuel Issacharoff, Pamela Karlan, and Richard Pildes, Foundation Press
(1997)

      - This new casebook includes an excellent chapter on proportional systems.

Finally:

* Jamaica and Canada to leave the United States alone?:  One of my current
"top five" statistics is that the only full-fledged, major democracies that
don't use PR for a national election are Jamaica, Canada and the United
States. (This definition includes nations with at least 2 million people
and a high human rights rating in 1995 from Freedom House.) Debate is
heating up in Canada, and now apparently in Jamaica. Last month I was
invited to appear on Jamaica's major morning talk program to discuss PR,
and both the hosts and the other guest were very receptive -- a new party
is making inroads, promising to lead to more plurality victories.

* Query -- PR in NGO and university elections:

       We are trying to determine what NGOs and universities use PR methods
for their internal elections -- any information on this would be
much-appreciated. In addition, any information about how such elections --
both those using PR and winner-take-all methods -- are administered would
be of interest. Please send an email at: fairvote at compuserve.com.
Thanks!
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