[EM] Two FWD letters on Two member districts

[Donald E Davison]

  ----------- Forwarded Letter One ---------
From: K BARBER
Date: Sun, 16 May 1999 11:02:59 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: Vermont's Two Member Districts
To: donald at mich.com
MIME-version: 1.0

Thank you for your interesting findings about 2-member districts. Do you have
an intern who could check back over a decade of elections, from redistricting
to redistricting? I don't know the history of the 2-member seats. I do remember
that England used 2-member constituencies some centuries ago, and in the
literature there is some dispute about their purpose. One school of thought is
that there were so many dangers on the road to London from robbers and thieves
that two were sent together to protect each other; a single rider was too
vulnerable. The other theory was that two were sent to keep an eye on each
other, check up on their honesty and proper representation of their district.
Each knew that the other might report back to the constituency if he
misrepresented them.
        Coming back to the present, of course three members would be better.
with STV, or IRV or even CV. STV is the most accurate means of representing a
diverse population. Kathleen L. Barber
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Dear Kathleen L. Barber,

    Demorep is my intern. I'll get him working on the project pronto.
    In the meantime, maybe the following forwarded letter will be of value
to you.

Donald

  ----------- Forwarded  Letter Two --------------
Date: Sun, 16 May 1999 14:59:51 +0200
To: donald at mich.com (Donald E Davison)
From: Richard Matland
Subject: Re: Vermont's Two Member Districts

Hello Donald,

Prince Edward Island, a province in Canada, also used two member districts
for almost 100 years until the start of the 1990s.  Initially they had two
member districts to insure that parties nominated one Catholic and one
Protestant.  100 years later I'm not certain as to whether religion was
just as relevant, but by then gender had become highly relevant.  You can
take a look at an article that Don Studlar and I published in the Canadian
Journal of Political Science   "The Dynamics of Women's Representation in
the Canadian Provinces."  CJPS 29(2): 269-293 that deals with women's
representation more generally, but does discuss PEI and their multi-member
districts.

Richard Matland

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 T H E   C O D E   O F   H O N O R   F O R   R E F O R M   A C T I V I S T S

     Any group of reform activists that are thinking about a petition drive
to place a proposal on the ballot are to present their proposal beforehand
to all other reform activists that they know of. The time for debate and
negative comments is before the petition stage. Once the group makes its
final proposal and enters the petition stage, the debates and negative
comments by all reform activists is to cease.
    At this time each activist is to make an honest evaluation. If the
initiative will improve government then each activist is to find it in his
heart to support the initiative, even if it is not exactly what the
activist would like.

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   |                         Q U O T A T I O N                         |
   |  "Democracy is a beautiful thing,                                 |
   |       except that part about letting just any old yokel vote."    |
   |                            - Age 10                               |
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