02/12/02 - Approval Voting via Plurality-at-Large:

[DEMOREP1 at aol.com]

Detroit is one of the few major cities that elects its city council entirely 
at large.

Details- (allegedly) nonpartisan primaries and general elections.

Easy nominating petitions

A voter can vote for 9 primary Council candidates. Top 18 are nominated.  

A voter can vote for 9 general election Council candidates. Top 9 in general 
election are elected (mainly popularity contest type political morons who are 
clueless about the social-economic rot in the city for about 60 plus years).

About 7 votes average per voter for general election candidates -- circa 2 or 
3 of the winners get less than a majority from all of the voters.

The at large system (started 1918) was a direct producer of the infamous 1967 
riot that drove most of the remaining white folks out of Detroit.  No blacks 
elected for decades.  Major riot.  Now only a white very liberal female is 
nonblack on the Council.  Detroit has lost roughly half of its population 
since the early 1950's and may well be the first abandoned major city in the 
U.S.A. in a few more decades when enough old folks pass on.

How many other cities have the same sort of at large city council rot ???

Remedy -- proportional representation for legislative body elections.