[Election-Methods] IRV hurts racial minorities?

[Kathy Dopp]

> Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:09:42 +0100
> From: "James Gilmour" <jgilmour at globalnet.co.uk>
> Subject: Re: [Election-Methods] IRV hurts racial minorities?
>
> Whatever the merits or demerits of any single-winner voting system in respective of minority representation, if you are serious
> about representation of minorities, you start by electing the representative assembly by a sound system of proportional
> representation in which all representatives are elected from multi-member districts (upper limit: whole country = one electoral
> district).

I am certain that I am not the only person on this list who has
noticed the lack of logical correctness in the above statement.

Obviously either single member or multi-member districts can either
favor or disfavor minority groups. The factors that determine if
minority groups benefit or not include other factors such as how the
districts are drawn respective to the population of the minority group
and how many candidates one voter can vote for.  (If the voter can
only vote for one candidate in a multi-member district, that favors
minorities more than if voters can vote for multiple candidates
because it avoids a strong majority picking all the candidate members
of the district.)

There seems to be a lot of emotional attachment to a position rather
than a willingness to examine facts and reconsider one's position in
light of facts.  Apparently available data shows IRV is consistent
with a voting method that disfavors minorities.

Cheers,

Kathy