[EM] Looking for a paper on Plurality Block Voting and US municipal elections that was noted on this list a while back

[Bob Richard]

I don't recall the paper Scott has in mind and I don't have a convenient 
source for the number of local jurisdictions with various voting 
systems, But I have some general knowledge about the constitutional 
issue Scott raises.

The Supreme Court has never declared plurality block voting (aka 
vote-for-N, aka multiple non-transferable vote) unconstitutional. What 
it has decided is that vote-for-N can violate the federal Voting Rights 
Act of 1965 if -- and only if -- it is used in circumstances where it 
discriminates against racial minorities. Most successful voting rights 
challenges to vote-for-N are settled by switching to district elections. 
But in around 50-75 cases, federal courts have ordered the adoption of 
cumulative voting or the limited vote (aka single non-transferable 
vote). These have been situations where minority populations are not 
geographically concentrated in such a way that single-member districts 
can be drawn to provide them with representation.

Unfortunately the courts have a track record of preferring cumulative 
voting and the limited vote, methods that are at best semi-proportional, 
rather than STV. There is, however, one instance in which the Justice 
Department, acting under the Voting Rights Act, disapproved a request to 
switch from STV to the limited vote on the grounds that the limited vote 
wouldn't protect minorities in the specific circumstances of the case. 
This was in the New York City school system, where STV was used for 
elections to a number of advisory bodies from about 1970 to about 2000 
(STV wasn't repealed, rather the advisory boards themselves were disbanded).

A very useful source on the Voting Rights Act and representation of 
minorities is Mark E. Rush and Richard L. Engstrom, eds., "Fair and 
Effective Representation? Debating Electoral Reform and Minority Rights" 
(Rowman & Littlefield, 2001). A valuable empirical study of the effects 
of introducing cumulative voting and the limited vote is Shaun Bowler, 
Todd Donovan and David Brockington, "Electoral Reform and Minority 
Representation: Local Experiments with Alternative Elections" (Ohio 
State University Press, 2003).

Hope this helps,
Bob


Scott Ritchie wrote:
> A while back someone posted a paper to this list talking about different
> voting systems used in local government in the US. Particularly
> memorable to me was that plurality block voting is still the most
> popular for city council elections (ahead of districted plurality),
> despite being at one point declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
>
> Does anyone remember where this paper is?  Or at least what the court
> case was?
>
> Thanks,
> Scott Ritchie
> ----
> Election-Methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info
>   
-- 
Bob Richard
Marin Ranked Voting
P.O. Box 235
Kentfield, CA 94914-0235
415-256-9393
http://www.marinrankedvoting.org