Year-End
Message to Members of the Center for Voting and Democracy
John B. Anderson
December 2001
The following letter was
mailed to members of the Center for Voting and Democracy this month.
For information on joining the Center, please see our Get Involved page.
Dear Fellow Members of the Center
for Voting and Democracy, It has been an unforgettable year. Some
memories are unbearably tragic, and some touched by grace. But the
importance of a responsive, accountable and representative
government is ongoing. And while I applaud efforts to record our
votes more accurately, we need more than error-free voting machines
and processes: a strong democracy demands choices that matter and a
fair chance for voters to earn a place at the table of power. I
take great pride in our efforts this year to establish fair
elections in America. San Francisco's upcoming referendum to adopt
instant runoff voting, the call by a commission of prominent
Illinois leaders to restore cumulative voting to elect their
legislature, ongoing attention in the major media to voting system
reform and new bills in Congress to boost proportional
representation and instant runoff voting only begin to suggest our
impact. And yet we have reached a pivotal moment in our reform
work. Never have my hopes and fears been so evenly balanced. For
every opportunity I see for democracy to advance, I see a path for
potential retreat. That is certainly true on the world stage in the
wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, but it is also the case
for our efforts for reform at home. We must steel ourselves to make
wise decisions and be alert to any openings. That is why we need
your help. Not only do I ask you for your continued financial
support for our efforts, but for your insights into the future
direction of our Center. We have received a foundation grant to
engage in a strategic planning process with our staff and board. We
want to include as many of your voices as possible in our
deliberations. You are our ongoing base of support, and your vote
must count! The enclosed reply card makes it easy for you to
indicate how you would evaluate our three chief programs: our
FairVote Campaign for implementing instant runoff voting in
elections with a single winner; our Full Representation Project for
allowing like-minded voters to elect their fair share of candidates
in elections with more than one winner; and our Democracy Deficit
Analysis, which spotlights how many of our gravest democratic ills
are rooted in winner-take-all, plurality electoral laws. We ask you
to indicate your views on the relative importance for these projects
by "budgeting" your contribution -- proportionally, of course. You
might divide your gift of $100 with $40 for our FairVote Campaign,
$40 for our Full Representation project and $20 for our Democracy
Deficit Analysis. Or you might direct your full contribution to one
project. We of course will read with interest any comments you
choose to send. Let me briefly describe our accomplishments and
plans in each program area: � Leading the FairVote
Campaign: The
Center for Voting and Democracy's FairVote Campaign seeks to
implement instant runoff voting in states and cities around the
nation As you know, instant runoff voting (IRV) allows underdog
candidates to run without acting as "spoilers" -- it is the best
means to have a multi-party system within a winner-take-all
electoral system. IRV also is cheaper, faster and less polarizing
than traditional two-round runoffs that are used in many primary and
city elections. Voters simply need to indicate their favorite
candidates and their runoff choices in one trip to the polls. We
have committed two full-time staff people and additional resources
to the campaign for a March ballot measure in San Francisco that
would implement instant runoff voting for all major offices. Other
states with growing momentum include Alaska (where an August ballot
measure would implement IRV for US president and Congress), Florida,
Louisiana, New Mexico, Vermont and Washington. To boost these
efforts, we have developed a range of educational tools, sought to
ensure new voting machines can handle IRV and promoted use of IRV in
non-governmental elections (adoptions of IRV this year range from
the Utah Republican Party to the University of Illinois student body
president). � Providing Full
Representation: The Center remains
deeply committed to proportional representation (PR). Used in most
modern democracies and with a tested history in the U.S.A., PR
provides fuller representation of the electorate by reducing the
percentage of votes necessary to win a fair share of seats. Benefits
include greater participation, a deeper debate on issues, more
inclusive legislatures and a weakening of money's grip on politics.
Our particular short-term focus is on how proportional systems can
be used to win and resolve Voting Rights Act cases. For example, we
have created a useful manual for community leaders and hired Joleen
Garcia to ensure cumulative voting works well in the 50 Texas
jurisdictions that have adopted it and in the many others that are
considering it. With effective outreach and education, this rapid
expansion of PR could happen nationally. Of course we continue
general outreach about PR with numerous articles and speeches. Just
in recent weeks, our executive director Rob Richie spoke to the
annual conference of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators
and a task force of the National Conference of State Legislators,
while field director Dan Johnson-Weinberger spoke at a national
redistricting conference about cumulative voting's history and
prospects in Illinois -- prospects that his outstanding efforts have
considerably brightened. � Exposing our Democracy
Deficit: It is no
exaggeration to say that the Center has changed the terms of the
national debate about the roots of "no-choice" elections. Already,
the conventional wisdom is that after redistricting, fewer than 10%
of U.S. House races will be competitive in 2002 and that state
legislative elections will be even more lopsided. As explained by
Rob Richie and Steven Hill in a recent op-ed: "2001's real story is
that both parties have colluded to take on their real enemy: the
voters. This year will go down in political history for the crass
way it has raised incumbent protection to a whole new level." With
regular reports such as Dubious Democracy and Monopoly Politics and
an excellent on-line guide to redistricting as it happens, the
Center continues to creatively spotlight the inherent problems of
winner-take-all elections. We also generate regular new reports and
provide information about non-majority winners, voter turnout and
other measures of democratic health that voting system reform would
improve. Many of you know first-hand just
how much our dedicated staff accomplishes. But we need your help to
build on our successes. Again, I hope to hear more from you about
what you value in our work, and I urge you to consider a generous
gift for the new year.
Sincerely yours,
John B. Anderson
Chair |