In 1992, citizens of the City of Chicago Heights filed suit against the city for violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The plaintiffs claimed that the city's at-large, winner-take-all system of elections illegally diluted minority voting power. The trial court found that the elections system was illegal, and allowed the city to adopt a new election plan by referendum. The plaintiffs appealed this decision to the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, who held that the city's plan did not remedy the Section 2 violation.

The District Court imposed cumulative voting as a remedy for the violation, and the case was appealled to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in 1999. FairVote took this opportunity to submit an amicus brief to the court, urging it to uphold the District Court's decision. FairVote argued that cumulative voting was a legal remedy under the law, and that the imposition of cumulative voting in this case was reasonable.

Amicus Brief Filed with Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals
 

October 19th 2009
A better election system
Lowell Sun

Election expert Doug Amy explains how choice voting can "inject new blood" into the elections of Lowell (MA), and give voters a greater incentive to participate.

October 16th 2009
Haven't Detroit voters spoken enough?
Livingston Daily

In Detroit, there have been three mayors in the past two years and the current one has come under scrutiny. Perhaps a system like instant runoff voting will help bring political stability to motor city.

August 21st 2009
Black candidate for Euclid school board to test new voting system
Cleveland Plain Dealer

Limited voting, a form of proportional voting, will be used in Euclid (OH), in the hopes of allowing better representation of minorities.

July 2nd 2009
Reforming Albany
New York Times

FairVote's Rob Richie responds in a letter to the editor making the case for proportional voting systems to bring substantive reform to New York's legislature.