Black Representation Under Cumulative Voting in IL
From 1870 to 1980, Illinois used
cumulative voting to elect member of the State House of
Representatives. Candidates ran in three-seat constituencies. These
three-seat house districts also were used to elect a single state
senator. This chart records how many black
legislators were elected in each election between 1900 and 1978.
Cumulative voting clearly provided a powerful gateway for black
representation: black candidates were elected earlier than likely
would have happened with single-member districts and, for most of
the period, likely in bigger numbers. The state senate lagged far
behind in black representation until the mid-1960s, when
reapportionment in the wake of Supreme Court rulings on "one person,
one vote" led to more equitable representation of Chicago.
These numbers do not provide details
about these black representatives and their district. Based on the
state senate results, however, it is nearly certain that most black
members of the House of Representatives in 1954-1964 were elected in
white-majority districts. After 1964, blacks in the state senate and
house probably were represented in comparable proportions because
there were so few districts outside of Chicago where blacks made up
at least 25% of the adult population (25% being the share of the
vote necessary to ensure winning a seat). Put into a 21st century
context, the history of cumulative voting in Illinois suggests that
dispersed populations -- such as blacks in much of the South and
Asian Americans and Latinos in much of the country -- would do well
with cumulative voting and proportional
systems.
(Notes: 1) Three black state
legislators served a total of 14 terms from 1877-1895. 2) There were
also interesting patterns of black legislators' service. In the
senate, all legislators served consecutive years of service. In the
house, however, numerous legislators had discontinuous service,
likely indicating real competition -- probably in
primaries.) |
