Illinois Governor
signs HB 138
Contact: Dan Johnson-Weinberger,
Director
Midwest
Democracy Center and General Counsel, Center for
Voting and Democracy -
312.933.4890 (cell)
Illinois' governor
has signed this legislation, which was passed out of the legislature
in May 2003
May 9, 2003
The Illinois state senate today joined the
house in passing legislation that allows counties to grant
cumulative voting rights in multi-member districts. Now to
go to the governor for signature. The bill
also authorizes citizen initiatives on the structure of county boards.
"This is a great step toward governments that represent
everyone, not just the political majority. Cumulative voting rights are a great
fit for county board elections, and I hope that many county boards take the
opportunity that this legislation provides." said Dan Johnson-Weinberger,
Director of the Midwest Democracy Center.
HB 138 passed the Illinois Senate today on a 30-26 vote. The
Senate sponsor is Terry Link (D-Highwood) and the House sponsor is Jack
Franks (D-Woodstock).
Current law permits county boards wide latitude in setting up
their electoral system by county ordinance. They may use
single-member districts or multi-member districts. They may use a combination of the
two. They may not, however, grant cumulative voting rights in multi-member
districts.
HB 138 would give county boards the authority to grant
cumulative voting rights in multi-member districts or at-large elections. It
would also authorize advisory citizen initiatives on the question of the
structure of the county board if citizens collect the signatures of 8% of
the gubernatorial turnout.
How does cumulative voting work?
It doesn't work at all when only one person is elected.
Cumulative voting only applies if there are at least two elected from a
multi-member district (or at-large election). Voters with cumulative voting rights
may give all their votes to one candidate - or split them up equally among
several candidates. Voters without cumulative voting rights may not do
so.
If there are three people to be elected from a district, and a
voter really likes on candidate, the voter must 'throw away' two of his
votes if he only wants to support the one candidate with his one vote. With
cumulative voting rights, the voter can cast his full allocation of votes - all
three votes -- for the one candidate he supports and give that candidate a
better chance of winning. This will help the political minority get some level
of representation and not just get locked out of any voice on the
county board.
DuPage County is a good example of the need for cumulative
voting rights. There are 18 members of the DuPage County Board and not a
single Democrat, even though Jesse White carried the county in 2002 and
Democrats almost always earns one-third of the vote. With districts that elect
three county >board members, it's only fair that the political minority with
one-third of the vote should elect one of the three members. McHenry County
is similarly situated: not a single Democrat elected to the 24-member county
board.
Which counties might be
affected? Currently, most
county boards use single-member districts. A partial review of the electoral
systems of county boards (as of November 2002) follows:
COUNTY Members per district
COUNTY Members per district DuPage 3 Lake 1
McHenry 4 Effingham 1 Lee 7 Sangamon 1
McLean 2 Coles 1
Champaign 3 Cook 1
Jackson 2
The Midwest Democracy Center is a membership-based advocacy
organization that promotes better voting systems. Our main goal is to bring
back cumulative voting in three-seat districts to the Illinois House
of Representatives (used from 1870-1980), as bipartisan
representation in each district worked better. We also advocate for instant runoff
voting and same-day voter registration. We are based in Chicago with
membership statewide. Our website is
www.midwestdemocracy.org
Read
a report on the status
of the legislation in February and how it had won
advocates.