Washington Post
Empowering Political
Minorities October 21, 2001
In Montgomery County African Americans, Asian
Americans and other racial minorities make up 40 percent of the
population, but 35 of the county's 36 state legislators are white.
No African Americans or Latinos represent Montgomery County in
Annapolis. Something is wrong with this picture, and it is a
statewide problem.
Perceiving a clear political opportunity, the Maryland
Republican Party introduced a redistricting plan that breaks
Maryland's large, multi-member House districts into small,
single-member districts. This probably would make it easier for
racial minorities -- and Republicans -- to get elected. Several
leading Democrats, including Montgomery County Executive Doug
Duncan, have expressed qualified support for single-member
districts.
However, Democrats on the governor's five-member
redistricting commission, including Senate President Mike Miller,
say the Republican plan is partisan. Miller is open to drawing some
single-member districts, but apparently not in areas that would
benefit Republicans. Democratic control of redistricting in Maryland
makes it unlikely that the Republican plan will be adopted, although
a small number of new single-member districts are possible.
If both parties really are serious about opening up
politics, they could agree instead to move to a system of
"cumulative voting" within their party primaries. This would create
much more openness without altering the partisan dynamics of
three-seat districts.
Cumulative voting already is in use in a number of
jurisdictions. The process is simple, and the ballot in Maryland's
three-seat districts could look the same as it does today. The only
change would be that voters could give one vote to each of three
candidates, as they can now, but they also would have the option to
give their votes to one candidate or divide their votes between two
candidates.
By measuring the intensity of voter preference as well
as its scope, cumulative voting empowers political minorities to win
seats in accordance with their support and makes representation
accessible to everyone. An analysis by the Center for Voting and
Democracy indicates that such a plan likely would have resulted in
the election of several more representatives from minority
communities in Montgomery County without affecting the county's
partisan balance.
Incumbents can be resistant to change, but the Voting
Rights Act requires us to build a more open and racially integrated
political system. Through cumulative voting in primaries, Democrats
and Republicans alike could advance this shared goal while avoiding
the inevitable partisan and legal wrangling that greeted the effort
to go to single-member districts.
Legislators in Annapolis should enact rules for
cumulative voting in party primaries and consider doing so for
general elections. Too much is at stake to talk big and think small
about this problem.
-- Jamin B. Raskin
-- Eric C. Olson
are, respectively, a professor of constitutional
law at American University and deputy director of the Center for
Voting and Democracy. |