Foreword

Full representation is a collaborative project of the Southern Center for Studies in Public Policy and the Center for Voting and Democracy. In 2001 the reapportionment and redistricting of legislative bodies began at the state and local levels, with the lines being drawn across the nation for Congress, state legislatures, county commissions, city councils and school boards. Scholars like Lani Guinier, Edward Still and Pamela Karlan have been suggesting full representation plans as alternatives to single-member districts for years, but the Supreme Court decisions in Shaw v. Reno (1993) and Miller v. Johnson (1995) ��� which established that race could not be used as the primary criterion in redistricting and reapportionment ��� have led many more black elected officials and voting rights leaders to explore these systems.

Alternatives to single member district systems like cumulative voting, limited voting, and choice voting have been used effectively to increase minority representation in many local communities; in fact, nearly 100 localities have adopted one of these systems to settle voting rights cases since 1987, including such diverse cities as Amarillo (TX), Chilton County (AL) and Peoria (IL). This manual promotes no particular remedy. Rather, it seeks to provide information to help community leaders assess which approach best fits their local circumstances. Hence, the manual is written for those who wish to investigate more completely the types of voting arrangements that will provide racial minorities the fairest chance of electing candidates of their own choosing.

The principle of ���full representation��� voting systems, also called proportional representation, is that the right of decision belongs to a majority, but the right of representation to all. Full representation systems allow like-minded groupings of voters to elect a fair share of candidates. Gaining more than half of the popular vote wins a majority of the seats, but not all the seats. One-fifth of the vote wins one in five seats rather than none. Full representation means representative democracy.

Full Representation is a broad-based program designed to achieve three major goals: 1) to provide an effective education/training program for black elected officials and community/civil rights leaders particularly in the southeastern United States and a few other selected states on alternatives to the single member district election system, 2) to develop a network of organizations such as the Congressional Black Caucus, the National Black Caucus of State Legislators, the National Organization of Negro Women, the National Organization of Black County Officials, the NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and historically black colleges and universities, 3) to involve this network in the post-2000 redistricting process, and 4) to provide technical assistance to black elected officials and groups in developing redistricting/reapportionment plans at all levels of government. Full Representation will increase awareness of full representation election systems as strategies/options to achieve minority political empowerment and fair representation for people of color.

We would like to thank all those who have made this manual possible. A special thanks to Frederick McBride, who conceived of the manual and produced much of it during his tenure in 1999 and 2000 working for our two organizations.

Introduction

Table of Contents