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Voting and Democracy
Review
The Newsletter of the Center for Voting and
Democracy
Number 15
June 2002
Celebrating 10 Years of Seeking Fair
Elections!
A Special Anniversary
Edition
The Center for Voting and
Democracy is dedicated to fair elections where every vote counts and
all voters are represented. As a catalyst for reform, we conduct
research, analysis, education and advocacy to build understanding of
and support for more democratic voting systems, in particular
proportional representation (PR) and instant runoff voting (IRV).
This newsletter recounts our decade of success. We believe the
coming years hold even greater promise.
Before the beginning:
In the 1860s, American reformers, inspired by John Stuart
Mill, push for proportional representation (PR) within Congress and
in states. In 1870 Illinois adopts cumulative voting for state
legislative elections, where it is used until 1980. The Proportional
Representation League forms, gains the support of luminaries such as
Walter Lippman, A. Philip Randolph, Carrie Chapman Catt, Jane Addams
and Paul Douglas. It has major successes: adoption of the choice
voting method of PR in two dozen cities, including Cincinnati,
Cleveland, New York and Sacramento, and inclusion of choice voting
in the National Municipal League's Model City Charter
. Franklin
Roosevelt and Fiorello La Guardia back PR in New York's successful
campaign. Relentless opposition from political machines,
frustration with counting ballots by hand and wariness of racial and
political minorities reverse these gains. By 1985, Cambridge (MA)
and New York are the only jurisdictions with PR. The PR League is
long gone. The spark: In the early 1990's, conditions are ripe for voting
system reform. The term limits movement gathers steam in reaction to
lopsided legislative races. Voting rights attorneys settle cases
with cumulative voting and limited voting in nearly 30
jurisdictions, including Alamogordo (NM), Chilton County (AL) and
Peoria (IL). A 1988 referendum to restore choice voting in
Cincinnati earns 45%, and California reformers promote a statewide
PR measure. Hendrik Hertzberg memorably touts PR in the New
Republic
. Michael
Lind advocates PR in the Atlantic Monthly. Douglas Amy
writes Real Choices, New Voices
. The ignition: Four separate pro-PR organizations form in
1991-1992 with the name Citizens for Proportional Representation
(CPR). Former congressional aide Matthew Cossolotto starts a
national group in Washington, D.C., writes a Christian Science
Monitor
commentary and appears on C-SPAN. Rob Richie and Cynthia
Terrell start a regional group in Olympia, Washington and Steven Hill a
third in Seattle. A new campaign in Cincinnati is called CPR. Richie
and Terrell go to Cincinnati to assist the campaign, which falls
just short. Richie, Cossolotto and Cincinnati's Bill Collins join
together to organize a founding conference. 1992: In June 1992 reformers from 17
states come to Cincinnati for the founding conference of Citizens
for Proportional Representation. Ted Berry, Cincinnati's first black
mayor, welcomes reformers with an inspirational speech, and
a sterling mix of activists and scholars make the case
for change and launch the organization. Richie is named director, Cossolotto
the president and former Congressman John Anderson soon becomes
the head of the national advisory board that includes Jack
Gargan, Manning Marable, Arend Lijphart, Eleanor Smeal and Sam
Smith. CPR opens operations in Alexandria, Virginia. Anderson writes a New York
Times commentary advocating
instant runoff voting and Cossolotto is featured in profiles in the
Los Angeles Times and New Age Journal
.
Richie starts a regular column on PR in the National Civic Review.
Local reformers such as Howie Fain in Massachusetts, Lee Mortimer in
North Carolina, Casey Peters and Jim Lindsay in California, Carolyn
Campbell in Arizona and Steven Hill in Washington start making
waves. By year's end the Center has some 200 members, but a very
small budget. 1993: CPR changes its name to the Center for Voting
and Democracy and moves into Washington, D.C. After Bill Clinton
nominates law professor Lani Guinier to head the civil rights
division of the Justice Department, critics attack her suggestion
that cumulative voting be used to resolve more voting rights cases.
The Center aggressively defends Guinier and cumulative voting on
radio and in print, but Clinton withdraws her nomination before a
hearing. Guinier powerfully defends her ideas on national
television. When the Supreme Court issues a ruling that limits the
use of race in redistricting, focus on PR increases. In the summer, the Center holds
its second national conference, drawing a second appearance on
C-SPAN. It publishes its Voting and Democracy Report 1993 , a well-received collection of writings
about voting system reform. Cossolotto presents the Center's
Champion of Democracy Award to Paddy Ashdown, pro-PR
advocate and Liberal Democratic Party leader in the United
Kingdom. Richie and board member Cynthia Terrell are invited to New
Zealand for a two-week tour of speaking and media engagements during
a historic campaign that leads to a national win for PR despite a
10-to-1 spending edge for opponents. The Center's budget remains
very small, although the Seasongood Foundation supports its legal
effort on behalf of PR in a Cincinnati case. 1994: The Center
makes particular headway with advocating PR in voting rights cases.
In Worcester County (MD), a federal judge imposes cumulative voting
to settle a voting rights case. Rob Richie is quoted in the
Washington Post
and appears on national radio programs explaining the ruling. A
challenge against black-majority congressional districts in North
Carolina leads NPR and the New York Times to profile Lee Mortimer's
proposal to use PR. Richie is invited to address national
conferences of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and the
National Rainbow Coalition, the voting section of the Department of
Justice and charter commissions in Nassau County (NY), Miami Beach
and Detroit. In Seattle, activists led by the Center's new west
coast director Steven Hill gather nearly 20,000 signatures for a
choice voting ballot measure for city council. The Center's report
for Cambridge on computerizing the ballot count for its choice
voting elections leads to use of modern voting equipment in 1997.
The Center issues its first
Dubious Democracy report on competitiveness in
congressional elections at a well-attended event at which Douglas
Amy, the New Yorker
's Hendrik Hertzberg, analyst
Kevin Phillips and civic leader Curtis Gans discuss PR. The Center
receives its first gift of more than $10,000, from the HKH
Foundation. The Stewart Mott Charitable Trust makes the first of
what become annual gifts. 1995: The Center
advances on several fronts. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney
introduces the first bill about PR in decades -- the Voters' Choice
Act to give states the option to elect House members by PR. USA
Today
and columnists
William Raspberry and Clarence Page support PR in editorials, citing
the Center. John Anderson's talk about a Center report on the
defects of plurality elections in presidential elections earns
C-SPAN coverage. Relying on the great volunteer
energy of the Fair Ballot Alliance of Massachusetts, the Center
holds a national conference in Boston that draws more than 300
people to Faneuil Hall and an exciting mix of plenary speakers and
breakout workshops. The Center publishes a second Voting and
Democracy Report
with more than
70 articles (now on-line) and increases its advisory board to
include nearly 100 scholars, legislators and civic leaders. In Cincinnati, Lani Guinier and
Ted Berry are presented with Champion of Democracy
awards. Karen Taggart and Tory Mast are the first of a
remarkable series of interns. The Rockefeller Brothers Fund provides
the Center's largest grant yet, $20,000 for educational outreach
about choice voting in New York City's local school board elections,
while the Stern Family Fund provides the first of ultimately three
grants. 1996: Tireless outreach by Steven Hill leads to the San
Francisco Board of Supervisors placing choice voting on the ballot.
The resulting campaign falls short 56%-44%, but earns endorsements
from an impressive range of constituency groups and political
leaders. Maria Teresa Rojas produces a video for the Center about
choice voting that airs on New York cable stations and adapts it for
the San Francisco campaign. Congressman Pat Williams introduces a
bill to create a commission to study PR and House size, triggered in
part by the Center's op-eds advocating commissions. Rob Richie appears on C-SPAN and
MSNBC. Richie meets with the editorial boards of the Dallas
Morning News, Boston Globe and Chicago
Tribune. Steven Hill, Matthew Cossolotto, John Anderson and
Richie write commentary in The Christian Science Monitor,
In These Times, Los Angeles Times,
Nation, New York Times, Vital Speeches,
Washington Post and Roll Call
. The Center's largest individual contributor over the decade,
the late Dr. Huntington Terrell, makes a timely challenge donation
of $10,000. John Anderson is the Center's new president. 1997: The Center
releases Monopoly Politics, a ground-breaking report on the
consequences of winner-take-all elections on voter choice. C-SPAN
airs the Center's news conference, and the report generates
front-page coverage in the Christian Science Monitor and
pieces in Roll Call, National Journal and
Congressional Quarterly. John Anderson's commentary is
published in the New York Times, and Rob Richie and Steven
Hill together publish ten op-eds and lengthy pieces for Social
Policy, Boston Review and National Civic
Review
.
U.S. PIRG, one of many groups the Center steadily informs, adopts an
official position in support of PR. The Center's budget tops
$100,000, as it receives major grants from the Open Society
Institute and Joyce Foundation. 1998: Santa
Clara County (CA) votes to make instant runoff voting (IRV) an
option in county elections, thanks to the efforts of Steven Chessin.
Endorsers include the Chamber of Commerce, San Jose Mercury
News
and key unions. Charter
commissions in Pasadena (CA) and Kalamazoo (MI) recommend choice
voting after receiving information from the Center. The Center holds
two major conferences in San Francisco and Minneapolis, boosted by
local activists like Tony and Karen Solgard. The conferences draw
hundreds, ranging from young reformers to veteran civil rights
lawyers to respected scholars. The national chairs of the Reform
Party and US PIRG are among many leaders who talk with grassroots
activists about how best to pursue voting system reform. Rob Richie addresses classes at
Duke, American University, NYU Law School, Georgetown Law School and
Georgia State. Board members Ed Still and Wilma Rule present at the
American Political Science Association's annual conference. Board
member Hendrik Hertzberg joins Richie for presentations to the
New York Times editorial board and the Funders' Committee
on Citizen Participation. The Center again publishes numerous
commentaries, and its Electing the People's House: 1998
report receives excellent media coverage. The Ford Foundation gives
the Center the first of two multi-year grants, the Open Society
Institute increases its giving to $100,000 and the Arca Foundation
provides the Center with its first grant focused solely on IRV.
1999: Legislation to enact IRV for statewide and federal offices
gains strong support in Vermont and passes the New Mexico state
senate. John Gear sparks a successful charter amendment in Vancouver
(WA) to permit IRV. Interest in adopting PR to comply with the
Voting Rights Act increases. The Center assists Congressman Mel Watt
with his States' Choice of Voting Systems Act to allow states to use
PR in multi-seat House districts. Supporters of the bill at a
congressional hearing range from the Department of Justice (DOJ) to
Rep. Tom Campbell. Rob Richie and voting rights leaders meet with
leaders of the DOJ's civil rights division. They present information
that contributes to a DOJ decision to block an attempt to eliminate
choice voting in New York's local school board elections. Amarillo
(TX) becomes the nation's largest jurisdiction with cumulative
voting. The Center works closely with several organizations. With
the Southern Center for Studies in Public Policy it focuses on
outreach to black elected officials and community leaders in the
South. It advises several state League of Women Voters groups that
launch studies of voting systems and helps spur the National
Organization for Women to endorse PR. Richie meets with the
leadership of the ACLU, and in 2001 its board votes to support PR.
Steven Hill and Richie are the
lead authors in Reflecting All of Us
, the first of eight books in which their writings on reform
appear. Deputy director Eric Olson becomes the third staffer, joined
soon by four more, including majority rule project director Caleb
Kleppner and full representation project director Fred McBride. The
Open Society Institute and the Arca Foundation continue their major
support, the Solidago Foundation is a new supporter and Lenin
Pellegrino provides funds a new arm of the Center, the Midwest
Democracy Center that is headed by Dan Johnson-Weinberger. 2000: The
controversial presidential election helps spark the Center's biggest
media year. Richie appears on CNN, Fox, Canadian radio and NPR's
Talk of the Nation. Eric Olson and Richie provide comment
to ABC radio, BBC, Voice of America, Democracy Now and
countless local radio outlets and print journalists -- they are
quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Congressional
Quarterly, National Journal, US News and World
Report, Los Angeles Times and Chicago
Tribune
. John
Anderson's Irwin Mann Voting and Democracy lecture on "Beyond
Spoilers and the Evil of Two Lessers" draws 300 guests in New York.
Before the election, two of the
Center news conferences are aired 10 times on C-SPAN, Richie is a
guest on NPR's Fresh Air and articles on the Center's
reports on non-competitive elections are featured in Slate
and on Reuters and Gannett wire services. Board members and staffers
write commentaries on voting system reform for such publications as
USA Today, New Yorker, Nation, New York Times, Washington Post,
Progressive, In These Times, Roll Call
and the
leading dailies in Amarillo, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte,
Cincinnati, Detroit, Houston, Juneau, Miami, Minneapolis,
Providence, Raleigh, San Francisco and Seattle. Articles by Center staff are
featured in Social Policy and in periodicals produced by
the Southern Regional Council and Poverty and Race Research Action
Council. The Trenton Times (NJ) and St. Petersburg
Times (
FL) write
powerful editorials in support of IRV. Clarence Page, Lani Guinier
and William Raspberry highlight PR in nationally syndicated columns.
In Congress, Democrat Peter DeFazio and Republican Jim Leach
introduce legislation (HR 5631) to study electoral reform, including
PR and IRV. California voters in Oakland and San Leandro adopt IRV
charter amendments to make it an option. The Alaska Republican Party
makes IRV its top legislative priority and invites Richie to address
its Lincoln Day dinners n Juneau and Anchorage. An initiative to
adopt IRV for most state and federal elections qualifies for the
2002 ballot. Eric Olson leads a workshop at the National League of
Cities' annual conference, helps arrange Lani Guinier's keynote
speech in which she touts PR and testifies before legislators in
Washington, D.C. and Maryland. The Center's essay contest for young
people on voter turnout generates more than 8,000 applicants. Judges
include California's Secretary of State Bill Jones, columnists Jane
Bryant Quinn and Arianna Huffington and filmmaker Richard Linklater.
Winners come to Washington, D.C. for their awards, and the essays
and their writers draw strong regional and national press. The
Center ends the year with six staff members. Starting full-time work
in 2000 are retiring Vermont state legislator Terry Bouricius and
Chicago lawyer Dan Johnson-Weinberger. Terry's outreach has led to
support for IRV for statewide elections from Vermont's Governor
Howard Dean, Secretary of State Deb Markowitz and state arms of
Common Cause, League of Women Voters and the Grange. Due largely to
Johnson-Weinberger's efforts, restoring cumulative voting for
Illinois state elections gains public support from a broad range of
state leaders, including Governor George Ryan, former Republican
governor Jim Edgar and former Democratic Congressman Abner Mikva.
The Center's budget tops $300,000. The William Trout Charitable
Trust provides its first grant. 2001: It's the
biggest year yet for IRV. Legislation is introduced in a dozen
states and Congress. Vermont's bill is endorsed by nearly half the
state senate, while a California bill is introduced by the assembly
speaker. IRV is the subject of comment and analysis in nearly all
major newspapers in the nation. New endorsers include the Sierra
Club, Center for Constitutional Rights and USA Today
. IRV is touted at length in new
books by Ted Halstead and Mike Lind and by Congressman Jesse
Jackson, Jr. The Center assists Members of Congress on three new
bills focusing in part on PR. A University of Illinois taskforce
headed by Abner Mikva and Jim Edgar issues a high-profile report
calling for the return of cumulative voting in state House
elections. Their arguments resonate deeply: lessening regional
polarization, encouraging coalitions, increasing access for new
candidates, providing better representation for racial minorities
and increasing competition. Hendrik Hertzberg delivers
testimony on behalf of John Anderson to a reform commission chaired
by former presidents Ford and Carter. Scott Harshbarger, president
of Common Cause, also advocates IRV to the commission. New writings
by the Center includes several op-eds and longer articles in the
Asian American Policy Review, Boston Review and
Extra
. The latest in a
series of election research reports is an on-line, 50-state guide to
redistricting with updated profiles of every state. The Center assists several
pro-democracy efforts, including Democracy Summer
and Philadelphia's democracy convention. It hires consultants Blair
Bobier and David Cobb and holds regional workshops that draw
hundreds. The Center promotes a campaign to require new voting
equipment to support use of IRV and PR. Endorsers include AALDEF,
Brennan Center, Demos, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, NAPALC,
PRLDEF and US PIRG. In partial response, the Federal Elections
Commission in 2002 requires election company vendors to indicate
whether and how their equipment supports IRV and cumulative voting.
Speaking engagements are plentiful. Examples include lectures at
Duke, Princeton and four law schools and at conferences of Public
Campaign, NOW, Unitarian Universalists, NAACP, League of Women
Voters, National Black Caucus of State Legislators, Council of
Midwest State Governments and National Conference of State
Legislators. The Center sustains its level of support, boosted by
new grants from the Joyce and Deer Creek foundations. 2002: In March,
San Francisco overcomes well-financed opposition to vote 55%-45% to
become the first major American city to adopt IRV to elect its
leaders. Of 56 Vermont town meetings considering an advisory
question to use IRV for statewide elections, 52 voted yes. The
Center's Steven Hill and Caleb Kleppner run the San Francisco
effort, joined by Calpirg's Elena Nunez. Terry Bouricius and the
state League of Women Voters organize the near-sweep of town meeting
votes. The Center also assists in adoption of IRV at the
Universities of Maryland and Illinois. These IRV wins draw major
media coverage, with pieces in Time Magazine,
Washington Post, Tompaine.com, Nation and a wire
story in major papers like the New York Times
. They also spark Los Angeles to begin a formal study of
IRV. Joleen Garcia joins the Center to run education efforts in the
57 Texas jurisdictions with cumulative voting. She focuses on
Amarillo, where May elections with cumulative voting complete the
change from an all-white school board in the last winner-take-all
election in 1998 to a more representative board with four whites,
two Latinas and an African American. Rashad Robinson is hired to
coordinate the Center's outreach about PR and voting rights,
particularly in the South and among young people. He makes
presentations in Connecticut, New York, Georgia, Maryland and
Washington, DC. The Year Ahead:
Alaska will vote in August on adoption of IRV for major elections,
including the president in 2004. Santa Rosa this fall may vote to
adopt cumulative voting. The Center finds more allies ready to
address the devastating impact of redistricting on fair and
competitive elections. With an increasingly urgent need to challenge
winner-take-all rules, we expect the title of Steve Hill's new book
to be prophetic for our reform prospects: Fixing Elections
. Our best is yet
to come.
Thank you to our 10-year,
every-year members!
We have many loyal and
generous supporters, but a special thanks to Kathleen Barber, Ken
Bresler, Bill Collins, Matthew Cossolotto, Paul Etxeberri, Phil
Goldstein, Charles Johnson, Thomas Jones, Eli Kaminsky, Mark Lewis,
Arend Lijphart, Jim Lindsay, Phil Macklin, Frieda McMullan, John
Moot, Lee Mortimer, Deborah Richie Oberbillig, Alison Oldham,
Kenneth Pulliam, David and Catherine Richie, Wilma Rule, David
Schall, Don Shaffer, Sam Smith, Steven Snoey, Tony Solgard, Ed
Still, Carolyn Terrell, Harris Weston, Terry Woodnorth, Dan Zavon
and Joseph Zimmerman. |
