E-News Update
July 27,
2001
To: Friends of Fair Elections
Fr: Rob Richie, Executive Director Center for Voting and Democracy
Re:
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More big IRV news from states across the nation
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" Redistricting Central": Updates from all 50
states - Modernizing election administration: the time is now
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CVD president John Anderson's Carter-Ford
testimony
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Resources: New articles, books and web pages /
links
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Shorts:
Legislation needs your support -breakthrough for choice voting
in New Zealand -British elections analysis -Demos
"Dispatches" and mapping effort -successful pro-democracy
events
-Bouricius on NPR
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Double your on-line gift for real electoral
reform!
It's summer time, and I'm sure most
of you couldn't think of anything more enjoyable than curling up
with a massive email newsletter about important advances in the
campaign for electoral reform in the United States. But in case a
few of you like your e-newsletters (relatively) short and sweet,
I'll instead summarize the last quarter's big developments and
direct you to on-line resources, mostly on our website (which our
energetic crew of summer associates urges you to visit to see the
excellent fruits of their labor) for reading more about just what a
potentially historic time is upon us.
As a reminder, our update touches on a range of
electoral reforms, but we focus particularly on two reforms to open
up political campaigns and legislative bodies to new voices:
"instant runoff voting" for elections to a single offices (such as
president, governor and mayor) and "full representation" systems
(also called "proportional representation") for elections to
legislatures. We also analyze the roots of lack of competitiveness
and fair representation in elections, which led us to develop our
unique one-stop public interest guide to legislative redistricting.
Onto the news!
Instant runoff voting on San Francisco ballot
in March
Earlier
this month, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 10-1 to
place on the March 2002 ballot a charter amendment to implement
instant runoff voting for all citywide elections, including mayor,
and for the Board of Supervisors. San Francisco currently uses
November elections followed by December runoff elections for these
races. Campaign costs to candidates and the city are very high.
Voter turnout often drops precipitously. More information in the IRV update.
More big IRV news from states across the nation
At least 13
state legislatures have considered instant runoff voting legislation
this year, including bills backed by California's speaker of the
house and state chapters of Common Cause, PIRG and the League of Women Voters .... Next month the Utah Republican Party likely will
become the first statewide major party in the United States to
implement instant runoff voting in its convention and other internal
elections.... The leading "third choice" candidates in this year's
two gubernatorial races -- Republican state senator Bill Schluter, running
as an independent in New Jersey, and Libertarian Party nominee William Redpath in Virginia --
are both touting IRV in their campaigns.... The Eugene city council
has voted to place a charter amendment on the September ballot that
would allow use of IRV for city elections -- voters have adopted
similar measures recently in San Leandro (CA), Santa Clara County
(CA) and Vancouver (WA), while Oakland (CA) voters passed a charter
amendment that will result in use of IRV in special elections to
fill vacancies as soon as new voting equipment is in place....
Alaska IRV backers are gearing up for their campaign to adopt IRV
for all federal and most state offices, already qualified for the
November 2002 ballot.... Both Public Campaign and Common Cause have joined U.S. PIRG
in urging consideration of IRV for major
elections. More on this in our
IRV update
Cumulative voting gains big-name support in
Illinois
In
1999 the Institute for Government and Public Affairs (IGPA)
at the University of Illinois received a major grant to conduct a
study of the impact of the state's conversion from cumulative voting
to single-member districts in 1980. The IGPA formed a task force to
analyze different electoral systems and make recommendations.
Co-chaired by former Republican governor Jim Edgar and former
Democratic Congressman and federal judge Abner Mikva, the task force
members included leading state legislators and civic leaders. The
task force this month called for reviving cumulative voting, leading
to a wave of positive media attention -- much featuring CVD's Dan Johnson-Weinberger
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and editorial support from papers like the Chicago Sun Times. The
IGPA has issued an excellent report about their deliberations and
the history of cumulative voting in the state -- one demonstrating
the positive impact of even modest full representation plans. See
links to media and the report in our online summary.
"Redistricting Central": Updates from all 50
states
Last year the Center issues its a on-line,
state-by-state "Public Interest Guide to Redistricting" that
provides easily digestible information about law, politics and
practices of redistricting in each state, with examples of more
creative redistricting in the last redistricting cycle. The report
is being updated steadily, with good links and news coverage from
every state as legislators meticulously choose their constituents
before their constituents get to choose them.
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For our redistricting home
page, with links to the report, "redistricting roulette, telling
quotes from legislators and much more, see the redistricting
section
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For insight into the impact of
creating safe districts for incumbents, see our state-by-state
study of congressional elections-" Dubious Democracy."
Modernizing election administration: The time
is now
The studies and task forces are wrapping up
their work, and soon it will up to Congress and the White House to
respond to the stark reality that as many as six million Americans
did not cast a vote for president last year only because of
antiquated voting machinery, voter education and voter registration
procedures. Fortunately, there is a general consensus on basic
improvements and federal assistance to make it happen. As part of
that debate, we believe there are important points that voting
system reformers must make to ensure that democracy is expanded as
fully as it should be with these improvements.
Among CVD's
actions on election administration are:
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a letter to the Federal
Elections Commission about proposed voting system standards
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a statement about
key features of voting equipment that has been endorsed by several
leading civic groups
Important links on election administration reform
include:
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News
from the National Conference
on State Legislators
CVD chair John Anderson's Carter-Ford testimony
In May, CVD chair John Anderson was invited to
address the National Commission on Federal Elections Reform,
co-chaired by former presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford. To
read his prepared testimony -- which eloquently makes the case for
fundamental reforms of our elections -- see his
testimony online.
To read a
transcript of CVD Board member (and New Yorker Magazine senior
editor) Hendrik Hertzberg's presentation to the commission -- one
that focused in particular on instant runoff voting.
Are your county and state democracy-ready?
Find out!
The Center has joined with the Alliance
for Democracy to create a survey on "Are Your County
and State Democracy- Ready." Find out if your local governments
make elections as fair and democratic as possible and what should be
improved to make it more so. Let us know what you find out with a
note to Maritza
Valenzuela.
Voting rights: ACLU policy on full rep,
manual, more
Our website section
on voting rights has been updated to include several important new
articles and a new manual from CVD on full representation systems
for local elections published with the Southern Center for Studies
in Public Policy and available for download. Read also the new
policy adopted by the American Civil Liberties Union in favor of
lifting statutory barriers to proportional representation, which
culminated a two-year study process. Among new articles on our site
are ones I co-authored in the Southern Regional Council's (SRC
) Southern Changes ,
Poverty & Race Research Action Council's (PRRAC) newsletter
and the
Asian
American Policy Review .
Job opening: Full Representation Project
Director
We have an important and timely
opportunity for an energetic hard-worker interested in a combination
of organizing and education to achieve fair elections. If you're the
right person for the job -- or you know someone who is -- please
don't hesitate to apply! More information is available
in our job listings
Endorsements mount - add your name to
growing list
We have launched an endorsement
campaign on full representation (proportional representation),
instant runoff voting and election administration. See who has
signed on, and let us know if you would like to endorse one or all
of the following statements:
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"We support instant runoff voting as a better
method of electing a single candidate than either plurality voting
or traditional two-round runoff elections."
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"We support requiring that all new voting
equipment be compatible with all ballot types currently used
in U.S. elections."
Resources: Great new articles and books
Articles and commentary about reforming our
electoral system keep coming at a higher pace than ever before. Read
pieces from a wide range of publications, including.... excellent
cases for proportional representation from John Burbank (Tacoma
Tribune), Lee Mortimer (Raleigh News and Observer),
Lani Guinier (Boston Review) and Stephen Medvic
(Virginian Pilot)..... editorials and op-eds in favor of
instant runoff voting from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Los
Angeles Times, Eugene Register-Guard, Boston Globe and
Kansas City Star... a Mobile Register story on
cumulative voting in Alabama... and a Christian Science Monitor
editorial in favor of redistricting reform.
Meanwhile, the CVD library has been updated with a
section listing new books -- with short reviews and images of
covers. Among new, "must read" books: Mark Monmonier's
"Bushmanders and Bullwinkles: How Politicians Manipulate
Electronic Maps and Census Data to Win Elections" (a well-
reviewed book with a chapter touting full representation voting
methods); "Challenges to Equality," edited by Chester
Hartman (a compilation of essays, including one by me on full
representation); "Fair and Effective Representation" (a
debate in essay format between Richard Engstrom and Mark Rush);
Douglas Amy's "Behind the Ballot Box"; and Kathleen
Barber's "A Right to Representation: Proportional Election
Systems for the Twenty-first Century." And don't forget
"Whose Vote Counts", by myself and Steven Hill (an update
of "Reflecting All of Us", with a new foreword
by Lani Guinier).
Shorts: Legislation needs your support;
breakthrough for choice voting in New Zealand; British elections
analysis; Demos "Dispatches" and mapping effort; successful
pro-democracy events; Bouricius on NPR
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Legislation needs your support: Legislation in Congress to
encourage use and consideration of full representation continues
to need your support. Also, many states are looking at reform
legislation in 2001-2.
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New Zealand to use choice voting for local
elections: New Zealand in May approved legislation that
adopts choice voting (also called single transferable vote) for
the 2004 district Health Board elections and makes it an explicit
option for city council elections, capping a seven year campaign
by reformers. Green Party member of parliament Rod Donald
commented that choice voting "will bring to local government what
MMP [mixed member proportional representation] has done for
parliament. There will be more Maori, more women, more young
people and more ethnic minorities." Already six city councils
appeared poised to adopt choice voting for 2004, with many others
showing interest.
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British elections analysis: Great Britain
has been showing Americans the way toward fairer elections in
regional and local government, but prospects may be dimming in the
short term for the House of Commons after the Labour Party's huge
win with barely 40% of the vote. See analyses by Tom Lundberg and by
the Electoral Reform Society on " Election 2001: Unfair
and Unrepresentative"
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Demos, an organization devoted to
enhancing democracy in the U.S., is seeking help from
organizations to help map the landscape of political reform and
also has begun an informative -- and free -- bi-weekly reform
e-newsletter called "Dispatches."
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Pro-democracy events: There were two
excellent pro-democracy events in June that featured voting system
reform. First, the Independent Progressive Politics Network, the
Institute for Policy Studies and other groups organized a
well-attended "Democracy Summer" in Tallahassee, at which some 150
young people spent a week learning about different aspects of the
Voters' Bill of Rights, including hearing from CVD's David Cobb
about instant runoff voting and full representation. At the end of
June, the Center for Constitutional Rights played the lead role in
convening a pro-democracy convention that drew more than 500
attenders. Nearly all of CVD's staff gathered to participate in
plenaries and to conduct three successive two-hour workshops on
instant runoff voting and, separately, full representation. Staff
and associates also slipped off to help staff a booth at the NOW
conference nearby, where CVD's Steven Hill spoke in on
workshop.
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CVD's Bouricius on NPR program: A
nationally syndicated radio program on NPR called " Justice Talking" is
airing a program about third parties, with a major focus on
election reform issues including full representation and instant
runoff voting. The program was taped before a live audience in
Philadelphia and features former Vermont state representative
Terry Bouricius, now our New England regional director. If you
miss it on NPR, you can listen
to the debate on the web.
Getting involved: reformer kit, on-line IRV
demo, interns
We have a kit of educational materials
for reformers ready to work for instant runoff voting in their
community. Download your set at in the activism section More suggestions are available in the activism section
We also urge you to try out our IRV demonstration by voting for your
favorite ice cream
-- and don't stop there, but then urge organizations, media outlets
and other non-governmental entities to use IRV for their elections
and set up a similar feature on their websites.
We have internships available in our Washington, D.C.
and field offices throughout the year -- our great current crew
includes associates in San Francisco, Chicago and DC.
Finally, to sign up
to receive regular articles about electoral reform, elections and
redistricting or to monitor them, check Yahoo!
groups
Double
your on-line gift for real
electoral reform!
Last -- but,
for a non-profit, who depends on the kindness of friends and
strangers to pursue our outreach and education, far from least -- I
hope that some of you will consider taking advantage of a remarkable
matching offer from "Give for Change."
Through October -- or until its matching fund runs out -- it will
match gifts of exactly $300 or $600. With tax refunds soon to be
reaching you, what better way to put help us achieve fair elections!
Information about giving --
including ways to now give on the CVD site and to purchase materials
is available online.
Thanks, and, if you're lucky, back to those summer
vacations!
E-mail updates from prior months are archived |