Proportional Voting System Adopted in Florida Town

Lake Park (FL) will adopt a form of proportional voting for electing its town commissioners as part of a consent judgment and decree with the U.S. Department of Justice. In March 2010, it will elect four commissioners in an at-large election with the "one vote system," in which voters cast one vote and the top four candidates win.

With the one-vote system and four seats, a like-minded grouping of voters are guaranteed to elect a candidate of choice with if comprising more than 20% of voters. Depending on what candidates run and turnout, African American voters are nearly certain to elect one or two seats. The citizen voting-age population is 38% African American, but no African American candidate has ever won an election for the Lake Park town commission since its incorporation in 1923.

Links

• News story on consent decree in Lake Park
  
• Consent decree [PDF]
• Cleveland Plain Dealer on first one-vote system election this year in Euclid (OH)
• FairVote amicus briefs in DOJ case against Port Chester (NY)
  
• Comparison of proportional voting systems used in the United States
  

Lowell (MA) to Bring Choice Voting to the Ballot

This November, voters in Lowell (MA) will have the opportunity to improve the city’s voting system with proportional voting. The city Election Office announced yesterday that a question regarding choice voting, a form of proportional representation, will be on the Lowell city ballot in the upcoming elections.

After an impressive signature gathering effort, organizers and volunteers from Fair Vote Lowell have turned in well over the number of required signatures for a city ballot measure. Lowell currently elects both City Council and School Committee using an at-large, winner-take-all system. The same choice voting electoral system on the ballot in Lowell will be used this November for the first time in Minneapolis for park board elections and once again for City Council and School Committee in Cambridge (MA)--which uses the same voting equipment used in Lowell. Meanwhile, the town of Euclid (OH) will use a similar proportional system for their school board elections this fall.

Links:

• Fair Vote Lowell Homepage
• "Choice Voting Question Going on the Ballot" -- The Lowell Sun, Aug 28, 2009
• What is Choice Voting -- a FairVote flash animation
  
• A Brief History of Proportional Representation in the United States by Douglas Amy
  

Statewide ballot measure drives for voter choice in Massachusetts, Illinois

A broad coalition of reformers in Massachusetts have a launched a campaign to put instant runoff voting  for statewide offices on the 2010 ballot.  Proponents aim to collect 100,000 signatures this fall The Voter Choice initiative will be the first statewide implementation of IRV, giving all of Massachusetts’ voters the chance to rank their preferences and to be free of worries over the spoiler effect in elections for state offices.

This development comes on the heels of the petition drive launched by David Winters, candidate lieutenant governor of Illinois. Winters, currently a Republican state senator from Rockford, has launched a referendum campaign that would restore cumulative voting (a form of proportional voting) to the Illinois House, a move which would make the legislature more competitive and more reflective of the state’s voters – and encourage more transparency in a state noted for corruption in recent years.

Links:

• Citizens for Voter Choice press release
• Rockford Register Star on Winters' campaign
• InstantRunoff.com
• FairVote's cumulative voting resource page
• 2001 report on the history of cumulative voting