Fair Vote Lowell heads to the halfway mark on signature gathering for a measure to get choice voting on the ballot this fall. In order to qualify for the November elections, organizers need to get 4,175 valid signatures (8% of registered voters in Lowell). This month, FairVote staffers and interns from the national office traveled to Lowell to support the ballot measure and helped collect almost 700 signatures. Lowell currently uses an at-large winner take all system to elect their nine-member City Council. Choice voting will change the electoral system to allow Lowell voters to rank their preferred Council candidates ensuring nearly all voters will help elect one of their top choices- creating a more reflective and equitable City Council. The deadline for signature gathering is mid-August. In other campaign news, there is a petition drive to restore cumulative voting for the Illinois House of Representatives sponsored by current state legislator and candidate for lieutenant governor David Winters. The constitutional amendment will require 280,000 valid signatures and State Supreme Court approval in order to qualify for the November 2010 ballot. On the ballot this fall in St. Paul (MN), organizers successfully petitioned to place a referendum on instant runoff voting (IRV) for electing city council and mayor.
To find out more about the efforts in Lowell please visit Fair Vote Lowell or follow the links to read more about campaigns to improve election systems.
Links
- Editorial by Victoria Fahlberg in Lowell Sun: Changing the way Lowell Votes
- Saturday Chat in the Lowell Sun: Bid to change city charter has political circles buzzing
- Snippet on FairVote’s canvassing
- Watch an interview with FairVote Lowell
- Illinois cumulative voting: Winters a candidate for lieutenant gov
- MPR News: St. Paul to put instant runoff voting on ballot
On May 13th, the Minnesota Supreme Court started hearing arguments in the case of Minnesota Voters Alliance v. The City of Minneapolis and FairVote Minnesota. The ruling will determine whether or not instant runoff voting and choice voting are legal under the Minnesota Constitution. The case was initially rejected by the Hennepin County District Court in a January 14th ruling, but the Minnesota Voters Alliance decided to appeal the ruling. The court declared that the plaintiffs had "failed to demonstrate that IRV is either unconstitutional or contrary to public policy."
On May 9, Amarillo used cumulative voting for the fifth time to elect school board members. As with every previous election, candidates of color were elected. Voters returned African-American incumbent James Allen and Latina incumbent Mary Faulkner, both of whom had won endorsements from the Amarillo Globe-News in its editorial praising the school board's overall effectiveness. Before cumulative voting had been installed in 2000, no candidate of color had won for two decades, triggering a voting rights lawsuit that led to the implementation of cumulative voting.