Montgomery County Council Elections Need Reform

FairVote's Program Director Testifies Before Montgomery Charter Review Commission

Montgomery County, Maryland - where FairVote is headquartered - has a rapidly growing and increasingly diverse population. These demographic changes have prompted fierce and divisive debates about the structure of county government in recent years. Unfortunately, time and again, these debates have cycled between a council composed of all single-member-districts or a hybrid council composed of at-large and single-member districts. This month, FairVote testified at the County's Charter Review Commission regarding the third option of at-large, proportional voting systems. Though these issues are local in nature, these same problems and debates have been raging around the nation. If your community has a charter review commission forming, please ensure the debate expands to include proportional voting options.

[ Download FairVote's Testimony - .pdf 107 KB ]
[ Download FairVote's Manual for Charter Review Commissions - .pdf 348 KB]

Finding Solutions to Louisiana's
Post-Katrina Election Problems

Ensuring Representation for People of the State a Priority

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana voters and election administrators will face numerous challenges that threaten to undermine the state’s democratic processes. These issues include congressional and state legislative districts of wildly disparate sizes, thousands of displaced voters without stable absentee voting addresses, and FEMA's refusal to share the temporary addresses of hurricane victims with state election administrators.

To address these issues, FairVote calls for the temporary use of multimember districts using proportional voting systems, so that the one-person, one-vote and Voting Rights Act principles can remain intact -- without need for an expensive and ineffective mid-decade redistricting or a new census. Additionally, Louisiana should expand its current use of ranked ballots for overseas voters to include displaced Hurricane Katrina victims, to ensure that these voters are not disenfranchised in the state's runoff elections. At a minimum, FEMA should allow state election officials to mail information to displaced hurricane victims, so that they can fully participate in upcoming elections.

[ Read FairVote's Full Proposal ]

MSNBC Animates Rob Richie

Interactive Demo Spotlights Choice Voting

In this interactive documentary by MSNBC, you can join the "Mockracy," where you can create your voter identity and cast a ballot in an election using different voting methods like choice and cumulative voting.

Mark Rush of Washington and Lee University plays devil's advocate in this colorful, animated experiment. But you'll be the final judge as to how much America needs real voting reforms like choice voting to create a stronger democracy. Afterwards, explore choice voting resources on FairVote.org.

[ Check it out online ]
[ More on choice voting ]