|
Cumulative Voting in Illinois
In 2000-2001, a blue-ribbon panel, sponsored by the Institute for
Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois, looked
into returning to the use of cumulative voting to elect members of
the Illinois House of Representatives rather than continue to use
winner-take-all elections. Led by former Democratic Congressman
Abner Mikva and former Republican Gov. Jim Edgar, the 70-member task
force of politicians, academics and government watchdogs concluded
that Illinois should restore cumulative voting as a key component of
political reform in the Land of Lincoln. The panel concluded that
compared to plurality voting, cumulative voting tends to:
-
offer a greater choice for voters in primary and in general
elections. For example, half of all the races for the Illinois House
of Representatives were uncontested in 2000. This means that voters
had no choice.
-
provide prospective candidates easier access
to the electoral system
-
provide greater representation for
the minority political party in districts dominated by the other
party. Winner-take-all electoral systems produce a single winner
from each district. This leaves no representation for the minority
group in the district.
-
provide individual legislators
greater independence from legislative leaders
-
generate richer deliberations and statewide consensus among all
legislators since both parties would be represented in all parts of
the state.
-
Be more readily adaptable to the existing electoral machinery
than other alternative systems such as instant run-off and
party-list voting.
Background on Cumulative Voting: From 1870 to 1980, the Illinois
House of Representatives was elected from three-seat districts with
cumulative voting. Instituted as a way to relieve the political
polarization caused by the Civil War, the system resulted in a much
less divided and more productive legislature and strong
representation of African Americans. The system was repealed in a
ballot measure focused on dramatically cutting back the size of the
legislature. Cumulative voting allows voters to distribute votes
equal to the number of seats in any fashion they choose. For
example, in a three seat legislative district, a voter could cast
one vote for each of three different candidates, but instead might
opt to cast all three votes for their favorite candidate. This
process of ���plumping��� more than one vote for a certain candidate is
what enables cumulative voting to win minority representation.
Cumulative voting is used to elect the city council in Peoria (IL),
the school board in Amarillo (TX) and more than sixty additional
local elections in the United States. Cumulative voting is one of
several systems of ���full representation��� ��� meaning electoral systems
that promote full representation of the electorate rather than the
partial representation typical of winner-take-all elections. Other
systems are choice voting (a particularly effective system that is
used in several nations and in the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts)
and the one-vote system (as used in several localities in Alabama,
Connecticut, North Carolina and Pennsylvania).
Additional Information:
For more information
contact:
The Center for Voting and Democracy 6930 Carroll Ave
Takoma Park, MD 20912
www.fairvote.org |
