Ensuring Fair Representation in Post-merger Essex, VT
By Jack Santucci, Research Associate
Published April 1st 2006
The Town of Essex, VT is governed by a five-member Selectboard. The Village of Essex Junction is a subdivision of the Town with limited home rule and its own Board of Trustees. Villagers elect members to both bodies and pay taxes to both governments, but the winner-take-all at-large system of Selectboard elections means Villagers seldom ever hold seats on that body. With a merger on the horizon, the Board of Trustees may become a thing of the past, and Villagers face the real prospect of taxation without representation. This report analyzes turnout, competitiveness and proportionality of representation. It proposes the merged Essex adopt proportional voting to elect its seven-member Town Council.
Election Day '09 was a roller-coaster for election reformers. Instant runoff voting had a great night in Minnesota, where St. Paul voters chose to implement IRV for its city elections, and Minneapolis voters used IRV for the first time—with local media touting it as a big success. As the Star-Tribune noted in endorsing IRV for St. Paul, Tuesday’s elections give the Twin Cities a chance to show the whole state of Minnesota the benefits of adopting IRV. There were disappointments in Lowell and Pierce County too, but high-profile multi-candidate races in New Jersey and New York keep policymakers focused on ways to reform elections; the Baltimore Sun and Miami Herald were among many newspapers publishing commentary from FairVote board member and former presidential candidate John Anderson on how IRV can mitigate the problems of plurality elections.