Entries Categorized with "Cumulative Voting"
- 7 of 7 results
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The Voting Rights Act, Jerome Gray and Fair Voting in Alabama
- Posted: March 8, 2013
- Author(s): Drew Spencer
- Categories: Home, Reforms, Fair Voting/Proportional Representation, Voting Rights, Cumulative Voting, FairVote
Among news coverage surrounding the upcoming landmark Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder, which will decide the constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, Jerome Gray has received partiuclar attention.. Gray has had a remarkable career as a community organizer, including helping to make sure fair voting systems were effective for African American voters.
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Primaries Spotlight Sharp Decline in U.S. House Moderates
- Posted: May 8, 2012
- Author(s): Sheahan Virgin, Rob Richie
- Categories: Research & Analysis, Home, Fair Voting/Proportional Representation, Congressional Elections, Redistricting, Cumulative Voting
On April 24, two moderate Blue Dog Democrats, Tim Holden and Jason Altmire, lost in Pennsylvania's primary election. They are the latest examples of an accelerating "no-more-moderates" trend within both major parties. But fair representation of the left, right and center is essential to the health of a democracy. Grounded in its unique the-rules-matter perspective, FairVote explores how winner-take-all voting rules today disadvantage candidates willing to seek bipartisan solutions to problems.
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Congressional Redistricting Matters, and It’s Hurting This Country: a Response to Michael Barone
- Posted: March 22, 2012
- Author(s): Sheahan Virgin
- Categories: Home, Congressional Elections, Redistricting, Cumulative Voting
Recently, pundit Michael Barone argued in The National Review that redistricting in 2011 has turned out to “matter less than we thought.” But Barone is mistaken, overly concerned about redistricting’s impact on each major party rather its effect on voters already trapped within a troubling winner-take-all framework. Furthermore, Barone is wrong to say that partisan redistricting in 2011 has produced “clean” lines. It has not. With our unique take on redistricting and focus on voters, not political parties, FairVote sets the record straight in its rebuttle to Barone.
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South Carolina: The Super District Alternative
- Posted: July 22, 2011
- Author(s): Jais Mehaji, Super Districts
- Categories: Fair Voting/Proportional Representation, Redistricting, Cumulative Voting
Redistricting ensures that political district lines reflect population changes in the U.S. Census every ten years so that each district has the same number of voters per seat in a district. South Carolina is in the midst of redistricting and, as with most states, it’s become complicated and increasingly controversial and partisan. As explained in our recent post on Michigan, FairVote proposes an alternative to the winner-take-all system that has plagued the redistricting process, and opened it up to gerrymandering, partisan bickering, and opportunism.
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Utah Redistricting: Avoid controversy with a statewide plan for House seats
- Posted: May 25, 2011
- Author(s): Dean Searcy
- Categories: Home, Fair Voting/Proportional Representation, Cumulative Voting, FairVote
Following the 2010 Census, Utah is gaining another Congressional seat for a total of four seats. As might be expected, the addition of a fourth seat has thrown the state legislature into partisan conflicts because the strongly Republican state legislature is seeking to dismantle the more Democratic concentration in the second district by cutting it into three pieces. Senate President Michael Waddoups wants to draw lines north to south instead of focusing on compactness, leaving Democrats concerned the new plan will divide their county into three parts and weaken their meager base that helps them elect Democrat Jim Matheson to the U.S. House. Clearly, partisanship is an issue -- one that the state could avoid by adopting a proportional voting in a statewide race.
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New Mexico Redistricting: Super Districts for U.S. House
- Posted: May 24, 2011
- Author(s): Dean Searcy
- Categories: Home, Fair Voting/Proportional Representation, Cumulative Voting, FairVote
When it comes to the complexities of redistricting, New Mexico is no exception. On May 14th, It's legislative leaders named an 18-member committee to work on the monumental task. In the past, several Congressional redistricting maps have ended up in the courts due to fights over partisanship and incumbent protection - leaving the judicial system to redraw the lines. In the 1960s, however, New Mexico elected its U.S. House seats at-large - and should do so again in a single "super district," but this time witih a proportional voting system providing fairer representation.
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Debunking the Myths about Port Chester
- Posted: June 25, 2010
- Author(s): Alec Slatky
- Categories: Cumulative Voting
Port Chester's historic Board of Trustees election this past month has drawn national attention for its use of cumulative voting. But the amount of misinformation found in the media coverage is high, so FairVote would like to correct some of the most common fallacies.