Choice Voting is a form of proportional representation (PR) that is widely used by the world's established democracies. Under choice voting, representatives are elected from multi-seat districts in proportion to the number of votes received. Choice voting also assures that political parties or candidates will gain the percentage of legislative seats that reflects their public support.
This November, voters in Lowell (MA) will have the opportunity to improve the city’s voting system with proportional voting. The city Election Office announced yesterday that a question regarding choice voting, a form of proportional representation, will be on the Lowell city ballot in the upcoming elections.
After an impressive signature gathering effort, organizers and volunteers from Fair Vote Lowell have turned in well over the number of required signatures for a city ballot measure. Lowell currently elects both City Council and School Committee using an at-large, winner-take-all system. The same choice voting electoral system on the ballot in Lowell will be used this November for the first time in Minneapolis for park board elections and once again for City Council and School Committee in Cambridge (MA)--which uses the same voting equipment used in Lowell. Meanwhile, the town of Euclid (OH) will use a similar proportional system for their school board elections this fall.
Links:
Choice voting is a proportional voting system where voters maximize the effectiveness of their vote by ranking candidates in multi-seat constituencies.
Port Chester will use an at-large cumulative voting system to elect its trustees in 2010: “I think that all parties worked very well and very hard together to come up with a novel approach to a cumulative voting program,” said Randolph McLaughlin . . . a Pace University Law School professor. “The voter education program we put together is a model for the rest of the country.”
We here at FairVote are probably a little more interested in the Oscars than most think tanks in DC. Sure, we like movies as much as anyone else, but there's one aspect of the awards that particularly sparks our interest: the Academy's voting system!
