Voting in Lowell

On Tuesday I had to go to class, so I couldn't catch the talk by Dr Victoria Fahlberg of One Lowell. She was talking about voting and the desirability of changing from our current voting system to one that would encourage more minority voting. Her plan is one of several that go under the term proportional representation.

Fortunately for us, Greg Page, from The New Englander blog actually did "blog" about it. Here is the money paragraph:

A Proportional Representation (PR) system would change that if it allowed voters to "weigh" their options by ranking the candidates 1 through 9 (this is how it works in Cambridge). This would allow smaller interest groups to coalesce behind individual candidates and have a realistic shot at seeing them elected. For instance, if a single most-desirable candidate emerged from, say, the Acre, and could get enough people there to list him as a "1," he might stand a better chance at winning than he would under the current system, where total votes make all the difference.

The argument is that Highlands, Pawtucketville and Belvidere dominates the elections. There is something to be said for that case, especially when they are not the city as a whole. As Greg notes in his blog:

Obviously, ethnicity is an equally legitimate form of diversity, and yes, it does matter, even if we sometimes would like to pretend it doesn't. And it is fair to point out the sheer fact that a city with 40% residents of color and 60% public schoolkids of color has an all-white local elected body. And yes, it can be pointed out without casting blame or aspersions on anyone.

On the other hand, a report on public opinion in Lowell from 2001 interviewed 40 people and not one of them was an active Republican. Speaking of minorities!

But, back to voting. This is a democracy, even if it is a representative democracy. Getting as many citizens out to vote as possible should be a goal. Dr Fahlberg's idea of proportional representation seems to be a workable one. That said, any system developed by humans can be perverted by humans.

I have to admit that the fact that Dr Fahlberg's system is used in Cambridge is definitely not a selling point with me. And, there is the fact that Air Force assignment people used to claim an 85% success rate in getting officers one of their first three choices. What they didn't say was that sometimes they offered someone Thule, Greenland, (a base not on their list) and when the person whinged, the assignment officer would mention something better and say if the victum put it number three on their assignment preference form they could have it. Presto--85%. The devil is in the details. Let us see those details, and the alternatives.

One alternative for minority representation was proposed by Lani Guinier in her book Tyranny of the Majority : Fundamental Fairness in Representative Democracy. In that book she suggested that one option is to have several seats available in a voting district and to allow voters to use their votes as they see fit. In her example, three Congressional seats would be grouped in one larger district and voters could spread their three votes amongst three candidates or give two to one candidate and one to another or give all three to just one candidate.

This is a topic that needs a full, fair and open discussion. I am looking forward to learning more about alternative voting approaches for Lowell.

Regards  —  Cliff