The topic was changing the way we count votes in Lowell. The aim was to increase voter participation and thus increase the common good by involving more of the citizens.
I have blogged about this before. HERE on 3 April 2009.
The idea is that in addition to voting for your favorite nine for City Council (or fav six for School Committee), you rank your votes, your favorite on top and down to the candidate who just edged out number ten. Then, when the votes are counted, all those with a majority are in and then the weighted votes are counted to try and give someone else a majority. The description of the process can be found HERE.
Here is where I stand on this. Too few residents of Lowell are voting in local elections. For us to move forward into the 21st Century we all need to be involved, and that includes voting (and many more of us need to run for office). Changing how votes are counted might help that. It takes a charter change to change how we vote (back to the way it was in the 1940s). To get a charter change each of you has to do two things:
- Sign the petition, and
- Vote for the petition when it comes up on the ballot in November
Further, for those of you who wonder, the Lowell Republican City Committee voted in its last meeting to support this ballot signature drive.
If Left in Lowell and Right-Side-of-Lowell can get together on this, it should be easy for the rest of you.
If you want to sign a petition, contact One Lowell or contact me and I will bring the petition by for your signature. Because it is a change to our charter we need eight percent of registered voters (some 52,000) or over 4,000 signature--and closer to 6,000 since some will be thrown out. All by 31 July of this year.
CORRECTION: It should have been Lynne Lupien and has now been corrected.
Regards — Cliff
Cliff,
ReplyDeleteStrong agreement from this corner of the world, with one caveat -- as bloggers and concerned citizens, let's vow to get together on the day after the election and figure out a way to let this NOT end up in the dustbin if the 1/3 critical mass isn't met this fall..
best,
gp
"What the Captain means"* is that we need 50% plus 1 of the votes cast and 1/3 of the registered voters have to have voted. Turns out that doesn't normally happen for an "odd year" local election. We need to overcome that apathy and get out the vote after we get out the signatures.
ReplyDeleteRegards — Cliff
* Inside Air Force joke.
You have a mental block - it's "Lupien" LOL.
ReplyDeleteAgree, gp.
At my age we call it a mental lapse. But, the truth is when I have to pull up Lynne's full name I worry about spelling Lynne correctly and then I just confuse her last name with Gene Lupia. My apologies.
ReplyDeleteRegards — Cliff