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Question

Regarding a Minneapolis Mayoral candidate's response to your 2005 candidate questionnaire, how could proportional representation negatively affect women and minorities? I thought it was the opposite. Also what does he mean that affluent neighborhoods have less children thus more voting power?

Answer

Generally speaking you are correct that proportional representation improves representation of women and minorities.

The claim that more children dilutes voting strength may be occur in comparison to the current single member ward system in which more people gives your area more representation. In proportional representation, it is the number of voters that counts, not the number of people living in an area. Additionally, if poor and minority persons have lower voter turnout, one could claim that they would be adversely affected if they were put into the same voter pool as high turnout populations.

However, it could be countered that low turnout is in part a factor of voting not being very effective as currently practiced and therefore lower on the priority list for people whose resources are stretched. A better voting method might increase the importance of voting and thus increase turnout. That is in fact the empirical record, comparing turnout in countries that use proportional representation and countries that use our winner take all system.

This concern could also be addressed by making several 3- or 4-member districts that would assure equal geographical representation for areas with lots of poor people. That would be the most advisable solution for a city council with 13 members, as Minneapolis has.

Question

What is "cumulative voting?"

Answer

"Cumulative voting" is a voting method that achieves some measure of proportional representation in elections for legislative bodies. In cumulative voting the voter has as many votes as there are seats to be filled, usually from three to five. The voter may distribute those votes among the same number of candidates or may concentrate, or "plump," those votes on a smaller number of candidates. "Plumping" allows a minority of the voters to win representation in cumulative voting, though not as effectively as in "party list" and "single transferable vote" methods of proportional representation.

Cumulative voting was used to elect the Illinois House of Representatives from 1870 to 1980 using 3-member districts that ensured both major parties represented all parts of the state. Cumulative voting is used today in over 50 local jurisdictions in the United States and is used by many corporations to elect their boards of directors. In Minnesota, cumulative voting is the default method by which shareholders elect corporate boards, unless the corporation opts for another method.

There are two basic forms of cumulative voting: One where the voter may apportion their votes differently among the candidates they support and one where the votes are apportioned equally among the candidates supported by the voter.

Individually apportioned ballot

Instructions: You have five votes. You may distribute your votes in any way you choose. Fill in up to a total of five boxes.

In the example above, Candidate C received 3 votes while Candidates A and G each receive 1 vote.

Equally apportioned ballot

Instructions: You have five votes. You may distribute your votes equally among up to five candidates.

In the example above, Candidates A, C, and G would each receive 5/3 of a vote (5 votes divided equally among 3 candidates), or 1 2/3 votes.

Question

Is Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) a complicated process?

Answer

No, it's as easy as 1-2-3. With IRV, voters simply rank as few or as many choices as they prefer, 1- 2-3 ... So it's no harder than ranking a Top 10 movies list, but it means that each voter's choices are much more likely to count!

Question

What happens when so many votes are 'exhausted' (i.e. there are no more ranked candidates to whom the votes can be transferred) that there are not enough votes to put one candidate over the original threshold?

Answer

When all available votes have been transferred to continuing candidates and no candidate has reached the threshold, the continuing candidate with the most votes is the winner. In effect, in Instant Runoff Voting, the simple majority threshold is recalculated based on the number of unexhausted votes. Keep in mind that this is a technical question that the voters need not be concerned with.

Question

Is there any proportional representation voting method that allows voters to select the individual candidate they like best from among a list of legislative candidates of their preferred political party?

Answer

One of the basic mechanisms of proportional representation is voting for a list of candidates. In most European countries, those lists are put in order by the parties that nominate them and voters simply vote for one of the parties' lists. However, there are many variants on how the list gets ordered. In Finland, the voters cast a vote for a candidate. The total votes received by each candidate determine their positions on the party's list as well as counting as a vote for the party.

The Finnish system: Vote for one candidate

In Ireland and Australia, voters create their own lists by ranking the candidates in order of choice. These voter-made lists can include candidates from one party or from several parties. Formally known as Single Transferable Vote and more popularly known as Choice Voting, many advocates believe this would be the most appropriate form of proportional representation for the United States. One of its advantages is that it is similar in form to Instant Runoff Voting, promoted for electing single-winner offices, of which there are many in the United States

The Irish-Australian System: Rank the candidates

Question

Is the voter required to rank all the candidates? Or could a voter just rank two or even just one candidate?

Answer

The voter is free to rank as many or as few candidates as desired. If all the ranked candidates have been eliminated and there is no candidate remaining to whom the vote can be transferred, the vote is "exhausted" and is set aside for the remainder of the vote count. With Instant Runoff Voting, a vote may be more effective if more candidates are ranked. However, there is no requirement that more than one candidate be ranked in order for the vote to be counted.

Question

Would Minnesota's current optical-scan ballot machines be able to take Instant Runoff Voting ballots and tally them? Do precincts, cities and counties around the state all have the same optical-scan ballot machines or different ones? Where can one find information about what optical-scan ballot machines are in use around the state?

Answer

The optical scan equipment in place in Minnesota in 2002 is not ready to process a ranked ballot used in instant runoff voting. There are two vendors currently supplying local governments with their electronic voting equipment: Diebold (manufactures the Global AccuVote precinct scanners used in much of the greater east metro area) and ES&S (manufactures or services the precinct scanners in Hennepin County and the centralized scanners in many of the rural counties). Global AccuVote scanners with a special firmware to process ranked ballots are used to count the IRV-like single transferable vote elections in Cambridge Massachusetts. ES&S scanners are used in San Francisco, which earlier this year voted to begin using instant runoff voting for city elections, starting in 2003. ES&S will be under some pressure to come up with a solution for how to count those elections using their voting equipment. With both Global AccuVote and ES&S equipment, it needs to be determined whether and at what cost the Minnesota scanners could be retrofitted with the required firmware.

The best way to find out what equipment your city is using is to ask your city clerk or whoever is the director of elections for your city.

What is needed is action by local activists to get IRV-readiness included in local government buying criteria for any new electronic voting equipment. At the state level, a requirement is needed for all new voting equipment certified for use in the state to be flexible enough to process ranked ballots as well as the usual vote-for-one plurality elections.

Watch the FairVote Minnesota website for continuing coverage of this issue. For now, see the following pages for more information. http://www.fairvotemn.org/articles/archives/progressequip06072002.html, http://www.fairvotemn.org/articles/archives/machines_03012002.html, http://pastelectionresults.sos.state.mn.us/VotingSystemsDescriptions.asp, and http://www.fairvote.org/administration/index.html.