Voice for Democracy
Newsletter
of the Northern California Citizens for Proportional Representation
April-
June1998
Rep. Sanchez is California’s first co-sponsor of H.R.
3068
Rep. Loretta Sanchez is California’s first co-sponsor of
H.R.3068, the Voter’s Choice Act* introduced on November 13, 1997 by Rep
Cynthia McKinney. Original co-sponsors of the bill are: Eva Clayton, James
Clyburn, Chaka Fattah, Jesse Jackson, Jr., and Eddie Bernice Johnson. Other new sponsors are Alcee Hastings
(Florida), Bernie Sanders, Melvin Watt, Barney Frank and Carrie Meek. Congratulations to all twelve!
It is still vitally important to get as many legislators
as possible signed up for the bill. Now it is time for some co-sponsors from
Northern California! We are including a preprinted postcard with this
newsletter to help you with your lobbying efforts.
... Nat Lerner, Editor.
* The Act restores the opportunity for states to use
multi-seat districts for House elections if: (1) the system is constitutional
and (2) at least one third of voters will win a "proportional" share
of seats. (This high threshold is the maximum threshold; the bill leaves it up
to states to set a minimum threshold.)
NCCPR AGM
The 1998 Annual General Meeting will be held in San
Francisco between 3pm and 6pm on May 23rd at a venue to be announced.
The deadline for NCCPR Board candidates is April 15th
(after the newsletter is printed) so a
list of candidates and their statements will be accompanying this newsletter. A
long discussed by-law change (see page 2) will be put to the vote as well as
firming plans for election year promotion of PR throughout Northern California.
PR - a diverse experience in Britain
If anyone thought that Proportional Representation was a single voting
system, then the British experiences of the last year were an eye-opener!
First the elections for seats at the Peace Process in
Northern Ireland were held using a list vote system, while the Irish General
Election was held with its traditional Single Transferable Vote (“Choice
Voting” ) system.
Then it was announced that the elections for the European
Parliament in 1999 will be held with a closed party list.
The elections for the new Scottish and Welsh assemblies
will use the “additional member” system (also called the Mixed Member
Proportional (MMP) system).
And a few weeks ago this system was also proposed for a
new London Council while the next Mayor of London will be elected using the
“supplementary vote” system (called the Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) system
here).
Despite the different labels, these dramatic events show us that even a bastion of “winner take all” voting systems such as the U.K. can
change to fairer, more representative voting systems.
Secondly, it shows that reform at local, regional and
national level can occur at the the same time.
What’s happening in your neck of the woods
by Jim Lindsay, V.P. Local Chapters
San Francisco CPR's main focus
continues to be the campaign for IRV for mayor and other offices. They meet monthly, and do regular outreach
work in the City. They are looking towards possibly adopting another (smaller)
project. Contact Coordinator Wayne
Shepard at 415/681-2580, pauldebits@juno.com, for more info. The last meeting occured as we were going to
press - on April 8th., 1998.
Alameda County CPR's first project
was to send out a questionairre to over 100 candidates for public office. Members Joan Strasser, Dave Kadlecek and Jim
Lindsay had the mailing party on Monday evening, March 30th. Dave coordinated the effort. The purpose is to educate and begin to lobby
elected officials. They've just started
to get responses, they'll write an article for the next newsletter about how it
went. Besides followup on the
questionairres, and associated lobbying, the chapter's next project is to do
education in high schools and colleges and get student governments to use PR
and IRV. The chapter's next meeting
will be Wednesday, May 20th, from 7 to 9pm.
For more information, contact coordinator Jim Lindsay at 510/527-8025,
or at jimlindsay@earthlink.net. Many
thanks to CPR Buddies Preston Jordan, Joan Strasser, John Reynolds, Curt Gray,
Ricardo Ochoa, and Dave Kadlecek!
Sonoma County CPR is
reorganizing. They have a meeting
scheduled for Monday, April 27th, at 7:30pm.
An ex-Mayor of Santa Rosa, Jim Pedgriff (hopefully spelled correctly!),
is very supportive of PR and will be at the meeting. Contact Coordinator Cathy Allio at 707/523-0440,
callio7750@aol.com, for the location.
Cathy reports that members Al Liner and Mike Sandler will be the initial
CPR Buddies for Sonoma County. Thanks
Al and Mike!
A Sacramento County CPR is now very
close to officially forming. Their
first meeting is scheduled for May 6th, at 7:30pm. You can reach Coordinator Pete Martineau at 916/967-0300 or
petemrtno@aol.com.
Interested in forming a CPR chapter in your county? Call me at 510/527-8025
or email me, and I'll help you make it happen.
By-Law Change on Board
elections - To be voted on at the A.G.M.
At the
January 10th., 1998 NCCPR Board meeting a discussion of the proposed change
from the by-law committee resulted in the following text that was agreed by the
Board. It was agreed to publish this proposed change in the newsletter and put
it to a vote of the membership at the next
Annual General Meeting.
AMEND THE
SECTION OF THE BY-LAWS PROVIDING FOR ELECTION OF DIRECTORS AT THE ANNUAL
MEETING BY RENUMBERING IT AS SUBSECTION (A) AND ADD SUBSECTION (B) AS FOLLOWS:
(B) THE
BOARD, BY UNANIMOUS VOTE OF DIRECTORS
ELECTED UNDER SUB-SECTION (A), MAY APPOINT NOT MORE THAN ONE BOARD MEMBER
REGISTERED WITH EACH BALLOT-QUALIFIED PARTY THAT IS NOT REPRESENTED ON THE
BOARD UNDER SUBSECTION (A). BOARD MEMBERS SO APPOINTED WILL BE FULL BOARD
MEMBERS EXCEPT THAT THEY MAY NOT VOTE ON THE APPOINTMENT OF BOARD MEMBERS UNDER
THIS SUBSECTION.
Instant runoff voting
legislation update
Legislation on instant runoff voting
(also called the "alternative vote" -- it opens winner-take-all
elections to more participation and majority winners, but is not a PR system)
has now been introduced in three states -- Texas, Vermont and New Mexico. --
and it definitely has "tested" well in 1998.
In New Mexico, a constitutional
amendment was proposed to create an option for localities to use instant runoff
voting (IRV) and to enact IRV for statewide offices such as governor. It died
on a 4-4 vote in another committee, however,
-- but prospects look good for 1999.
The Vermont bill not only calls for
enacting IRV for statewide offices, but for federal elections, including that
of president. A house committee held several hearings on the bill, and
legislative leaders held serious discussions about it. The bill still may move
in 1998; if not, creation of a commission to make a report on the bill is
likely.
The Texas
bill would have allowed localities to replace traditional runoffs with IRV. It
was introduced in 1997, but there was no session in 1998. The bill likely will
be re-introduced in 1999, and supporters are optimistic. Legislators in at
least three other states are considering IRV legislation.
One step backwards? ...
Berkeley news
Former
Board member, Eric Lund, wrote to us recently with the following story.
I read in today's (Thursday, March
26) Valley Times that the Berkeley City council voted to have a proposition on
the ballot that would end run-off elections for city offices, such as Mayor,
city auditor, city council and require only a plurality to win.
The proposal is by council member
Donna Spring. The stated motive is to
save money, but others question if it is not to increase the election chances
of a certain political faction, namely progressives.
One of the city council members who
voted for it said that this proposal would broaden, not restrict, democracy
within Berkely.
Out of Africa
Following
the President’s visit to Africa, Time magazine had an extensive number of
articles on life in different parts of the continent. Pete Martineau
replied to a particular piece as follows:
In Africa Rising, Mar 30, you said,
p. 46, 3rd paragraph, "Many African leaders... believe that real
multiparty elections are a luxury these fragile states cannot afford...." We must not yet be able to afford that luxury
yet, either, as the U.S. is still stuck with a voting system that guarantees
only the RepubliDems seats, while almost all the other developed democracies
have several parties with seats and shared power.
Both the blacks and whites in South
Africa wanted and got a multi-party model of governance, which is working well.
Time to look carefully at multi-party government for the U.S.
Check out The Center for Voting and
Democracy site at: www.ipc.apc.org/cvd/
US elections: the
vanishing voter, one party government, more
All indications point to a
record-low voter turnout in 1998. Turnout in primaries has been extremely low --
only 11% of registered voters in Texas turned out for its recent primary for
statewide and federal offices. Only 5% of registered voters turned out for a
special state legislative election in New York.
This year's turnout in House races
will be barely a third of eligible voters -- far lower than national elections
in other established democracies. Those not troubled by such apathy are
students of wishful thinking, not history.
Utah may take one-party
elections a whole step farther. In a state where Bill Clinton won a third of
the vote in 1996. From a March 28 article in the Desert News, entitled “Will
Utah Demos run no legislative candidates at all in 2000?” By Bob Bernick Jr.,
Desert News political editor.
Utah Senate Minority Leader Scott
Howell says not to be too quick to condemn the state Democratic Party for not
finding a candidate this year in the 3rd Congressional District.... If
Democrats don't make "significant" gains in the Utah House and Senate
this election, Howell predicts some startling actions. ...And in the 2000
elections Democrats might not encourage any legislative candidates to run,
Howell says. .....the "No Democrats" alternative is viable. "The
reality is we live in a one-party state. Maybe it's time to have no Democrats
in the Legislature. Then let citizens see how they like that."
New Books and articles
Lani
Guinier has a new book out called "Lift Every Voice" (Simon and
Schuster).
- Michael Lind's article in the March/April
"Mother Jones"
- A symposium on reforming U.S. House elections
in the 3/98 "Political Science,"journal of the American Political
Science Association, (with articles discussing PR at length by Wilma Rule,
Joseph Zimmerman and Arend Lijphart)
- A symposium on PR in the "Boston
Review," with a lead article by Steven Hill, Rob Richie and eight
responses.
- A chapter on PR in
"The Universe and the Teacup" by LA Times science writer K. C. Cole.
Voice for Democracy is published by Northern
Californians for Proportional Representation.
Our web site at http://worldview-bbs.com/~cpr/ has more
up-to-date information. Please submit articles/letters for publication to: c/o
Nat Lerner, Voice for Democracy, 1106 Pajaro Street, #4, Salinas, CA. 93901 or
e-mail to NL0916@sprynet.com.
Clinton in South Africa: praise for
a constitution with PR
When in
South Africa last week, Bill Clinton praised the South African constitution,
saying "Now the courage and the imagination that created the new South
Africa and the principles that guide your constitution inspire all of
us...."
Note that
South Africa enshrined the principle of PR in its constitution in December
1996, after the widely acknowledged role of PR in the 1994 elections in
providing fair representation both among and within parties.
Oscars and PR
"Titanic"
was the big winner at the Oscars,but at least the nominations reflected a
diversity of films and actors. That latter diversity was due in large part to
the use of proportional representation in the nomination process -- the choice
voting system of PR (e.g., "preference voting" / "single transferable
vote") has been used for Oscar nominations for decades.
Recent best
film nominations for "The Full Monty" and "Il Postino" are
likely examples of PR at work. Oscar winners are determined by a plurality
count, however; likely that is due in part as a means to provide those surprise
winners that keep some viewers tuned in to follow the proceedings. Methinks
surprises in winning Oscars is more tolerable than unpleasant, plurality
surprises in winning elections.
From Steve Chessin ... Composition of California and US legislative bodies ... The Facts
As of
Thursday 9 April 1998, as compared to the 1990 Census figures. On April 7, The
State Senate lost 1 black female, CA
(and US) Congress gained 1 white female, 1 black female.
State Assembly
White Black AmerInd Asian Hisp. Total % Census%
Male 47 4 0 2 7
60 75.0 50.1
Female 13 0 0 0 7
20 25.0 49.9
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- ----- -----
Total 60 4 0 2
14 80 100.0 100.0
%
75.0
5.0 0.0 2.5
17.5 100.0
Census%
57.2
7.2 0.7 9.4
25.3 99.8 (0.2% "other")
State Senate
White Black AmerInd Asian Hisp. Total % Census%
Male 30 0 0 0 3
33 84.6 50.1
Female 3 2 0 0 1 6 15.4
49.9
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- ----- -----
Total 33 2 0 0 4 39(*1)
100.0 100.0
%
84.6
5.1 0.0 0.0
10.3 100.0
Census%
57.2
7.2 0.7 9.4
25.3 99.8 (0.2% "other")
(*1)
1 vacancy; % computed based on 39, not 40.
California Congressional
Delegation
White Black AmerInd Asian Hisp. Total % Census%
Male 33 1 0 2 3
39 75.0 50.1
Female 8 3 0 0 2 13
25.0 49.9
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- ----- -----
Total 41 4 0 2 5
52 100.0 100.0
%
78.8
7.7 0.0 3.8 9.6 100.0
Census%
57.2
7.2 0.7 9.4
25.3 99.8 (0.2% "other")
US Congress
White Black AmerInd Asian Hisp. Total % Census%
Male 336
26
0 4 14 380
87.8 48.7
Female 37 11 0 1 4 53
12.2 51.3
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- ----- -----
Total 373
37
0 5 18 433(*2) 100.0 100.0
%
86.1
8.5 0.0 1.2 4.2 100.0
Census%
75.6 12.0 0.8 2.8 8.7 99.9 (0.1% "other")
(*2)
2 vacancies; % computed based on 433, not 435.