designed, nevertheless, to assure black representation on the Peoria City Council. Peorians have elected at-large council candidates using the cumulative voting system since 1991. It came about as part of a compromise to settle a federal voting rights lawsuit brought by black voters against Peoria’s city council, school board and park board. Their aim, basically, was to increase the number of black elected officials.

Under the system, each citizen gets five votes to cast as he wishes. He can "bullet" five votes for one candidate, split them for two, or sprinkle them among all five.

Cumulative voting’s critics say it leaves too much room for political manipulation, that blacks haven’t benefited from it that much, that casting five votes for one person is somehow undemocratic. Consider the possibility that cumulative voting may, in fact, offer a more democratic form of electing at- large candidates and that’s what really scares opponents. Anybody who can mobilize 20 percent of the voters has a shot at winning. But in a system accustomed to winner-take-all, loser-get-nothing, the concept of spreading the wealth around somehow seems unfair.

Two black men, one district and one at-large, have served on the council during each election cycle since 1991. Two equals 20 percent of a 10-member council, which also happens to equal blacks’ proportion of the population. In that sense, cumulative voting has helped black men increase representation on the council. That’s good. That’s partly what plaintiffs in the voting rights lawsuit intended.

That doesn’t mean the council can only include two blacks at any given time or that blacks can only vote for other blacks. It does raise the question of why the number of women on the council hasn’t increased and may in fact decrease after next week’s election.

Cumulative voting, unlike districting, is a race-neutral remedy. That means all kinds of politically cohesive groups and coalitions have a better chance at electing representatives. What’s so undemocratic about that? Pam Adams is a columnist for the Journal Star. Write her at 1 News Plaza, Peoria, Ill. 61643, or call (309) 686-3245 or E-mail her at padams@pjstar.com.

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