Ashtabula, Ohio
At the time Harris was writing (Harris was author of "Practical Workings of STV" (1930)), Ashtabula, which adopted STV in 1917, had had STV longer than any other city.
A review of its practical operation there found no problems.
Invalid ballots had declined to negligible numbers.
Council was of high quality, possibly due to the city manager plan and not STV.
It was noted that like-minded or interest groups played little part in the elections. Acquaintance or neighbourhood associations played larger role. Labour was not stirred to action and Socialists in Ashtabula, as elsewhere at the time, had practically disappeared.
Religion played a large role. In 1917 shortly after STV's adoption, the Guardians of Liberty, an anti-Catholic group, supported four successful candidates, and in 1923 the KKK played a prominent role in the election. But in both elections a Catholic was elected to council, reflecting the other side of the diverse views of the populace.
Ashtabula's move to cancel STV was caused by confluence of bad events. In the 1927 election, there had been the largest number of candidates and the largest turn-out, due to a contentious proposal to sell off the municipal electricity plant. Practice was to name the candidate with the largest votes the president of the council (equivalent to mayor?), but in this case the most-popular candidate had become ill. A contender came forward - a deadlock - resignation, etc. Thus was aroused a considerable resentment against the council, part of which was transferred to the electoral system.
A city newspaper editorialized "it is apparent that the will of the majority is not entirely attained by STV..." It was not stated, and Harris did not choose to explain, how it came about under STV that the majority was not represented.
But certainly it seems there was dissatisfaction with a few of those elected - a bootlegger, "several troublemakers" and one elected by "a small but loyal political club". (As well, the presence of ethnic candidates on council evoked some resentment as discussed below.)
[Under STV the majority takes a majority of the seats. Perhaps the issue is that it is not necessarily always true that the majority of the votes is a single group. If the majority is spread over various candidates, then those candidates are elected to a majority of the seats. Together they compose a majority, but the majority of the seats are thus filled with people of various small groups of support. Superficially, election by plurality seems to ensure "majority" representation.]
The plurality system, on the other hand, always achieves election by a single group or candidate, which, although often not having majority support, does represent the largest single group, and hence colloquially is said to represent the "majority."
There was little way to ensure that a single group had to have a majority of votes to have a majority of seats on council, as Ashtabula, like many cities, did not have municipal political parties.]
Various reforms including cancellation of STV were discussed and put to referendum vote in the 1929 election.
There was little excitement although Italians, Finns and Swedes opposed cancellation of STV as they saw it as "an attempt to prevent them from having representation on council."
But cancellation of STV passed 2639 to 1935.
The vote in the ethnic parts of Ashtabula was strongly pro-STV, while the sections of the city mostly populated by "older American stock" was two to one against STV.
Harris sums up STV's defeat in Ashtabula as being the result of "the lack of tolerance on the part of the older American stock, who were bitterly opposed to several representatives of the foreign-born groups in council and who attributed their presence to the STV election system." (Harris, p. 343)
=================================================================
Harris's essay is also referenced in the Montopedia blogs:
"Stats..."
"Simplifications..."
=============================================
Hathi trust has:
The Ashtabula plan - the latest step in municipal organization / by Augustus R. Hatton.
Published 1916
Author: Hatton, A. R. (Augustus Raymond), 1873-1946
The story of the city-manager plan, the most democratic form of municipal government ...
Published 1921
Author National Municipal League.
Five years of city manager government in Cleveland : report / by the Executive Board of the Citizens' League of Cleveland.
Published 1929
Author Citizens League of Greater Cleveland. Executive Board
=============
Social security; a symposium of articles reprinted from the National municipal review for March and April 1936; edited by Joseph P. Harris.
Published 1936
Author National Municipal Review. Harris, Joseph Pratt, 1896-
Comentários