An Advisory Committee was appointed by The Dayton (Ohio) City Commission in 1923 "to consider the advisability of revising the city charter, and if so to recommend amendments thereto for submission to the voters." At the time Dayton was administered by a board of elected commissioners, the commission-manager form of city government.
Some of the Committee submitted a minority report, stating:
"We recommend that an amendment providing for the election of city commissioners on the basis of proportional representation, under the Hare system of balloting [AKA Single Transferable Voting (STV)], be submitted to the voters at the regular election in November."
The minority report listed some of the advantages of STV:
1. It eliminates the need for separate primary elections, thus reducing the expense of city elections one-half. [Multiple candidates may run on behalf of each party with no bad effect, if voters choose. Ballots may be transferred between candidates of the same party to ensure that the party vote is not split.]
2. It reduces the difficulty of securing desirable candidates for the city commission.
3. It ensures true proportional representation of minorities without impairing the principle of rule by actual majorities. This, we believe, provides a practical application of ideal democracy.
4. It increases popular interest in civic affairs by giving every citizen opportunity for direct representation in his city government.
5. It makes partisan control of the commission extremely difficult, if not impossible.
6. It popularizes and safeguards the commission-manager form of government, because both majorities and minorities feel that they have their own representation in the governing body.
The majority report, the one without STV, was adopted by 12 affirmative votes (12 out of 17 present, the chairman not voting).
Some said that that a call for STV implied unfriendly criticism of the city commission or the commission-manager form of government, but the minority report said "this was sufficiently answered in the fact that those offering this dissenting report yield to none in their loyalty to the spirit of the charter and the city's existing form of city government. (Proportional Representation Review, October 1923, p. 87)
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