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Tom Monto

U.S. minorities still under-represented under new system

The latest atrocity brought down on democracy in the U.S. seems to be at the municipal level.

Minority groups (blacks, the poor, etc.) in many cities complained rightly that they were without representation on many city councils. These cities held elections at-large. This means councillors are elected city -wide. It is not stated but obviously each voters is given as many votes as there are seats up for grabs. Thus the largest single group - but not necessarily a majority - takes all or most of the seats, leaving little to the smaller but still sizable groups in the city.


So judges ruled the cities must dismantle their at-large system - in order to bring in pro-rep or Single Transferable Voting? - no --- to bring in single-member wards.


Single-member wards, as we see in Edmonton, divide natural constituencies such as Old Strathcona, and elect mostly the usual meat and potatoes politicians. who generally overlook the small businesses, the poor, seniors, labour and many other constituencies.


Many small wards also often lead to gerrymandering as well.


The judges should have simply ruled that the at-large elections stand but voters from here on would only cast one vote. There is no way under that system that a single group, unless a large one, could dominate all the seats. The 10 or 12 or more seats would be taken by the ten or 12 largest voting blocks. This necessarily creates minority representation.


So, sorry to say but minority groups in U.S. cities have been sold bad goods.


From one who has seen it happen in Edmonton - welcome to a world of gerrymandered elections and boundary fights, just to see the largest group in each ward - not necessarily the majority in each ward - then take each seat one by one.


In Edmonton a large portion of voters have turned off of municipal politics due to its self-centredness and out of touchness and don't even bother to vote any more.


Edmonton once had proportional representation (see other blogs on this topic) and it is time we moved back to it - through the grouping of the single-member wards inot multiple-member districts and then simply gave each voter just one vote - but a transferable one so it would not be wasted as half the votes cast in the last city election were - they did not result in anyone being elected. with many councillors elected by a minority of he votes in their district.


This is some strange sort of democracy.

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