[Winona] Instant Runoff Voting Legal Challenges

[Roy Nasstrom]

  From: Roy Nasstrom 
  To: Craig Brooks ; WOD 
  Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2007 2:35 PM
  Subject: Re: [Winona] Instant Runoff Voting Legal Challenges






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    I'd like to see IRV  tried. No doubt, however,  it would be more useful district-wide than within sub-areas of the district, particularly those areas in which running for office is not an attractive option for the vast majority of citizens. Still, IRV rules could be instituted even if they did not become functional for many areas.

    The issue of district-wide representation  instead of representation by geographic areas does present some serious problems. District voting might make some people feel disenfranchised because their particular interests could be submerged. 

    Historically, district-wide local elections became popular after the 1890s as a means of eliminating the political corruption so common in big cities. Many sub-districts were simply agents of political machines that could easily manipulate the populations. But by the 1960s, district-wide representation came under attack as racist and class-based, ensuring that the upper classes or at least the white population could continue to dominate politics in cities and school districts.

    Consequently, representation by geographic areas regained popularity. Now, for reasons too long to go into here, there seems to be a growth in calls for district-wide elections again in some big cities.

    Although the issue of corruption seems insignificant in Winona, the issue of blocking out some citizens' views cannot be ignored. Voting statistics in the county clearly demonstrate that different views do prevail. Parts of the city reveal different perspectives. And the urban-rural difference is notable in school district and county elections. I suspect that many rural people might vigorously oppose any attempt to eliminate representation of particular geographic areas even if many urban people might feel that the wider constituency would produce results thay consider more beneficial. 

    Roy Nasstrom
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