filed under Daily Dose
NAACP leading PR push in Cinci
11:22AM ON
07/14/2008
BY
Dave Segal
As the Providence City Council considers at large seats, it’s worth noting what’s going on in Cincinnati, where the NAACP is trying to get proportional representation on the ballot. Cinci used PR from the 1920s through the 1950s. It was implemented to break the back of the Republican ward bosses who controlled the city — and it was done away with because it worked:
Proportional Representation is defined as “an electoral system designed to represent in a legislative body each political group or party in proportion to its actual voting strength in the electorate”.
The City of Cincinnati used PR from 1926 to 1957 but changed to a winner take all system after African American(s) began to get elected. In fact, former Cincinnati NAACP Branch President and Charterite, Theodore M. Berry, placed number #1 under the PR system.
The Cincinnati Executive Committee feels strongly that every vote must be counted in our local elections and clearly understands that the only system that achieves this objective exactly is PR.
July 14th, 2008 at 3:20PM
JOE BERNSTEIN Says:
Whoa!What exactly does “political group” mean?Proportional representation is an idea frequently pushed by socialists in the past.
[Reply]