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Preferential Voting Gets The Creeps Out!

Preferential Voting Gets The Creeps Out! image Preferential Voting Gets The Creeps Out! image
Parent Issue
Day
25
Month
October
Year
1974
OCR Text

 

 

Preferential Voting Gets The Creeps Out!

   Next week, you can vote the landlords, developers, real estate agents, bankers, corporate presidents and conservative lawyers out of city hall by pulling one lever.

   That lever is over the "yes" on city charter amendment A, to establish preferential voting for mayor in Ann Arbor. If passed, preferential voting will end Republican hopes of winning the mayoral election next spring. By losing that election, their stranglehold control on the city will be ended. Along with the Republicans, the city will lose better garbage collection, ever-increasing police budgets and zero funding for child or health care.

   So far, preferential voting has the support of the Human Rights Party, who petitioned to put the proposal on the ballot, the Democratic Party, and the Huron Valley Council of the AFL-CIO. Lined up against it are the Republicans and the Ann Arbor News. The fate of preferential now depends on voter turnout. A light turnout, which usually means more conservatives at the polls, may mean this crucial issue fails.

WHAT IS PREFERENTIAL ANYWAY?

  In 1973, Republican mayoral candidate James Stephenson took the mayoral race with only 47 percent of the vote. He was able to win because the majority, who would have preferred a more liberal candidate, split their votes between the Democrat and HRP candidates. With a three-party system, a candidate could actually win the mayoral race with as little as 34 percent of the vote.

   If preferential passes on November 5, no candidate could win the race again without receiving a majority of the votes. This election method would guarantee the mayor was "preferred" by the majority of A2 residents. Both the Human Rights Party and the Democrats have pointed out that preferential will most likely give the city a Democratic mayor. 

   One of the major objections voiced by Republicans, dissident Democrats and the Ann Arbor News is that preferential voting is too complicated, and will discourage voters.

   Looking at the wording on the ballot November 5 is not likely to dispel that fear. City Charter Amendment A says:

   "Shall the City Charter be amended to provide that the Mayor shall be elected by a majority of voters, by permitting each voter to designate a first preference and subsequent preferences; so that if no candidate receives a majority of first preferences, then the candidate with the fewest such votes is eliminated and secondary preferences of the voters for that candidate are counted instead, the process being repeated until one candidate receives a majority of valid votes?"

   But the system itself is not really hard to understand. If preferential passes, the voting machines will look like the picture on this page.

 HOW IT WILL WORK IN A2

     With three parties, each voter would be allowed to make a first and second choice. For example, if the HRP candidate was offering the kind of stands on issues you thought the city should take, you would cast a first choice vote for her or him.    With preferential, however, voters can make a second choice. If you had voted for HRP as your first choice, and did not want to see the Republican Party controlling that powerful office, you could make a second choice of the Democratic date.

   After the election, the city clerk's office would count the votes. As under the present system, the initial choices would be counted first. If any individual candidate has more than 50 percent of of the votes- a clear majority- that person would win.

   However, if no candidate has a majority, as happened in 1973, the preferential system would go to work. The votes cast for the party coming in last are dropped out. In 1973, that would have been the HRP with only 16 percent of the vote.       

   Instead, the second choice votes under the HRP ticket are counted. These votes would either be for the Democrat or Republican candidate, now the only two left in the race. If all the HRP voters had decided they "preferred" a Democrat as Mayor, then their votes would be transferred to the Democratic candidate.

   If it were 1973, and the 16 percentage of people who chose the losing HRP candidate had made a second choice of Democrat, the Dem would have the 37 percentage of first choice votes plus the 16 percent of votes transferred from the HRP candidate. Adding those; votes together, the Dem has 53 percent of the vote, a clear majority, and would be declared the winner of the race.

 HOW PREFERENTIAL FOILS THE CREEPS

   In 1973, more people wanted a mayor who was progressive than wanted a conservative James Stephenson. Last year in the city council races, all Republican candidates received only 38 percent of the vote. Because the mayor is elected in city-wide elections, it is obvious that in spring of 1975, most people will not want to see a Republican mayor. Republican power and influence is declining in Ann Arbor.

    But several problems remain before the Republicans are dethroned. Even if preferential passes, a candidate must receive enough votes from the losing party to surpass the total received by the other candidate. This means that HRP voters, who have always received less votes citywide than either major party, must make a second choice for the Democratic candidate.

   Under preferential, a voter has the option of not making a second choice. In the past, the Human Rights Party has maintained there is no difference between Republicans and Democrats. If this stand is taken by large numbers of HRP voters, and they do not make a second choice, a Republican could still win. Hopefully, the last two years of Republican domination with its McDonalds and Burger Kings, Packard Platts, cancelled Blues & Jazz Festivals and no social services, will encourage HRP voters to make a second choice for the Democrats.

    A second problem is that the mayor does not have power alone. She or he is only one of eleven votes on City Council. For Republicans to lose control of City Hall means they must also be a minority body on Council.

STILL THE FOURTH WARD

    In 1973, the Republicans gained control because of vote-splitting in the mayoral race, as well as in a vital council race.

   Council members are elected through a ward system. The city is divided into five areas, each with approximately the same number of voters. At this time, two wards are predominantly Republican supporters, and two others are generally Democratic or HRP oriented. But one ward, the Fourth, is considered a "swing" ward, which could go either to a conservative or progressive candidate.       Two Council members are elected from each ward, one person every other year. So the breakdown of the eleven people who make decisions in city government are: one mayor, four Republicans, four Democrats or HRP members, and two more from the Fourth Ward. Even with a Democratic mayor assured under preferential, the Republicans could regain control by taking the Fourth ward council seats, thereby giving them six votes on Council.

   In 1973, the Republicans did take the Fourth Ward seat. Like the mayoral race, the problem was vote-splitting between the Democratic and Human Rights Party candidates. The Republicans had a minority of the votes.

   Last spring, after a vigorous campaign by the Democrats warning Fourth ward residents of the vote-splitting problem, backed by the Ann Arbor SUN and the Michigan Daily, a Democrat won the seat.    Next spring, if preferential passes and the city gains a Democratic mayor, Council will have an HRP-Democratic majority. (This includes the four seats from wards which always go to Dem or HRP, plus the Fourth ward seat now held by Dem Jaimie Kenworthy, who is not up for reelection until 1976.) Even if a Republican won in the Fourth Ward, the Republicans would not control the city.

   But, should vote-splitting again become a problem in the Fourth in 1975, and then again in 1976, giving the seat to the Republicans, Council would once again have a majority of conservatives controlling the city.

VOTING POWER NEEDED

   Of course, 1976 is still a long ways off, but November 5 is only a week and a half away. Already dismal reports of low registration among students and young people, along with predictions of low voter turnout,are endangering the chances of preferential voting. In addition, because of the focus away from local issues to state and national issues in a November election, preferential has received little attention.

    Ann Arbor has become a Mecca for people seeking a new, alternative lifestyle. Such things as a $5 marijuana law, a human rights ordinance which goes beyond the usual race, religion and sex provisions to include sexual preference, student status and marital status, and in general, a tolerant attitude by the majority of people towards new ideas had made this city a viable location for increasing movement away from the traditional, oppressive American way.

   Those changes require a local government moving in the same direction. Preferential can help bring about a city power structure more amenable to our goals. The Republicans have done everything they could in the last two years to return Ann Arbor to the image of the All-American city. Their tampering has affected each of us

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and we do not want to see them continue to hamper our efforts.

   We at the SUN believe that the charter amendment to turn the mayoral election over to a preferential voting system may be one of the most crucial choices voters must make this fall.  It already has our full support, and now needs yours if it is to pass. We urge you to go to the polls on November 5, and vote yes on City Charter Amendment A.

--SUN Collective