Home
Who We Are
The Case for Issue 8
Endorsers
FAQ
News About Issue 8
Additional Info
Video Explanation of PR
Answering False Claims About Issue 8
Cincinnati's History with PR
Get Involved
Donate
Issue 8 Text
Resources
|
Frequently Asked Questions about Issue 8: Proportional Representation for Cincinnati City Council
Myth: There’s no problem with the 9x system.
Fact: Our city council elections shut out new voices. Like the rest of Ohio, Cincinnati faces serious challenges moving into the future. To meet these challenges, we need the best of our city on the council – every election. Proportional representation means that strong candidates with new ideas and fresh perspectives can run and win without connections to people with a lot of money or insider political connections. They can win by talking with voters directly to earn their trust and confidence.
We are not critical of everyone on the city council. But the fact is that four council members got on council through selection by political insiders – by appointment, not election. Four of the remaining five had to spend more than $100,000 to win a seat because name recognition counts more than good ideas. We need to ensure that strong candidates can earn a seat without relying on inside connections.
We also want a council that is a fair reflection of our community. Women hold only three seats on our council – in only two from 1999 to 2007. African Americans hold only two seats out of nine. In 2007 fewer voters participated than in any city council election since the 19th century ––less than half the turnout rate when the council was elected by PR
Myth: PR will not affect the vast amount of money a candidate has to raise to win office.
Fact: Campaign cash means less with PR because your vote counts for more. In 1997, winners needed more than 25,000 votes across the city. With PR, a candidate would have won with the first choice support of about 6,100 people – people whose trust you earn through direct contact. The current 9x system makes it difficult for candidates without inside connections and big money to win. In fact, of nine current council members, eight were either appointed or spent more than $100,000 in winning. With PR, you can win through a grassroots campaign that can focus on neighborhoods and communities.
People don’t rank a first choice candidate based on television ads. Instead, candidates will need to earn people’s high rankings based on earning their trust that they will do what’s best for their city.
Myth: PR is too complicated and confusing.
Fact: PR is as easy as counting to ten. All the voter has to do with proportional representation (PR) is rank their preferred candidates in order of choice – first, second, third and as many more as they wish. Doing so is simple – six year olds can count to ten.
It’s in fact more intuitive to vote this way. We all indicate preferences and second choices in our every day lives; from choosing pop to laundry detergent. PR allows voters to express their preferences when voting rather than the current 9x system’s requirement that you cast up to nine equally weighted votes – even though you may care much less about your 9th choice than your first choice and under 9x your vote for your 9th choice could cause your 1st choice to lose.
The ease of using a ranked choice voting systems helps explain why presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain are active backers of ranked choice voting systems and why voters in cities recently adopting similar ranked voting systems are so enthusiastic about their new system. It also helps explain why PR worked so well in Cincinnati in the past – when the city had far higher turnout than today and when it elected a council that contributed to Cincinnati being Fortune Magazine’s choice as “the best governed city in America.”
Myth: Proportional representation is only used in some European nations and Cambridge and is not a well-tested, vetted system of elections.
Fact: Almost all modern democracies use some form of PR and PR has a successful history right here in Cincinnati. PR comes in many forms. This year the Democrats used a form of PR to award delegates in all their presidential primaries and caucuses, as did Republicans in the New Hampshire primary. The choice voting form of PR on the ballot in Cincinnati has a long history in the United States, including in Cincinnati, Toledo, Ashtabula, Hamilton and Cleveland. The choice voting form of PR is recommended as an option in the National Civic League’s Model City Charter, and in 2006, voters in Minneapolis adopted it for certain citywide offices by a margin of two to one. Cambridge (MA) has used it successfully since 1941. Internationally, every city in Scotland and Ireland elects local government with choice voting.
Myth: Issue 8 affects the mayor's race and election, reverting the system back to one that doesn't allow the people to directly elect the mayor.
Fact: Issue 8 doesn’t change how we elect our mayor. Issue 8 only restates the current mayoral law to be sure that the measure did not change mayoral elections. What Issue 8 ensures is that we have a more representative city council, a fairer reflection of the people in our community.
Myth: Districts would be better than PR.
Fact: Districts aren’t on the ballot, while PR elects a city council that is more reflective of its voters. Our choice is between the current 9x system and PR – districts are not on the ballot. PR ensures that people in communities across the city can have their voices heard. It your best option whether you prefer 9x to districts or districts to 9x.
Districts can only be as fair as the politicians and party bosses who gerrymander them – whether you can elect someone depends mostly on who draws district lines. Districts also only elect one candidate in each area, which leaves a lot of people unhappy with their “representative.” Indeed those unhappy voters can be a majority in a district –when you have 3 candidates in a district race, “spoilers” can split the vote, leading to non-majority winners where the majority is still unhappy and unrepresented by the outcome. The “spoiler effect” then leads to less diversity for voters to choose from. Finally, districts are nothing new in Cincinnati. In 1923, Cincinnati had 35 districts and Republicans won 33/35 seats with only 55% of the vote citywide, contributing to the “boss politics” that created that created the need for our city’s historic reform Charter that featured PR.
Myth: Some votes aren’t counted with PR
Fact: Every vote is counted with PR and every voter has an equal vote, as in presidential primaries. Under our current 9x rules, some citizens cast votes that help elect all nine winners, while other voters don’t cast even one vote that elects someone. In fact, the average Cincinnati voter uses only seven of their nine votes – meaning some people cast more votes than others, and nearly half of votes are “wasted.” On losing candidates who act as “spoilers.” In contrast, PR allows as many voters as mathematically possible to win a voice at the table, hardly any votes are wasted and the “spoiler” problem is eliminated.
With PR a majority of voters will elect a majority of seats, but nearly all voters will be able to elect a candidate. Every person's vote counts first for their favorite candidate – meaning the one ranked as their highest choice. If that candidate has more votes than necessary to win or can't possibly win, there is a new round of counting governed by each voter’s own rankings -- the vote now counts for the voter’s next highest choice on the ballot. Every vote counts.
Myth: Implementing PR will be costly and hard.
Fact: There are several affordable and straightforward ways to implement PR. One option is to use existing machines with existing software to record first choices at the polls and ensure voters are alerted to any errors, just like in the current system. Ballots then would be collected that night at city hall and scanned using regular scanners and form-reading software to do a city-wide tally of the other rankings using the same counting software used for years for city elections in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This option could cost as little as $5,000 and no more than $30,000. The City could continue such a sensible system as long as it wanted and does not need to upgrade its polling place software. Another affordable option is a manual count of the ballots that Cambridge did until 1997, and that Cincinnati did during the 30 years PR was used with far more voters than today.
Myth: PR will elect only single issue, fringe candidates
Fact: PR elects the candidates who voters think will do what’s best for Cincinnati. With PR the great majority of voters will help elect their first choice – the candidate who has earned voters’ greatest trust. But many winners will also need to be other voters’ second and third choice – they need to reach out beyond their immediate base of support and be cooperative with other candidates. PR encourages positive campaigning. As historian Kathleen Barber wrote in her book Proportional Representation and Election Reform in Ohio, “In Cleveland and Cincinnati, there were no significant differences in the percentage of divided votes on council issues under different electoral systems. [The 5 Ohio cities that used PR] did not tumble into factionalism because minorities won a share of council seats. In most of the cities, the incentive to candidates to draw second- and third-choice votes from supporters of competing candidates led to less stridency and more cooperation in campaigns and subsequent governance. In most of the cities, the incentive to candidates to draw second- and third-choice votes from supporters of competing candidates led to less stridency and more cooperation in campaigns and subsequent governance.” (Full analysis of Kathleen Barber is under our resources page).
The reality is that most voters want to have a city government that works. They want safe streets, good schools and a place where people can earn a living and not have to pay too much in taxes. They have differences, to be sure, and PR allows those differences to be represented – but the vast majority of Cincinnati voters want many of the same things for their city.
That’s why when Cincinnati had PR, the council worked. Governing majorities formed that got things done, and the number of unanimous council votes was similar to when it didn’t have PR. And PR helped make Cincinnati a great city. Indeed Fortune Magazine called Cincinnati the best-governed city in America.
Myth: This form of PR is different from what Cincinnati used to have
Fact: The petition establishes PR exactly as it was used in the past and as it was presented to voters in 1991. The only differences are technical: the city is provided with more flexibility to administer the ballot-count with affordable, secure and accurate approaches.
Myth: Recounts won’t be possible with PR.
Fact: Recounts are quite feasible when needed. Indeed, in the 1955 PR election in Cincinnati, former Ohio governor John Gilligan was elected to the final city council seat by a handful of votes. A recount produced the same result.
With modern counting methods using optical scan machines, recounts will be even easier to do. The charter amendment’s only changes from Cincinnati’s past PR law are making it easier to administer elections on optical scan machines and allowing the city to refine the counting method to ensure a recount would produce the exact same result every time after determining the accuracy of how the machine is reading every ballot.
Myth: PR affects term limits.
Fact: Issue 8 has no impact on term limits. Articles 9 and 2 are unaffected by the proportional representation municipal initiative. Proportional representation allows the people to replace politicians who have lost their favor much more easily because candidates have to earn people’s first or second rankings to win. But term limits remain just as they are.
|
