Fair representation for all communities

Posted to: http://nospeedbumps.com/?p=1418

The only way to have fair representation for all communities is to use a proportional voting system.

By “communities”, I mean both geographic and non-geographic communities.
When New Zealand switched to a proportional voting system over a decade, ago, they immediately started electing twice as many Maori people as before, even though they have always had reserved seats for Maoris. Now the Maori are represented in Parliament in the same proportion as they are in the population.

New Zealanders now also elect more women, and Pacific Islanders, and Asian New Zealanders, and Muslims, and all sorts of people who were never elected before in New Zealand.

They’ve had five elections now under proportional representation, and not many would even think of going back to a winner-take-all voting system.

Fair voting generates a more consensual type of government, and a more civilized style of politics.

Fair voting gives voters more real choices, fairer results, and stronger representation for every voter and every community.

Fair voting gives voters the power to hold politicians and political parties truly accountable.

For more info:
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/polit/damy/prlib.htm
http://www.aceproject.org/
www.fairvote.org
www.fairvote.ca

P.S. The Single Transferable Vote, also known as Choice Voting, would be suitable for electing representatives statewide in Alabama in such a way that as many as possible can be fairly represented.

P.P.S. You also need independent boundary commissions. It’s not a good idea to let partisan elected officials run the elections. Duh.