Residents get 6 votes each in suburban NY election

Residents get 6 votes each in suburban NY election

news.yahoo.com

Although the village of about 30,000 residents is nearly half Hispanic, no Latino had ever been elected to any of the six trustee seats, which until now were chosen in a conventional at-large election. Most voters were white, and white candidates always won.

Federal Judge Stephen Robinson said that violated the Voting Rights Act, and he approved a remedy suggested by village officials: a system called cumulative voting, in which residents get six votes each to apportion as they wish among the candidates. He rejected a government proposal to break the village into six districts, including on

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Affirmative action at it's most insidious. It would be simpler for this Federal judge to just select the candidate he feels would be fair and bypass the election farce completely.

As the baby boomers age they should ask for this fair practice in a national election - "5 votes for 55+"; or to address the apathy in younger voters - " 10 each for the lost generation".

Consider a sliding scale of votes - 2 each for every year of military service.

Is vote inflation what it takes for citizens to think their exercise of franchise matters? For a record breaking voter turn-out, we might try offering a free Ipod or a trip to see Dancing With The Stars.

What rankles is the attempt by a federal judge to influence a representative process. If this manipulation does not "correct" the adjudged violation of the Voting Rights Act, will the Hispanic citizens be held in contempt, or the non-Hispanic voters be found guilty of collusion?

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)