Wednesday, October 15, 2008

A Review of How Councilman Jeff Berding is Deceiving Voters about Issue 8

Posted by Media Release

Photo courtesy of here.

10 False Claims Against Issue 8 and Proportional Representation

Overview

Cincinnati City Councilman Jeff Berding has been the most outspoken opponent of Issue 8, the ballot measure to return proportional representation for Cincinnati City Council elections. He has appeared on radio and television outlets, published commentary, spoken at several community forums and been cited as the lead expert of Committee to Protect Our Votes, which is the campaign group formed to oppose Issue 8. 

Unfortunately, Councilman Berding is regularly deceiving the public about proportional representation (PR) and Issue 8. Councilman Berding has prominently and regularly made inaccurate or highly misleading claims about Cincinnati political leaders’ position on Issue 8, how PR works, how PR was developed, how PR can be implemented, how hard it will be to vote and how PR is likely to affect representation and governance. Indeed, Councilman Berding’s false claims make up his central points against Issue 8.

Ironically, Councilman Berding filed a complaint with the Ohio Elections Commission (OEC) against Better Ballot for Cincinnati, the coalition of groups and individuals supporting Issue 8. Cincinnati print, radio and television outlets gave this complaint significant coverage, but it was summarily rejected by the OEC just two days later. The OEC rejected the complaint because Better Ballot for Cincinnati is telling the truth in its efforts to build support for Issue 8. The same cannot be said for Councilman Berding.

As detailed in this report, Councilman Berding is repeatedly and perhaps intentionally attempting to deceive Cincinnati voters. Here are examples of his these false claims, nearly all of which Councilman Berding has said or written repeatedly:

False Claim #1: All elected members of the Cincinnati City Council oppose Issue 8. 
Fact: At least one member of the Council asked to be removed from the list of Issue 8 opponents.

False Claim #2: PR is a parliamentary system invented by socialists in the 1890s. 
Fact: PR is not a parliamentary system, has long roots in the USA and was not invented by socialists. Cincinnati champions of PR who helped win and defend it included Murray Seasongood, Ted Berry, and Charlie Taft.

False Claim #3: Every time they vote, voters will need to read four pages of instructions
Fact: Both voter instructions and the list of candidates will fit on a single page.

False Claim #4: The government prohibits counting ballots by hand. We cannot implement PR in 2009.
Fact: Hand-counting is allowed under federal law. It is one option for implementing Issue 8 in 2009.

False Claim #5: Not all votes are counted with PR and the Board of Elections or City Council could manipulate results by taking advantage of Issue 8’s rules for distribution of surplus votes from winners
Fact: Every ballot in PR is counted for its first choice. No neighborhood is favored in the count. Issue 8 prevents manipulation of results in any way and ensures fair treatment of all candidates.

False Claim #6: Implementing PR will be costly
Fact: Well-tested means to implement Issue 8 will cost the City well under $100,000.

False Claim #7: You cannot show your support for more than one candidate with PR
Fact: The fact that a voter can rank up to nine candidates has a real impact on all those candidates.

False Claim #8: African American representation is fairer under the current 9x system compared to the impact of PR in the past in Cincinnati.
Fact: In the last 9 PR elections, African Americans won representation in near exact relation to their share of the population. In the last two 9x elections, African Americans won only two seats – yet their share of the city’s population is nearly triple what it was when two African Americans won with PR.

False claim #9: Issue 8 will result in negative campaigning and a “return to chaos”
Fact: Cincinnati was recognized by Fortune as the best-governed city in America in the days of PR with leaders like Charlie Taft, Murray Seasongood, Potter Stewart and Ted Berry. Ranked choice voting systems promote more positive campaigns because it is important to be the second and lower choice of supporters of other candidates.

False claim #10: Proportional representation was not used in the Democratic presidential primaries
Fact: Proportional representation was a key element of the presidential primaries. The form of PR in the Iowa caucuses was nearly exactly like Issue 8-style PR, with voters being able to move to their second choice as a backup.

We recognize that there may be legitimate arguments against Issue 8. We also recognize that an opponent of Issue 8 might innocently make inaccurate statements. But Councilman Berding has repeatedly made the same deceptive statements – in public appearances, in published commentary and on the website of Committee to Protect Our Votes.

Furthermore, Councilman Berding has made these statements despite being a student of proportional representation. He has served as chair of the committee that oversees city charter changes and as vice chairman of the Cincinnati Electoral Reform Commission. By his own account on Channel 12’s Newsmakers, he has been studying this issue for a decade. He also has closely studied the language of Issue 8. In criticizing Issue 8, he regularly quotes from an excerpt that in fact directly rebuts one of his deceptive comments.

Sources for Councilman Berding’s Statements

We base our report on Councilman Berding’s public statements and on the website of the Committee to Protect Our Votes. They come from the following sources – in the body of the report these sources are referenced by the title in bold here:

Protect our Votes Flyer: Committee to Protect our Votes’ one-page hand-out entitled Proportional Representation (Issue 8): A Really Bad Idea for Cincinnati, distributed by Councilman Berding at the October 6th meeting of the National Organization for Women and distributed to organizations such as the AFL-CIO during their deliberations over whether to take a position on Issue 8

Protect Our Votes Website: Committee to Protect Our Votes website, as accessed on October 11 and October 12, 2008 http://www.protectallyourvotes.com

WVXU Radio: Councilman Berding’s appearance on WVXU radio’s Impact talk show program on October 9 2008, available on-line at: http://www.wvxu.org/impact/impact_archive.asp?sort=programdate

Business Courier: Councilman Berding’s commentary published in the Business Courier on September 29, 2008, and available on-line at: http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2008/09/29/editorial4.html

Local 12 Newsmakers: Councilman Berding’s interview on Newsmakers, WKRC-TV, aired on September 7th, 2008 and available on-line at: http://www.local12.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoId=32987@video.wkrc.com&navCatId=86

Christ Church Forum: Councilman Berding’s talk at a forum at Christ Church Cathedral on September 28th and available on-line at: http://www.cincinnatibeacon.com/index.php/contents/comments/proportional_representation_the_dean_v_jeff_berding/

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e e cummings says:
16 Oct 2008  at  04:01 am | #

berding, burke, mallory have begun to tag team on community issues
they may have disagreements but they are working for personal preservation
their elected jobs are on the line
they are covering each other
so all of their
less than community minded work gets done
don’t let pr get in it will hurt you the citizen when
it really hurts the power of the parties’ local control
let us help you with
several at-large members in our 9X plan
one stop centers for every problem in every neighborhood
whether you want it or not

Committee to Protect Our Jeff Berding.. I Mean Vo says:
16 Oct 2008  at  11:15 pm | #

Looks like there’s a full version of this report with a lot of detail posted here:

http://www.betterballotcincinnati.com/10falseclaims.pdf

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