Thursday, July 03, 2008

Proportional Representation Petitions from Cincinnati NAACP Hit the Ground Today

Posted by Media Release

At the June meeting, the General Membership voted to support Proportional Representation and take action by engaging in a petition drive to place the issue on the November 4, 2008 ballot. The Cincinnati NAACP hired an attorney to create the petition based on the membership’s decision last Thursday. Today, one week later, the petition form is complete. The first printing should be available by 5:00p.m. this afternoon.

Theodore Berry, former Mayor of Cincinnati and former President of the Cincinnati NAACP, was negatively impacted by the removal of Proportional Representation (PR). Theodore Berry was a Charterite and big supporter of PR. The fundamental aspect of PR is fairness and justice within the election process. Cincinnati NAACP Branch President, Christopher Smitherman, says, “It is difficult for anyone or any institution to claim that they support what Theodore Berry stood for, but not support PR.”

The major difference between the Republican and Democratic Presidential Primaries was that the Republican Party had a winner-take-all system while the Democratic Party used Proportional Representation to obtain delegates. The National Democratic Party now has its first African-American presidential nominee as a direct result of PR. Senator Barak Obama would not be the Democratic nominee without PR. Therefore, if PR is good enough for Sen. Obama and the National Democratic Party, then it is good enough for the City of Cincinnati.

Proportional Representation allows voters to rank their candidates from 1-9. It is very simple. It captures the true intent of the voters.  Smitherman believes in the intelligence of the Cincinnati voters and rejects any assertions that PR is too complicated for the everyday person.  It does not take an advanced degree to count to nine in a simple ranking system.  Smitherman is encouraging the local NAACP membership to collect the 6,100 signatures needed to place the issue on the ballot.  There are approximately 30 days to accomplish this task.  The NAACP of Cincinnati will be reaching out to its natural partners to help to collect the needed signatures.

The issue of PR is not about race.  It is about fair and just representation for every voter. 

Socializer!

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dripdry says:
03 Jul 2008  at  03:39 pm | #

Can someone from the NAACP post the text (or a link to the text) of the petition verbiage here?

There are many forms of PR.  I want to make sure the’ve got someone who knows all the ins & outs involved in the process so we get a good form of PR.

Josh Krekeler says:
03 Jul 2008  at  10:16 pm | #

Rest assured, Dripndry.  What we’re proposing is the tried and true single transferable vote method of PR.  The amendment includes a set of rules for counting the ballots, but also gives Council the authority to adopt more modern rules within the same general parameters.  This system gave Cincinnati 30 years of good government and fair represenation, and it can do so again.  PR gives your favorite candidates the benefit of your strong support for them over other candidates - unlike 9X, where your vote for your ninth choice can end up hurting your first choice (as happened to some Damon Lynch supporters who also voted for Jeff Berding in 2005).

Beacon readers, please contact me if you can help collect signatures for PR!  Even if you only have time to get 20 or 30 signatures, we’ll take them.

You can view the petition online here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/3813887/Cincinnati-2008-Proportional-Representation-Petition

says:
04 Jul 2008  at  06:45 am | #

I support PR.

says:
04 Jul 2008  at  05:54 pm | #

Thanks, Urbanists!  So does Jim Tarbell, as he told me at Northside’s 4th of July parade today.

says:
04 Jul 2008  at  09:50 pm | #

How does PR address the problem of accountability of council members and the administration?  We would still have nine snakes in the bucket which when one would try to grab any one of these snakes, the snake would slither under the other eight.

How many time has the Dean or anyone else for that matter written an requested an answer from council? And how many times has any of them responded? 

Josh Krekeler says:
03 Jul 2008 at 10:16 pm | #
“… This system gave Cincinnati 30 years of good government and fair represenation, and it can do so again. “

What is this guy smoking? He implies that the only difference today from yesteryear in Cincinnati is the form of elections?

And Cincinnati is trying to attract a creative class of people to Cincinnati? This is classic insanity.