This just in -- "one man, one vote" is dead. In a move that must make Lani Guinier smile, the Washington Post is reporting that cumulative voting is making its way to the mainstream.
We've had cumulative voting in corporate finance for a while now, but it wasn't until the 80s that it became the darling of lawyers who were left of center. Lani Guinier chief among them. You see, under cumulative voting, you get some number of votes that you can apply to one or two candidates if you want to, and therefore minorities (of opinion OR ethnicity) can have a more fair chance of representation in some form on school boards, etc. See here, with the usual Wikipedia caveats (it can say anything from one day to the next).
Amarillo already uses cumulative voting here in Texas, evidently, for their school board.
Here's something for the folks promoting this to consider, though. With cumulative voting, David Duke would probably have gotten farther than he did. You see, exclusive, biased thinking cuts both ways. Not only do you get to help those who need a voice, but you also get to bias the system toward the fringes. I'm not sure the legal scholars have all of that worked out. I'm also not sure they've thought all of the economic incentive problems through.
In any case, cumulative voting is waiting for it's next big opportunity. As a member of a vanishing majority (folks who actually understand the issues), I'm all for cumulative voting. By the time we get it, I'll need it.
As with so many other things, this isn't something that anyone voted on -- which I guess is the point. This type of thing comes from the court system. Those folks who can't change law in any legitimate way find it efficacious to just go ahead and legislate from the bench.
We've had cumulative voting in corporate finance for a while now, but it wasn't until the 80s that it became the darling of lawyers who were left of center. Lani Guinier chief among them. You see, under cumulative voting, you get some number of votes that you can apply to one or two candidates if you want to, and therefore minorities (of opinion OR ethnicity) can have a more fair chance of representation in some form on school boards, etc. See here, with the usual Wikipedia caveats (it can say anything from one day to the next).
Amarillo already uses cumulative voting here in Texas, evidently, for their school board.
Here's something for the folks promoting this to consider, though. With cumulative voting, David Duke would probably have gotten farther than he did. You see, exclusive, biased thinking cuts both ways. Not only do you get to help those who need a voice, but you also get to bias the system toward the fringes. I'm not sure the legal scholars have all of that worked out. I'm also not sure they've thought all of the economic incentive problems through.
In any case, cumulative voting is waiting for it's next big opportunity. As a member of a vanishing majority (folks who actually understand the issues), I'm all for cumulative voting. By the time we get it, I'll need it.
As with so many other things, this isn't something that anyone voted on -- which I guess is the point. This type of thing comes from the court system. Those folks who can't change law in any legitimate way find it efficacious to just go ahead and legislate from the bench.
