On July 18, the city council of Santa Clara, California, gave tentative approval to using proportional representation for future city council elections. There would be two districts, each electing three city councilmembers. Choice voting (also known as Single Transferable Vote) would be used, so that someone could be elected with support from 25% of the voters within that district.
The Charter Review Commission for Santa Clara had earlier recommended this idea. Santa Clara is a charter city, so the voters would decide whether to make this change, in the June 2018 election. The next step is for the City Attorney to draft the proposed amendment.
EXACT P.R. — each winner to have a voting power equal to direct votes plus loser votes (via pre-election candidate rank order lists).
IE ALL votes would count — compared to current about 40 percent of wasted gerrymander votes.
Demo Rep, Why not let anyone who wants to, show up for city council meetings and vote on their own behalf. Or they can give someone else a proxy to be their representative. If they don’t think their representative is doing a good job, they simply withdraw their proxy and assign it to another person. If you get excited about a particular issue, then you might try to get your friends and neighbors to assign their proxy to you. If you move to a new city, you don’t have to wait until the next election years away to begin participating in your local government.
Proxy stuff is a next possible step.
In larger voter systems it is a bit much to have in person voting – New York City, CA legislature, etc.
What percent of ALL voters have the time and energy to keep up with a zillion bills, etc. ???
Demo Rep, What percentage of legislators have the time to keep up with a zillion bills? If you were able to vote directly, you might be to get a few paid meals from lobbyists.
All bills by all legislators all the time — by definition — it is their alleged job.
Major meal bill in larger States – CA, NY, etc.
P.R. and App.V.