THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Due to the numerous elections this fall (the gubernatorial recall in October; local district and school board elections in November, including MPWMD; and Measure Q for Natividad Medical Center in December) my thoughts have turned to voting and the many problems associated with it in the 21st century.
In September, the LWVMP cosponsored a series of lectures by Steven Hill, cofounder of the Center for Voting and Democracy, a nonprofit organization promoting election reform. He is a dynamic speaker and asks, "Was the lesson of Florida's punch-cards that we need better machines or that there is something deeply wrong with a system where the candidate with fewer votes wins the office?" In his book titled "Fixing Elections" he shows why it is not just the Electoral College that is outdated, but our entire eighteenth-century Winner Take All political system, including the way we elect our legislatures.
I hope that many of you took advantage of the opportunity to hear one of Steven Hill's presentations. His argument is that "the American electorate is not lazy and apathetic. Voting seems pointless to many citizens because they recognize the truth -- in the system we have now, their votes really DON'T count." In electing our legislatures, "rigged district lines render impotent the votes of millions of Americans."
Steven Hill has convinced me that it is crucial to correct the inequities of the electoral system's underlying structure rather than simply working to reform the mechanics of voting. He advocates the adoption of many commonsense changes already used in other democracies around the world, including instant run-off voting.
Our November Lunch and Learn with the League will address voting issues, the implementation of HAVA, and election problems that exist locally and statewide. I hope that we will also discuss some of the issues that Steven Hill raises.
--Beverly G. Bean, President, LWVMP
