Cumulative voting for county boards to Senate floor!

Dan Johnson-Weinberger midwestdemocracy at yahoo.com
Tue, 06 May 2003 16:03:46 +0000

CUMULATIVE VOTING RIGHTS FOR COUNTY BOARDS IN THE SENATE (HB 138)
BOARD MEMBERS WANTED FOR MIDWEST DEMOCRACY CENTER
POTENTIAL FOR INSTANT RUNOFF VOTING AUTHORIZATION (HB 640)
CITY LOBBYING NEEDED TO BUILD SUPPORT FOR INSTANT RUNOFF VOTING
INTERNS COMING THIS SUMMER

The Midwest Democracy Center is a non-profit, membership advocacy 
group that works to make our governments more democratic and 
representative. We partner with the D.C.-based Center for Voting and 
Democracy (www.fairvote.org).

Our main goal is to revive cumulative voting for the Illinois House 
of Representatives (used from 1870 ? 1980) so that political 
minorities will have some voice. Electing three people from one big 
district instead of three people each from their own smaller district 
ensures that all voters have someone who speaks for them. That's real 
representation.

Our other goal is to use instant runoff voting for single-winner 
elections (like governor and mayor) to ensure the majority of voters 
gets to pick the winner in one election. 

Our website is www.midwestdemocracy.org and our telephone number is 
312.587.7060. We encourage your participation and membership! (Join 
online with a financial contribution) by clicking here:
https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=xx817%40prairienet.org

To unsubscribe, email MDCMonthly-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

COUNTY BOARDS LEGISLATION

Our legislation to allow county boards to give cumulative voting 
rights in multi-member districts in county elections, HB 138, has 
passed a Senate committee and heads to the floor of the Senate in the 
next two weeks. 

Terry Link (D-Vernon Hills), Rick Winkel (R-Champaign), Larry Walsh 
(D-Joliet) and Denny Jacobs (D-East Moline) are all co-sponsoring HB 
138, which not only permits county boards to give cumulative voting 
rights, but authorizes advisory referendum so citizens can put a 
question on the ballot dealing with the way the county board is 
elected.

Currently, if a county board wants to give cumulative voting rights, 
it is illegal. That's not right. Each county should have the right to 
decide how they want to elect their own county board, and if a county 
wants to use cumulative voting, then that decision should be up to 
the county. That's what HB 138 would do, which is why it has moved so 
far in the legislative process (it has already passed the House and 
now moves to the floor of the Senate).

We need your help to pass HB 138 out of the state Senate. 

If you have not yet called or emailed your state senator with the 
following message:

"Please support HB 138, a local control bill, that lets counties use 
cumulative voting."

please do so.

Click on 
http://www.elections.state.il.us/DLS/Pages/DLSAddressCrit.asp

put in your postal address and you'll find out your state senator.

Then click on:

http://www.legis.state.il.us/senate/

and then click on the name of your state senator to get contact 
information.

These calls really matter.

Here is the latest vote count, with the categories of YES, NO, 
PROBABLY, UNLIKELY and ?

Pamela J. Althoff 32 R NO
Larry K. Bomke 50 R NO
Bill Brady 44 R ?
J. Bradley Burzynski 35 R ? 
James F. Clayborne, Jr. 57 D ? 
Jacqueline Y. Collins 16 D YES
Dan Cronin 21 R UNLIKELY
M. Maggie Crotty 19 D PROBABLE
John J. Cullerton 6 D PROBABLE
Miguel del Valle 2 D YES
James A. DeLeo 10 D ?
Vince Demuzio 49 D ?
Kirk W. Dillard 24 R 
Susan Garrett 29 D YES
Adeline Jay Geo-Karis 31 R PROBABLE
William R. Haine 56 D YES
Debbie DeFrancesco Halvorson 40 D ?
Don Harmon 39 D YES
Rickey R. Hendon 5 D PROBABLE
Mattie Hunter 3 D YES
Denny Jacobs 36 D YES
Emil Jones, Jr. 14 D ?
John O. Jones 54 R NO
Wendell E. Jones 27 R NO
Chris Lauzen 25 R ?
Kimberly A. Lightford 4 D ?
Terry Link 30 D YES
David Luechtefeld 58 R ?
Edward D. Maloney 18 D ?
Iris Y. Martinez 20 D PROBABLE
James T. Meeks 15 I PROBABLE
Antonio Munoz 1 D PROBABLE
Barack Obama 13 D YES
William E. Peterson 26 R ?
Edward Petka 42 R ?
James Pate Philip 23 R [to be replaced] UNLIKELY
Christine Radogno 41 R ?
Steven J. Rauschenberger 22 R ?
Dale A. Righter 55 R ?
Dale E. Risinger 37 R ?
Carol Ronen 7 D PROBABLE
Peter J. Roskam 48 R ?
Dan Rutherford 53 R ?
Martin A. Sandoval 12 D YES
Jeffrey M. Schoenberg 9 D ?
George P. Shadid 46 D UNLIKELY
Todd Sieben 45 R ?
Ira I. Silverstein 8 D YES
Dave Sullivan 33 R ?
John M. Sullivan 47 D ?
Dave Syverson 34 R ?
Donne E. Trotter 17 D PROBABLE
Louis S. Viverito 11 D ?
Lawrence M. Walsh 43 D YES
Frank C. Watson 51 R ?
Patrick Welch 38 D ?
Richard J. Winkel, Jr. 52 R YES
Kathleen L. Wojcik 28 R NO
Larry D. Woolard 59 D YES

YES: 14
PROBABLE: 9
?: 28
UNLIKELY: 3
NO: 5

So we are getting there, but we need to earn more YES votes and 
consolidate our PROBABLE votes.

Please email Dan Johnson-Weinberger at djw@fairvote.org if you can 
email or call your state senator! 

BOARD MEMBERS WANTED -- ARE YOU INTERESTED?

We're looking to revamp and revitalize the Midwest Democracy Center 
this summer so we can continue to push for governments that represent 
everyone. Would you be interested in joining the board of the Midwest 
Democracy Center, or getting involved in some other way?

Please call the office at 312.587.7060 or email Dan at 
djw@fairvote.org with your interest and ideas. 

INSTANT RUNOFF VOTING STILL ALIVE FOR THIS SESSION

Senator Ira Silverstein (D-Chicago) is working to amend a bill to 
allow municipalities to use instant runoff voting and consolidate 
their local runoff elections (if they want to). 

Our original bill, HB 3301, sponsored by Rep. Paul Froelich (R-
Schaumburg) and Rep. Elaine Nekrtiz (D-Des Plaines) did not make it 
out of the House committee it was assigned to.

But over the last two months, lots of municipalities held their April 
1st runoff election and realized what a waste of time and money that 
two elections create. There is increasing interest and support for 
the concept of instant runoff voting, and Senator Silverstein might 
be able to insert authorizing language into an unrelated bill (HB 
640). 

CITY LOBBYING NEEDED TO PASS RESOLUTIONS FOR INSTANT RUNOFF VOTING

In case we are unsuccessful in the next three weeks at getting a bill 
passed to authorize instant runoff voting, our summer and fall 
strategy will include trying to convince the municipalities that 
currently hold two elections to pass a resolution asking the Illinois 
General Assembly to give municipalities the power to implement 
instant runoff voting.

Chicago, Normal, Springfield, Chicago Heights, Naperville, Aurora and 
Champaign are some of the cities that currently hold two elections 
and could benefit from using instant runoff voting.

If you are interested in lobbying some of those city councils on the 
benefits of instant runoff voting and asking the elected officials to 
pass a resolution calling on the state to give the cities the 
authority to pass instant runoff voting locally, then please call or 
email the office so we can get you going by mailing you some 
brochures and getting you a draft resolution.

SUMMER INTERNS COMING

Finally, we're likely to have a few interns in the office this 
summer, working on these democracy projects. If you are interested in 
an internship or know someone who might be, direct them to our 
website at www.midwestdemocracy.org for more information.

Please call your state senator in Illinois! This would be a HUGE 
victory for all of us, so let's get this bill passed and signed into 
law!

Dan Johnson-Weinberger
Midwest Democracy Center
325 West Huron #304
Chicago, IL 60610
312.587.7060
312.335.1067 (fax)
www.midwestdemocracy.org