1. Citizen Voice and CouncilAccountabilityThe City of Gresham
Electoral SystemGeographic Representation
2. Outcome CitizenUnderstanding Falls Short! Vote failed to
meet threshold requirement of 60% to amend GreshamCity Charter.
Good news is that over 14,000 voting citizens voted to reinstate
votingdistricts. The Chamber of Commerce, the Gresham Outlook and
the Oregoniansided with the power elite in endorsing a NO vote and
spent well over$30,000 in campaign costs. Those interested in
pursuing another vote will be working with regionaland community
organizations to over come power elite in control of cityhall and
work for a majority of City Councilors to place issue again as
aballot measure before the City of Gresham Electorate Those Friends
on Richard Stratherns Facebook and Ballydenham38Twitter accounts
can find up to date information on future districtselections
scheduled for the Gresham Community!5/13/2013Residency, True Single
Member Districts andAt-Large Elections2
3. Introduction What is District Voting? Recently, District
Voting for the City of Gresham,Oregon, has received a lot of
attention in the mediaand at many neighborhood association meetings
A citizen initiative has placed on the November 6ballot a measure
26-141 to restore district electionshas provided information to
help our communitybetter understand what District Voting is This
presentation gives an overview of district andat-large voting and
compares it to the other majorvoting systems at the municipal
level5/13/20133Residency, True Single Member Districts andAt-Large
Elections
4. Constitutional Requirements In Reynolds v. Sims (1964), the
U.S. SupremeCourt ruled that the Equal Protection Clause ofthe U.
S. Constitution required that each personsvote have equal weight in
all elections. Thisdecision established the one-person/one
voterequirement, whereby apportionment of votingdistricts be based
solely on population.5/13/20134Residency, True Single Member
Districts andAt-Large Elections
5. Chief Justice Earl Warren The Court explicitly rejected the
idea that rural orless populated areas could receive enhancedvoting
clout simply because of their geographicsize or uniqueness In his
majority opinion, the Chief Justiceexplained that: Legislators
represent people, nottrees or acres. Legislators are elected
byvoters, not farms or cities or economic
interests.5/13/20135Residency, True Single Member Districts
andAt-Large Elections
6. Local Government and the Courts Courts have permitted local
governments, likeGresham, to elect council members at-large
witheach legislator being elected by the entire
municipaljurisdiction, but requiring that some of the
councilmembers live in defined residency areas. Greshamhas been
able to avoid this requirement This system ensures that council
members havesome geographic diversity while being
technicallyconsistent with the one-person/one-voterequirement Many
are expressing concern that the current at-large system is no
longer democratic, norrepresentative and needs to be replaced with
districtvoting5/13/20136Residency, True Single Member Districts
andAt-Large Elections
7. Single-Member Districts5/13/2013Residency, True Single
Member Districts andAt-Large Elections7 Two types: Residency
districts candidates must reside in thedistrict from which they
wish to run, but all thevoters of the city vote for that seat. As
with at-largevoting of which this is a variant there is no
districtingrequired by 2012 Census True electoral districts
candidates must reside inthe district and only the voters of that
district canvote for that seat. The trend in the latter decades
ofthe 20th Century was for local governments to gofrom at large
elections to elections from trueelectoral districts
8. The Present Exclusive At-LargeGresham Electoral System
Currently, each Gresham Resident voter is entitled to cast a vote
for Positions on City Council, with top votegetter for that
position winning a seat on council, this also includes the Mayor.
Three Councilors run everyfour years for positions in hope of a
plurality of votes to win a seat. Some positions are
highlycontested and others are not. Most of thee candidates are
relatively unknown by the voting citizen due tosize of the city and
a population in excess of 100,000.They are not required to reside
in any geographicallydefined residency area and therefore must run
the entire city to get elected for those positions. Some thinkthis
system was designed so the wealth advantaged could more or less out
spend and purchase theposition. Most At-Large Elections vote on
candidates by selecting the three top candidates from the full
field ofcandidates. Those who designed the Gresham at-large
elections purposely confuse its electorate by havingcandidates run
city wide for positions which not only dilute voting power but make
for easy manipulation bysome waiting till the last minute to file
for positions based on cost and perceived competition for
thatposition. This action is unknown by the electorate This current
system fails to ensure any connection to geographic area based
population size in support ofthe traditional democratic
constitutional principle of one man one vote. All votes being of
equal value. All candidates are from throughout the jurisdiction
and must campaign for votes from across the entiremunicipal area
(requiring unnecessarily expensive campaigns) and most often do not
have the supportof voters in the area in which they reside As a
practical matter, the voters from the more wealth advantaged
neighborhoods overpower all candidatesbecause of their resources
and connection to major city hall special interest more often than
not determinewho wins the election. This is how the power elite
maintains control. Special interests may even interview all
candidates to screen out all but those who supportdevelopment,
real-estate and financial institutions which further undermine the
common good byfunneling campaign funds to a small well connected
elite. This is not conducive to democraticfunctioning
government5/13/20138Residency, True Single Member Districts
andAt-Large Elections
9. The Gresham Challenge Greshams population is not evenly
distributed.Estimates for 2010 put the population at106,000+ If you
compare Rockwood Area withGresham Butte Area you find a
remarkabledifference in representation based on population. If
Gresham were divided into districts for purposeof electing members,
under the one person/onevote requirement, Gresham Butte
Neighborhoodwould be entitled to have its own council seatonly if
the neighborhood had a population of18,500, not the current
5,300.5/13/20139Residency, True Single Member Districts andAt-Large
Elections
10. Gresham At-Large Voting 2012Hoax5/13/2013Residency, True
Single Member Districts andAt-Large Elections10
11. 5/13/2013Residency, True Single Member Districts
andAt-Large Elections11
12. Citizen Understanding of HoaxMajor questions?Will the
citizen initiative campaign prevail againstspecial interests and
city hall and the hoax perpetuated bythose who designed the
election system to control theelectorate for their special needs
and economic welfare?Was only late in the campaign after much
discussionand argumentation and debate did the realization
thatGreshams form of at-large election system was much worsethan
originally thought as people discover that they werevoting for
positions and not directly for councilors furtherdiluting their
voice and vote way beyond anticipation?Can this information and
understanding gap be closed intime to pass measure
26-141?5/13/201312Residency, True Single Member Districts
andAt-Large Elections