Too bad that we didn’t get what we really need: political reform.
A good article though and a pleasure to read, Casey. Times described were rough, obviously. A good moment for change.
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San Francisco has a fascinating history where its political voting system is concerned. Many times it moved from at-large to district voting, and back.
The last time it changed back, the official story was how the Mayor had too much power (don’t ask me how that was explained, because it is too silly of an argument to even discuss). The deeper truth was that at-large voting provided an inroad for the Green Party and it needed to be shuttered.
At-large elections in San Francisco were not pure proportional elections. Only half the seats per election were voted on, and each voter got to vote not once but as many times as the number of seats. These are two aspects that definitively make it not-proportional.
But, voting for either 5 or 6 seats meant that a candidate could get a seat with a minimum of 16.7% or 14.3% of all votes respectively. In previous elections that had been just enough to keep Republicans at bay (kind of sort of).
But in the few years prior to the change, Democratic candidates started to switch to becoming part of the Green Party, with Matt Gonzalez the most popular Democrat to make the switch. A broad shift of Democratic voters moving toward the green Party was noticeable, and with at-large elections and a lot of sympathy from other Democratic voters, the door had to get closed. Elections had to go back to that much harder 50% threshold so the Democratic Party could remain in control.
San Francisco closed its semi-proportional voting system so the Green Party would not be able to get any seats. Today, eleven supervisors are all Democrats. That does not sound very democratic, does it? All of them? I did a search and found a city with eleven seats in Europe with proportional voting in place. There were four parties occupying these seats; a much more natural outcome.
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In the US Constitution, cites and counties must follow the 14th Amendment that require governments to put the better system in place. Today, they do not.
San Francisco shows that the Democratic Party does not want voters to have full-colored voting right. It wants power all to itself and, if it can’t have that, then it wants power shared with the Republican Party only (though they are safe in SF with as mentioned 11 supervisors all Democrats). The Democratic Party did not want the Green Party to become empowered enough to cause a sea change in our political system. It would have affected the entire nation.
Imagine, the bluest city in the nation going Green. It was stopped because the Democratic Party was able to stop the momentum. They did not care about the voters; they cared about themselves. But voters can demand proportional voting for cities and counties, today, because the US Constitution demands it.
