Word: pr
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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This City of 107,000 is the only one in the nation to vote under a system called Proportional Representation (PR). At one time or another, PR was used in 22 municipalities across the country. New York abandoned it in 1949 (though recently there has been agitation for its return), Cincinnati in 1957, and Hopkins, Minn...
...Cambridge, PR was adopted along with the City Manager form of government in 1941, and since then has been unsuccessfully challenged at the polls four times...
Frankly, many politicians are skeptical about both questions. But they will agree that it is the first--the sixth independent seat--that is most important, and here their doubt is greatest. The city's weird electoral system--proportional representation (PR)--simply works against the election of a sixth independent...
...PR operates this way: a voter can vote for as many candidates as he pleases. He lists the candidates in order of preference (1. 2. 3...etc.). All the ballots are first given to the candidate who has the "number one vote." On the basis of total turnout, a quota (1/10 of the vote plus one) needed for election is determined. If any of the candidates has enough number one votes" to meet the quota (two or three men usually do), they are declared elected. Then any of their votes in excess of the quota are distributed to the person...
...five seats." Two of the five threatened office-holders are CCA-endorsed Thomas Coates, a Negro, and Thomas H. D. Mahoney, the professor from M.I.T. Mahoney ran ninth last time, and, on the face of it, might be considered the most vulnerable. But remember one important feature of PR: candidates siphon their votes mainly, from relatively restricted areas or groups. The plain truth is that neither Mahoney or Coates draw their major support from the same elements that Maher must tap. But that doesn't mean they're completely out of trouble...