Word: quota
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Under Cambridge's complex proportional representation voting system, "number one" votes are what count. But if a candidates does well enough (or badly enough), his votes are "transferred" to the candidate marked number two (see page for a more detailed explantions). If either Sullivan "makes quota" (gets ten percent of the total vote) in the first count, their surplus will be distributed to the next candidates. There is only one maxim to remember here: CCA votes are much more likely to transfer to other CCA candidates. Therefore, if David Sullivan and Walter Sullivan each went a few hundred over...
...count that their election will be all but assured. Duehay has won friends in all parts of the city during his two years as mayor (the legend in Cambridge politics is that the mayoralty is worth 500 votes) and should finish strong. Duehay came within 200 votes of making quota in 1979, and could conceivably do the same this time...
...many will drop their support for the incumbents remains to be seen, though. Alice Wolf, for instance, could run very very strong. She rolled up 5490 votes in her run for school committee two years ago; if she held them all in the council race, she'd make quota twice over. But everyone who backed her for school committee two years ago voted for someone else, number one for city council--and most city voters take the council contest more seriously than the school race. If her voters prove loyal to her, Wolf will be a leader...
Number one votes are the most important, because any candidate receiving a quota of first choices (10 per cent plus one vote of the total voter turnout) is automatically declared a winner in the first stage. Traditionally, only one or two candidates reach quota on the first round. In 1979, Independent Walter Sullivan and Cambridge Civic Association (CCA) member David Sullivan managed the feat...
After any candidate who surpasses quotas is declared elected, the PR process begins to get complicated. Let's assume that this year, Walter Sullivan gets 200 more votes than the quota. A random sample of 200 of his supporting ballots are then extracted from his pile of ballots, and sorted according to the number two vote on each one. Any of the surplus ballots that are not marked with a second choice are discarded...