Word: systemization
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Tigers have serapped their disturbingly-successful single wing system this fall. and installed a basic "T" formation with MacBean as quarterback. It took them almost a month to adjust to it sufficiently. and in the process, they lost to both Rutgers and Colgate, and had to rally to defend a Cornell squad that at the time had little more than tailback Ed Marinaro...
...reason, of course, is Proportional Representation-that intricate (some would say Byzantine) electoral system which only Cambridge, alone of U.S. cities, still uses. Some 25 cities used it earlier in this century. They adopted it so minorities would have a better chance of election; they generally got rid of it when unpopular minorities got elected. Now, only in Cambridge can you savor the weeklong PR count...
Under the system, each candidate must have a certain quota of votes in order to be elected. The quota is set by dividing the total number of votes cast by the number of seats to be filled plus one. Then, add one vote to the quotient and there's the quota. The idea behind sitting the quota at this level is to make it low enough for candidates supported by a minority group to get elected, and high enough to make the elections more than a matter of chance...
...goes, for hours which soon stretch into days. As the count grinds along, some candidates begin to complain: "What's the matter with the Election Commission? Don't they understand this system?" Council candidate Daniel J. Clinton inquires of Eddie Martin a man of no small local importance who (a)-writes the City stories for the Cambridge-Somerville edition of the Boston Record-American; (b) -serves on the Cambridge Housing Authority; and (c) -is a good friend of Councillor Al Vellucci...
Much of the grousing about the count itself is probably unfair. In fact, today's counts are, by general sentiment, models of efficiency compared to those done in the first years after Cambridge adopted the PR system in 1941. In one election then, it took nearly a month to get the results...