, 1872-10-18
MINORITY REPRESENTATION.

The people Of Illinois, in voting for Represen-
tatiyes in the Legislature at the approaching
election, will make their frat experiment in Pro-
portional Representation, or what is known as
Minority Representation On the cumulative plan.
The only instance within our recollection IN
which any OF our American States had previous
ly sought to secure Proportional Representation
for the minority party was in the choice Of In
specto1s OF Election in New York and some other
States. This Was generally accomplished
by the limited vote, which differs from the cumu-
latiye vote as mode OF accomplishing the
same result. Thus:
Suppose, in a town OF ono thousand voters, It
say, six hundred voters, shall choose only two OF
the inspectors Of Election, and that the minority
party Of four hundred voters shall have the
other BY the limited vote eachVoter is permit
ted to vote for only two Inspectors. Ihe
six hundred vote for the two candidates OF the
majority party, the four hundred for the one
candidate OF the minority party, and aH three
are elected. By the cumulative, or free vote, as
adopted in Illinois, each voter casts three Votes
with the right to cast all three for one candidate,
or to divide them between two, giving ~ votes
to each, or to cast one vote for each Of
three candidates. The expectation is that
party interest will cause each party
in Representative district to nominate only the
proportion Of candidates which it is entitled to-.
Il it has the clear majority in the district, but
41,ro ~ fIa vnfara IL Will
nominate two candidates. IT it is clearly in tho
minority it will nominate one. If the district is
close, both political parties may properly nomi-
nate two. Let us illustrate these three cases:
First. Where party has the clear majority.
Il it has more than three-fourths OF
the voters Of the district, it can
safely nominate all three Representa-
| tiyes and elect them. Thus, in the Ninth DIG
trict, consisting Of Boone and Winnebago, there
we're polled in 1870 1874 votes, Of which the
Republicans pollea 6,el7, and the Democrats
1857, the Democratic vote being leas than one
fifth as large as the Republican. Here, If tue
Republicans should nominate only two candi-
dates, supposing party strength to be IN
changed, they would lose one member need
lessly, as the two would be elected by about
9,915 votes, (each person casting ~ votes) while
the opposition candidate would also be elected
by 3,7G1 votes (each one casting three votes), be-
cause none had voted against linn. II, however
the Republicans nominate three candidates and
distribute their vote equally between them, !. e..
each Republican voting one vote for each of thf
three candidates, then the Republican,
would elect ali three, the vote received
by either being greater than tn
agcregate Democratic vote. If, however
in such district, the Republican voters go tt
voting without concert Of action, it could posi-
by result that all the voters in the district NIGH
ssplump' so many Of their votes upon one can
| didate as to result in the election Of not onl
one but two Democratic Representatives fror
this very district. This, however, is very OK
treme and improbable case, and would req'ilr
that tho votes should bo cast some
what as follows: The Republican voters, 6,61
in number, having three yotes each, would ca:
in all 1851 votes. If we suppose one OF the'
i candidates to be go popular, and the two other
, SO unpopular, that 1860 votes should b
"plumped" on tho popular man, while tue othe!