Preferential Voting Makes Ballot

Preferential Voting Makes Ballot

A new system for electing Arm Arbor's mayor, which could insure an end to the two-year Republican control of City Council, will likely appear on the November election ballot.

The proposal for preferential voting for mayor will go before the voters through the efforts of the local Human Rights Party, which circulated petitions and gathered over 4850 signatures to place it on the ballot as a City Charter amendment.

Preferential voting is a system designed to eliminate the threat of minority rule which exists in a community with three or more political parties. Ann Arbor, with a combined liberal and radical majority, has had a Republican-controlled City Hall for almost two years because of Republican plurality victories in three-way races.

Under preferential voting, a voter would indicate a first, second, and third, etc. choice for Mayor. If no candidate gets a majority of first choice votes, the votes for the last place candidate are given to those voter's second choices. This process is repeated until one candidate gets a majority. In Ann Arbor, the probably effect will be to elect a Democratic mayor, since voters who select the HRP mayoral candidate (expected to run third) will overwhelmingly favor a Democratic over a Republican candidate.

Kathy Kozachenko, Second Ward City Councilwoman from HRP, said at a Monday. August 5 press conference that she thought the chances of passage for preferential voting were "very good." The system, she said, "will enable all three parties to run honest and open campaigns; talking about how to solve the city's problems and provide services for the people of Ann Arbor, by eliminating the issue of vote-splitting."

One question mark is what the Democratic Party will do on the issue. The Democrats had opted for a proposal for run-off elections for mayor and City Council rather than support HRP's plan. Their petition, however, failed to get the necessary signatures.