jackiedoherty.org

I was having a conversation with a few people recently about the At-Large vs Ward voting system. Lowell, of course, has At-Large Voting, which means that every candidate is elected by the whole city.  Ward voting allows representation from each Ward.  Some places have a combination of the two systems.  In the 2003 election, Candidate Paulette Renault-Caragianes (from the Centralville section of the city – Ward 9), made this one of her platform issues, saying that many sections of the city are underepresented in city government, but it never seemed to get any traction.  One councillor dismissed the idea of changing systems by saying that ‘if they don’t vote, they don’t deserve representation,’ which seems to be the prevailing mentality.  Maybe it’s the other way around though – if people can’t get anyone elected who really represents them, understands them, returns their phone calls or visits their neighborhood, then why bother voting at all?

Dick Howe has created a map for the current election that shows what neighborhood each candidate comes from - with Pawtucketville surpassing Belvidere and the Highlands.  The Wards represented are Ward 1 (6 candidates), Ward 3 (2 candidates), Ward 4 (1 candidate), Ward 6 (7 candidates), Ward 8 (3 candidates), Ward 10 (1 candidate) and Ward 11 (1 candidate).  There are no candidates from Centralville (Wards 5 and 9), or from Wards 2 and 7, which include the Downtown Area and the Acre.