When Is Cumulative Voting Preferable To Single-Member Districting?

Michael E Lewyn, Florida Coastal School of Law

Article comments

Published in 25 New Mexico Law Review 197 (1995).

Abstract

Cumulative voting is most appropriate in small towns, nonpartisan elections, and jurisdictions in which voters know whether they are in the majority. By contrast, single-member districts are preferable to cumulative voting in big cities, state or federal elections, partisan elections, and elections in which the racial or partisan balance between factions is either close or is unknown to most voters.