Letter: Try a new way with voting districts
Credit: Martin Kozlowski Illustration
There is a very simple answer to the question of how to "Build a better district map" [Editorial, Dec. 18]: Don't redistrict. Instead, give each town or county a number of representatives based on its share of the state's population. Each voter would then be able to rank the candidates for his district 1, 2, 3, etc.
If a voter's preferred candidate is elected with extra votes or finishes last in the voting, the vote is then transferred to the second-choice candidate, and so on, until every seat is filled.
This process is known as the single transferable vote, and it allows minority groups representation without drawing nonsensical districts, and it never allows incumbents to pick their own constituents.
If voters represent 20 percent of a district, and that district has five seats, then there is every chance that those voters will get a representative elected.
Peter Nagy, Bellport
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