One man, Six votes?

In an effort to be more "fair" in the representation of Hispanics on the Port Chester NY Board of Trustees, a Federal judge ordered an election be held in which each voter receive six votes.

You see, even though the population of Port Chester is about half Hispanic, the voters are predominantly white (this fact is very important as you will see), and the six person Board of Trustees has always been white.

Since a Hispanic has never been on the Board, in the eyes of the judge something must be done. Apparently, there is no way that a white person could possible empathize with a Hispanic person or do anything to further the interests of the Hispanic population.

Now, common sense would say: "We must do something to increase Hispanic voter registration and participation! We must find qualified Hispanics and encourage them to run for the Board of Trustees! And if a Hispanic does not win this time around, hopefully the Board would work to address the needs of ALL of its citizens, as all such bodies in our Republic should do."

If only common sense were truly common.

The Federal judge ruled that instead it would be more "fair" if each voter received six votes. Of course this would favor the minority candidates.

Let's assume that the Hispanic voters are just as racist as the white voters are portrayed as being. Now, on the ballot in Port Chester, of the thirteen people on the ballot, two were Hispanic.

The article doesn't mention the race of the other candidates, for our argument lets say that they are crackers like me.

Now, all the white voters have 11 people to use their six votes on, while the Hispanic voters have only two, and lets say that each person uses all their votes to vote for just one candidate. It will take 11 white voters to give each white candidate six votes, but only two Hispanic voters to give the both Hispanic candidates six votes. Now, lets say that three hundred people show up at the polls, two hundred whites and one hundred Hispanics. Say, for the sake of our discussion, that the two hundred whites whites use their one thousand two hundred votes to vote evenly for the eleven white candidates, each candidate receives 109 votes (yes, I know there is a decimal, lets say that those are hanging chads.) Now, each of the one hundred Hispanics uses their six hundred votes evenly for the two Hispanic candidates, each candidate receiving 300 votes!

In my little illustration each individual Hispanic voter has as much voting power as (nearly) three white voters. If the races of the voters were reversed, people would be protesting this racist policy.

While I personally applaud the desire to have more equal representation of minorities in government, the way that this is done is by motivating the electorate and those who could potentially serve, not by subverting the electoral processes of the Republic.

The appearance of rightness does not mean that it is right, just as the appearance of constitutionality does not mean that it is constitutional.

One voter. One Vote.

It's just Common Sense.

Here's the article, read it for yourself.