Comment on the Belmont Club: "United We Fall, Divided We Fall"

Belmont Club » United We Fall, Divided We Fall

Allotting representational districts to non-citizens, who are not allowed to vote, increases the worth of the vote of the few citizens in those districts compared to the value of the vote of a citizen in a district populated largely by people qualified to vote. This is directly contrary to the "One Man One Vote" principle that underlays the very Voting Rights Act the Justice Department is purporting to enforce. If separate districts are created for non-citizens then they will be in effect "Rotten Boroughs" such as England had before the Great Reform Act.

The Port Chester plan seeks to avoid that by introducing a multiple divisible vote system. This is similar to how the Illinois State General Assembly's House of Representatives was organized before 1980. Each district elected three members with voters able to divide their votes. The result was that each district elected two members of the majority party for the district and one for the minority. In Chicago there were tame Republicans who had safe seats as the third choice in overwhelmingly Democratic districts and in the downstate counties that were overwhelmingly Republican there were safe seats for Democrats. Eliminating that system and dividing each 3 member district into two single member districts saved the taxpayers millions and resulted in dozens of Upstate Republicans and Downstate Democrats suddenly being unemployed. Politicians will accept the Port Chester scheme because it means more safe jobs for politicians.

The solution to this problem will necessitate amending the Constitution to specify that the apportionment of Representatives to Congress according to the Census shall be made strictly according the number of citizens eligible to vote, and that no Executive or Legislative body of a State may be selected by any other basis. However I would make a provision for empowering lawful Residents, either US Nationsls (mostly now from American Samoa) or Lawful Permanent Residents (Green Card holders) to vote in local elections for offices, such as School Boards, that cannot impose taxes or create a criminal statute.