On June 15th, the Village of Port Chester (NY) held New York's first-ever election with cumulative voting. Turning out in sharply higher numbers than recent Village elections, voters elected all six trustees on Port Chester's governing body. Winners reflected the Village's diversity by such measures as party (two Republicans, two Democrats and two non major-party candidates) and race/ethnicity (first African American and Latino candidates ever to win in trustee elections).

FairVote supervised the Village's ambitious bi-lingual voter education campaign and had eight staff and interns on hand for the vote. Just as in previous elections, voters had one vote per trustee being elected. Cumulative voting gave voters the freedom to distribute their votes as they pleased, with those giving more than one vote to a favorite candidate increased that candidate's chances to win. Other jurisdictions using cumulative voting include Amarillo (TX), Chilton County (AL) and Peoria (IL).

Read more at:

Port Chester Votes Website
New York Times
Associated Press
Television coverage quoting Rob Richie
Media Matters corrects Fox News
Excellent local coverage on June 17

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