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Author: Santucci

Numbered-post versus at-large elections

I have run into confusion about this several times over the past few years. Both are forms of “at-large” election in the sense that they can award the largest organized group every seat in a district (usually but not necessarily the city). Here is how that works.

Take a district of three seats. There are two ways to fill the seats. One is to declare elected the people with the three highest vote totals. This is an “an-large” election in the form of multiple non-transferable vote (MNTV).

Another is to give each seat a number (one, two, or three) and make each candidate choose a number. Then let each voter vote individually for each seat. Then declare elected the highest vote getter under each number.

The MNTV ballot might look as follows:

CandidateVote for three with X marks below.
Bob
Sue
Phil
Amy
Juan
Dani

The numbered-post ballot might look as follows:

CandidateVote for one per seat with X marks below.
Seat 1
Bob
Sue
Seat 2
Phil
Amy
Seat 3
Juan
Dani

If Bob, Phil, and Juan get more votes with the first ballot than the other candidates, they win (MNTV or normal at-large).

If Bob gets the most votes for seat 1, Phil gets the most votes for seat 2, and Juan gets the most votes for seat 3, they all win (numbered post).

Both systems therefore can produce the same result in the presence of a cohesive plurality. However, they do so differently, and that difference can be combined (or not) with other institutional designs.

What happened to Prof. Joseph Kitchin?

Students in one of my courses this semester will be listening to a 1947 WNYC radio broadcast on the repeal of the single transferable vote (STV) in New York City. I need to look back at the associated assignment, but part of it asks them to think about the sorts of arguments used in such campaigns.

The broadcast features a debate between George Hallett of the National Municipal League and state senator Abraham Kaplan (D), incidentally defeated on transfers for a city council seat in one of the final STV elections (possibly 1945).

Moderating the debate is Joseph Kitchin, listed by WNYC as a Professor of Political Science at Queens College. WNYC also refers to him as “Kitchen,” but this college bulletin (1947-8) refers to him as “Kitchin” instead and of Assistant Professor rank with a UMich Ph.D.

Does anyone know what came of Kitchin? I searched Google Scholar for him about a year ago, and I don’t recall much coming up. (Going back reveals a 1942 publication in international relations, possibly his dissertation.) I also looked for records of him during my stint at QC, and the archivist could find nothing — maybe because we were looking for “Kitchen” instead.