After all that has transpired in Ferguson, will residents vote?

[JonLP24]

69. The jurisdiction uses an at-large voting system

Ferguson’s election system may also be a factor. For council elections, the city has three districts, or wards, and each ward elects two members each. That means it’s edging toward an “at-large” voting system, in which there are no districts at all, and all candidates face the whole electorate. Numerous jurisdictions around the country have used such systems to reduce minority representation, since it makes it harder for numerical minorities to elect their preferred candidates.

Then there’s the school board. Ferguson shares a board with neighboring Florissant, which is mostly white. And the district uses an at-large system to elect its seven members. The result: Until earlier this year, the board had no black members.

Earlier this year, the board ousted the district’s first ever African-American superintendent, Art McCoy a move that triggered protests in the black community. Yet in April, the two white board members who stood for re-election were duly voted back in (an African-American candidate was also elected to replace a retiring member). One of the re-elected whites declared afterward that he saw his victory as vindication in the controversy over McCoy’s ouster.

It doesn’t help that Missouri’s city council and school board elections are held in April, rather than in November when they would coincide with state or federal contests. That arrangement leads to lower turnout across the board, but especially among racial minorities. Some southern cities have been accused of deliberately moving their municipal elections to the spring or summer in order to reduce black turnout.

“It brings me to tears hearing … how important it is to vote, for the people that lost their lives, when we’ve had to almost try to convince people to utilize this precious tool.”

John Gaskin, Missouri NAACP
The region’s recent migration trends also have worked against black engagement. Many of Ferguson’s black residents only moved there in the last decade or so, and are unlikely to own their homes, local leaders say. As a rule, newer residents and renters tend to be less likely to register to vote, and to cast a ballot, than those who have been there longer and own their own homes, who often have developed the voting habit – a fact that often works against minority and low-income participation.

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/ferguson-lack-diversity-goes-way-beyond-its-cops

At-large voting has been commonly used to under represent minority populations as well as continually to be struck down for violations of the Voting Rights Act