Answer the questions below. You may work in pairs on this discussion paper -- hand in one paper with both names if you do.
In the early 1960's in Nassau County, New York, the county governance system had a Board of Supervisors, one elected from each town (two from the largest town of Hempstead). Because the towns had very different populations, the board used a weighted voting system, where each supervisor cast a number of votes proportional to the population of the town represented. The votes were as follows:
With a total of thirty votes a majority of 16 was required to pass any legislation. The towns of Oyster Bay, Glen Cove, and Long Beach sued the county to revise the voting system because it was unfair to them. They claimed that any vote was determined by the three largest towns, so they effectively had no say in the legislative process. Write an essay on this problem that answers the following questions. Please do this without searching for solutions elsewhere -- use your own ideas!
1. Was their claim justified?
2a. If your answer to question 1 is "yes", then how could the situation be rectified? Describe how you would change the voting system and your justification for the change. Give an example to illustrate your method. Note: it is important that towns keep their identity, so a county legislature solution that uses voting districts that ignore town boundaries is not an appropriate solution.
2b. If your answer to question 1 is "no", then justify your answer, especially in view of the Supreme Court in Reynolds v. Sims that mandated one-man, one-vote for state legislature districts. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reynolds_v._Sims and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_man,_one_vote)