In Port Chester N.Y., the old adage of "one man, one vote" has fallen by the wayside, at least for now. A new voting system has been put into place with the hopes of boosting Hispanic representation giving each resident 6 votes, as whites consistently win the trustee seats. "That was very strange."I'm not sure I liked it. All my life, I've heard, 'one man, one vote", Arthur Furano told the Associated Press after casting his vote. The federal government declared in 2006 that their at-large election system was unfair given their demographics and the actual outcomes. The village has around 30,000 residents with half being Hispanic, but has never had Latino representation in the seats of any of the 6 trustees. Due to this, the cumulative voting system was implemented. The instruction for multiple votes came from a federal judge and the U.S. Department of Justice (once again, to help the Hispanic representation). The same system is used to elect the county commission in Chilton County, Ala., city Council in Peoria, Ind., and the school board in Amarillo, Texas. The same judge ordered in person only voting, in which residents could vote on any of the 5 designated days to cast their votes.
