Polarized wards or unified community
12:00 AM, Thursday, November 03 2005 | 426 views | 0 0 comments | 3 3 recommendations | email to a friend | print
Not only has partisan politics been discussed among Russellville aldermen recently but in the same breath, council members have also discussed ward voting.

In a ward-voting system, instead of the entire city voting on numerous council positions, only voters in a certain ward could vote for their respective representative.

On the surface, the proposal makes sense, however, there are both pros and cons to a ward-voting system just like there are for a city-wide system.

The point is, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. We don't think Russellville's system is broke.

Ward voting could promote more quality candidates. It might be likely to attract more hopefuls from wards because a lesser-known candidate might find it easier to win one ward.

We're all for electing the right people not just the person with the "right" name, although we don't think ward voting is the answer.

Fragmenting the city by implementing ward voting could create a polarization effect that would add obstacles to our city government. We have enough obstacles naturally. Like most cities our size, we have challenges in growth, revenue and direction.

There shouldn't be one ward that is considered to be of less or greater value than any other. All of our wards' most important resources are the people who live in them.

Our goal should be to unify our ideas and to find balance in our needs. What is most important to the city as a whole, not to a particular ward, should remain our focus.

The other argument we've heard for ward voting revolves around ensuring ward-specific challenges find their way to the council's radar screen.

This should already be fact. Aldermen represent certain wards, even though they are elected by a city-wide vote. Listening to constituents of your ward is a basic practice when representing others in a democracy.

Russellville deserves and needs a strong council acting as one governing body. The previous statement alone is why we don't support partisan politics or ward voting in local government.

We appreciate new and different ideas from aldermen, however, changing the way local elections are structured is a bit out of left field. Or should we say right?
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