BY ROCHELLE RILEY
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST

Among all the election night celebrations and parties and speeches about change, little attention was paid to the 83-year-old woman who had won her own personal victory for Detroit.

Tuesday night, after monitoring absentee ballots at Cobo Hall as she has done for the past eight years, Mildred Madison, president of the League of Women Voters, went to the Board of Elections Office.

While her younger co-volunteers awaited returns at a bar, she sat alone in a chair in the back of the media room on the third floor.

When the final results were in, 72% of city voters gave the newly-elected Charter Commission a mandate to change the way the Detroit City Council is elected, to ensure that at least seven members are elected by district rather than all at-large.

Only then could Madison breathe a sigh of relief. She had accomplished what she set out to do.

“I’m very happy and satisfied,” she said.

Read the rest here.

Election by districts is expected to give neighborhoods clout

Perhaps nowhere in the city was Tuesday’s overwhelming decision by voters to approve a measure to elect the City Council by districts more appreciated and celebrated than in southwest Detroit.

More than 100,000 residents live in this vibrant and diverse area of the city — largely known for Mexicantown — that also is home to people of Arabic, eastern European, Caribbean and African descent. And hardly anyone can remember the last time a high-ranking city official was elected from the heavily industrial area that residents have complained for decades is ignored because it lacks political clout.

Read the rest on this Detroit Free Press article here.

DETROIT – November 3, 2009 – Detroit voters made history today by approving the first citizen sponsored amendment to the charter in history.  After 91 years, the people have sent a clear and simple message, “We want districts, we want accountability, and if you don’t do the right thing, we will.”  Thirty-eight thousand Detroiters brought this petition forth. The people fought the status quo when they tried to bury Proposal D and the people have voted for districts. It is a historic day. We have retaken our seat at the table. No matter what, things will be different.   Seventy-two percent of voting Detroiters voted today in support of a district structure to the way we elect city council.  This is a new beginning for Detroit.
 
-Detroiters for Council by Districts

Press inquiries:

Jamie Kaye Walters 248-563-9296

Vince Keenan 313-510-1911

Thanks to some of our supporters:

League of Women Voters of Detroit; AFSCME Council 25; Fannie Lou Hamer; Detroit Regional Chamber; Sen. Buzz Thomas, state senator 4th District; Virgil Smith, Jr., former state representative 7th District; Steve Tobocman, former state representative 12th District; Bill McConico, former state representative 5th District; Fred Elliot Hall, city council candidate; Rep. Bert Johnson, state representative 5th District; Rep. Fred Durhal, state representative 6th District; Gary Brown, city council candidate; Charles Pugh, city council candidate; James Tate, city council candidate; Cara Blount, city charter commission candidate; Jonathan Kinloch, city charter; 13th Congressional District; Eastside Coalition; The Black Slate; Detroit League of Women Voters; Patty Fedewa, city charter commission candidate; Teola P. Hunter, city charter commission candidate; Elena M. Herrada, city charter commission candidate; Jenice Mitchell Ford, city charter commission candidate; John R. Eddings, city charter commission candidate; Reggie “Reg” Davis, city charter commission candidate; Tonya Myers-Phillips, city charter commission candidate; Riverside East Alliance (REAL); Ken Coleman, city charter commission candidate;  Detroit Citywide Slate; Detroit Urban Slate

First, some truths:  It’s way past time for Detroit to join nearly every other city its size in electing its legislative branch, the City Council, by some sort of district system.

Read the rest here…..Vote for Change, Detroit Free Press, October 28, 2009

Council by districts: Detroit voters will decide next Tuesday whether they want to start electing most of their council from different districts. Currently, Detroit is the only major city in the country to elect all its council members at large.

We all know how well that has worked out. This summer, in an encouraging display of democracy, a coalition of citizens managed to collect enough signatures to put a proposal calling for districts on the ballot. Much of the current City Council then tried to thwart the people’s wishes. Fortunately, they failed and Proposal D will be on the ballot. If it passes, four years from now Detroiters would elect seven district and two at-large council members.

Read the rest….here.