Editing Cumulative voting (section)

== Properties ==
Advocates of cumulative voting often argue that political and racial minorities deserve better representation. By concentrating their votes on a small number of candidates of their choice, voters in the minority can win some representation—for example, a like-minded grouping of voters that is 20% of a city would be well-positioned to elect one out of five seats. All forms of cumulative voting achieve this objective (although if two or more candidates of that minority run in the same election, vote splitting may deny the group its possible representation).

In a corporate setting, challengers of cumulative voting argue that the board of directors gets divided and this hurts the company's long term profit. Using a [[staggered board of directors]] can diminish the ability of minority factions to obtain representation by reducing the number of seats up for election at any given time.<ref>{{citation|title=Cooperatives and Condominiums: Cumulative Voting Revisited|url=http://www.stroock.com/SiteFiles/Pub341.pdf|publisher=New York Law Journal|date=May 4, 2005|access-date=March 11, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717124912/http://www.stroock.com/SiteFiles/Pub341.pdf|archive-date=July 17, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised]] states that groups may adopt cumulative voting in its [[by-law]]s, and notes that "A minority group, by coordinating its effort in voting for only one candidate who is a member of the group, may be able to secure the election of that candidate as a minority member of the board."<ref>[[Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised]] (11th ed.), p. 443, lines 34-35 to p. 444, lines 1-7</ref>