Don,
In response to your
email...
In my discussions with most of the
Alaska customers a Service area usually only applied to maintenance type issues
such as road service, animal control, etc.
They sometimes would have Fire Service districts and hospital boards. It
would seem that all other district - assembly, legislatve and so on would be
handled the same as anyone elses. Are they confusing the need for the shadowed
races in "service areas" and thinking all of their districts will have
to be treated as a service area?
Based upon my reading of their letter, I do not think they are
suffering from this confusion. I welcome your explanation of your reading
of their letter.
Do they have a need for a Non-Service
area district because some precincts are split by service area boundaries? If
not do they need it?
I don't know Anchorage's districts well enough to say whether
they need a district called Non-Service area. I do know that if the only
reason why they think they need it is because some precincts are split by
service area boundaries, then they do not need it.
I'm not sure that "double
count" is the terminology we want to use.
"Double count" is Anchorage's
term. In Ken's e-mail he referred to it as "vote once count
twice". But we are quibbling over semantics.
The non-service area category would be
used if a precinct is split by service area boundaries.
I
harbor deep regret that I ever created a district which I called
"non-service area", it seems to have caused no end of confusion and
consternation. No, there is no need for a non-service area district if a
precinct is split by service area lines. There only needs to be a
non-service area district if there is a race which Anchorage would want to
assign to it. I do not believe this to be the case, but Anchorage can
answer that question with greater authority than I.
When I met with the Anchorage folks in
October they seem to really want our system if it can do what they
need.
Our
system can do what they need. Whether they realize this, and whether they
really want our system, remains to be seen.
Tyler |