Cohousing-L Mailing List: Problems with Voting [was Something faster and easier than consensus?]

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On 8/09/2003 11:23 AM, "Fred H Olson" <fholson [at] cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
> Jonathan Hinek South Florida SerratedJester [at] aol.com

>> The outcome of the vote was clear, but a  large number
>> of people did not like the process.
> 
> Just curious, what were the main complaints about the voting process?

My problems with voting are:

1. Votes don¹t give you enough information. People can vote positively for
negative reasons and negatively for positive reasons. Understanding why
people support or don't support an option is valuable information.

2. The act of voting cuts off dialogue in areas where dialogue needs to
occur. One result of requiring consensus decisions is that people come to
understand the concerns of  others AND to understand their own concerns
better. In the long run this builds a stronger members.

3. Voting forces people to place themselves and others in "for" and
"against" positions. Life is rarely that clear and it is not usually helpful
to characterize options that way. In a consensus decision there is room for
a person to express strong concerns and still accept the decision. Or
express strong understanding of the majority but still be against the
position. To force people to divide themselves into Democrats and
Republicans, for example, is destructive to good government.

4. After understanding and accepting all the concerns, another option often
presents itself that is much better. Voting short-circuits this process.

5. The person with the one negative vote may be "right." It is in the best
interests of the community to listen to that person. Sometimes that person
is someone so at odds with the goals of the community that they need to be
"ejected" but other times they are central to the community and the
community isn't listening.

With all the downsides to consensus, it is still the best option for
building stronger communities.

Sharon
-- 
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org



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