I heartily endorse the sentiment expressed by the Globe in its May 22 editorial, calling upon the city of Lowell to dismantle its majority-rule system. An all-white leadership of a culturally diverse city is hampered in its reasoning. Such leadership is in danger of reflecting too narrow a perspective, which would impoverish its ability to devise creative and appropriate solutions to community problems.

This presents Lowell with an excellent opportunity to implement cumulative voting. In contrast to ward-based elections, which, as the Republicans have amply proved, are vulnerable to gerrymandering, a cumulative tally allows each eligible resident as many votes as there are members on the council. Each voter can distribute the votes as he or she wishes. Members of minority communities may wish to concentrate all or some of their votes on a candidate who represents their views, and members of majority communities may spread their votes around.

Cumulative voting has three major advantages. It lowers barriers to new parties, which would invigorate the base and enhance voter participation. It promotes a more consensus-based model of power, in contrast to a winner-take-all model. Finally, cumulative voting models a vision of fairness and justice for all minorities.

Martha Karchere

Jamaica Plain