Cornelius Today is reporting that efforts to change the heavily weighted voting system employed by the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization (CRTPO) were officially launched in June when the Cornelius Town Board passed a resolution which urges CRTPO to adopt an unweighted voting structure. Under the proposed system, every municipal entity’s vote would be counted equally rather than the current voting structure which gives Charlotte much greater voting power. The weighted vote means that Charlotte has 31 out of 68 total votes, or 46 percent right out of the gate. Cornelius has a grand total of two votes on any given matter, like toll lanes between Charlotte and Lake Norman. CRTPO is the federally mandated and funded transportation policy-making organization in the greater Charlotte region made up of representatives from local governments, such as Cornelius, as well as governmental transportation agencies.
