As part of a new experiment, Roosevelt Island residents on Tuesday will vote to designate six nominees to the state corporation that runs the area, and Governor Spitzer will then choose whether to appoint any of the nominees. Previously, the governor has had complete control over the appointments, leading to friction with some in the community.

While Roosevelt Island’s 12,000 residents are represented in city government, a public benefit corporation, the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp., administers the area, taking care of such duties as development, maintenance, and providing public safety. The residents’ association has spent more than a decade arguing for a greater community role in selecting the group’s nine board members.

“We’re trying to bring some taste of democracy to the island,” the president of the Roosevelt Island Residents Association, Matthew Katz, said yesterday. “We want more representative, responsible control of this island through the community.” He referred to state government’s current role in the island’s affairs as “taxation without representation.”

Although a supporter of the elections, RIOC’s CEO, Stephen Shane, said advocates had overstated their significance. “The reality of their representation is very different than their public posturing,” Mr. Shane said yesterday. “They have a state senator, an assemblyman, a City Council member, and no one else has any more than that.”

He added that the elections would not necessarily be successful. “If the people who are produced out of this are not sufficiently representative or appropriate to the enterprise, which includes being vetted by the state police, then it’s not going to work. So we’ll see how democracy goes.” Council Member Jessica Lappin, who represents Roosevelt Island, said yesterday it is “appropriate” that the governor approve nominees, and expressed confidence in the new voting procedure. “I believe some strong candidates will come out of this process,” she said. “And I hope the governor will give them a good hard look.”

Mr. Katz said the vote’s tenuous nature makes it especially important.

“We are either successful in this and this will be the precedent in choosing board members,” he said, “or we’ll fail and probably not get this opportunity again.”