Why America Needs Proportional Representation

Represent the true voice of American voters

End gerrymandering and rigged redistricting

Make every vote count and every election competitive

Two parties cannot represent the voters in a small town, let alone the entire nation. Our democracy has survived despite relying on traditional plurality voting, which is prone to vote splitting and spoilers. We can make vast improvements with Multi Party Election Reform.

Proportional Representation (PR)

A party that wins 40% of the vote should win 40% of the seats. Voters and politicians need more parties to choose from. With more viable parties voters could reward candidates who stand for the people and punish candidates who are in the thrall of the donor class.

Every PR election is competitive. Third parties have a fair chance and a real voice. Voters and politicians have more parties to choose from. Your vote counts because it helps your party gain seats.

We focus on two methods: Mixed Member Proportional Representation (MMP) and multi-member districts.

Mixed Member Proportional Representation (MMP)

MMP systems preserve the election of legislators from single-member districts. At large members are also elected to ensure each party wins a percentage of the seats equal to the percentage of the votes they receive.

MMP ballots have three separate votes:

The district representative single-winner race.
A Party Vote that determines the total number of seats each party wins in the legislature. A party that wins 30% of the Party Vote wins 30% of the seats.
Party list votes. You vote for your favorite candidate on your party’s party list (it could be more than one depending on the rules). Party list candidates are elected if your party wins more seats in the Party Vote than it wins in the district races.

We propose an MMP system that achieves accurate proportional representation with a minimum number of at large seats on our Mixed Member Proportional Representation (MMP) page.

Multi Member Districts

Voters elect a set number of representatives (usually 4-8) from each district. Several methods can be used to conduct the vote and apportion the seats. We will publish an article on multi member district systems soon.

Extremists?

Critics claim PR will let extreme parties enter the legislature, but we already have extremists. Our two-party war breeds obstruction; PR will help officeholders form coalitions to defeat obstructionists.

New Rules

We seldom discuss the rules and procedures for legislatures, yet they are critical to the lawmaking process. Reforming these rules can improve the art of governance.

Legislative rules should ensure fairness and enable members to build coalitions to enact or reject legislation. Each party works as a group, but members should not be compelled to vote the party line on all issues.

Our political system needs a reboot. PR will require major rule changes. This is a feature, not a bug. Issues to be resolved include: By what means can a bill reach a floor vote? How are committees assigned? What methods can discourage obstruction without suppressing debate? How can members efficiently conduct business without giving all the power to the leadership?

Rob Oldham and Lee Drutman considered these issues in their report "Governing the House with Multiple Parties".^[1] One recommendation would require bills that passed out of committee be placed on the floor calendar for a house vote. This came from Colorado's GAVEL (Give A Vote to Every Legislator) amendments. They were passed in 1988 as citizen-initiated ballot measures.

They also propose that the Rules Committee be "composed of the leaders of each party and their lieutenants. The parties in the majority coalition would hold a majority of seats, and the leader of the party with the most seats would chair the committee." Another change would allow policy majorities to bring "legislation directly to the floor through a reformed discharge petition process and consensus calendar".

Even if we do not enact proportional representation legislative rules and procedures should be debated in public.

A Nation Divided

Democrats and Republicans have been pulling apart for 50 years. We live in an “Us” against “Them” world with little mutual respect.

In early 2020, Lee Drutman laid out the threat to American Democracy:
“Self-governance depends on electoral losers accepting their losses, and on electoral winners giving the losers the freedom to dissent and criticize, and a fair chance to compete in the next election.

Hyper-partisanship threatens all this by raising electoral stakes to impossible heights, and making the other party seem so extreme and dangerous that the thought of them winning is simply unacceptable.

Once the parties polarize in a two-party system, the danger is that polarization becomes a self-reinforcing dynamic - a doom loop.”^[2]

Are We in a Doom Loop?

President Trump did not accept his loss in 2020. Democratic prosecutors charged Trump with crimes allegedly committed to retain power. They hoped to lock him up to stop him from running in 2024. Allegations included inciting an armed mob to disrupt the certification of electoral college votes, and soliciting the Georgia Secretary of State to change the Georgia vote count in his favor.

Trump won back the presidency in 2024 with a 312 to 226 electoral vote victory and a 49.8% to 48.3% advantage in the popular vote.^[3]

We are in a gerrymander war. Gerrymandering is America’s favorite and most effective method of election cheating. Parties rig election districts to win more seats than they deserve. Proportional representation eliminates the incentive to gerrymander because the voters decide how many seats each party wins.

Feeding the Doom Loop

The spoiler effect locks in two-party rule by crushing third-party and independent candidates. Our only choice is between two warring tribes.
Geography also divides us. In many states and districts, only one party has a chance to win. A small percentage of the voters decides each election in that party’s primary. The general election winner is preordained.

Votes for a losing candidate in a one-sided race have no effect. Technically, a vote that does not help elect a candidate is a "wasted vote". Proportional Representation (PR) is the only way to make wasted votes rare.

In contested races, primary voters want warriors who can raise money to win close races. Dark money comes in from large corporations and the ultra-wealthy via SuperPACs. Worse, we are so divided by cultural issues we cannot work together on economic issues. The donor class has a powerful incentive to keep us divided.

Officeholders who make compromises with the opposition may be primaried. The threat is real because primary voters fear the other party. Voters want candidates to fight for their side.

News outlets pander to their target audience. Outrage is manufactured; news is spun to fit the preferred narrative. Algorithms feed us what we want to hear. Hostility intensifies with each campaign.

The Time is Now

Too many Americans are losing faith in democracy. Democracy has worked since 1976, but it is time to improve it. Proportional representation will give voters and politicians more parties to choose from. Voters will decide how many seats each party wins.