秋葵视频

A project of the 秋葵视频

Electoral System Design

Electoral System Design

Reimagining the way members of Congress are elected.

An initiative to help policymakers understand how to improve representation and governance through electoral system design.

Since 1967, federal law mandates that states use single-member congressional districts. This arrangement produces a 鈥渨inner-take-all鈥 electoral system, where a single representative wins the entire district (i.e., 鈥渢akes all鈥). Electing representatives in this manner seems unremarkable to many Americans, but it is rare among the world鈥檚 democracies. With closely divided elections in winner-take-all systems, it is commonplace for large portions of the electorate to end up with representatives they did not vote for or support. Scholars have linked these system flaws to a broad range of negative outcomes, including escalating polarization and extremism, the underrepresentation of racial and ethnic minorities, and a decrease in competitive legislative races. 

Given these disadvantages, Our Common Purpose calls for replacing our current system with multi-member congressional districts and a proportional version of ranked-choice voting. This combination, which political scientists call the 鈥淪ingle Transferable Vote,鈥 is a type of proportional representation. Making the switch to this type of electoral system would, in the words of the Commission, 鈥渟ignal a victory for equal voice and representation.鈥

Working Group

In order to advance this recommendation, the 秋葵视频 convened scholars, advocates, and policy experts to create a clear and thorough resource policymakers can use to understand the design choices and tradeoffs in designing a new system for electing members of Congress using Single Transferable Vote and other forms of proportional representation.

  • John Carey, Dartmouth College
  • Guy-Uriel Charles, Harvard Law School
  • Colin Cole, More Equitable Democracy
  • Andy Craig, Rainey Center & CATO Institute
  • Lee Drutman, New America
  • Maria Teresa Kumar, Voto Latino
  • Didi Kuo, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University
  • Jennifer Lawless, University of Virginia
  • Michael Li, Brennan Center for Justice
  • Jennifer McCoy, Georgia State University
  • Norm Ornstein, Senior Fellow Emeritus, American Enterprise Institute
  • Deb Otis, FairVote
  • Maria Perez, Democracy Rising
  • Pete Peterson, Pepperdine University
  • Cynthia Richie Terrell, Represent Women
  • Charles Stewart, III, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Christopher Thomas, former Michigan Director of Elections鈥 
  • Grant Tudor, Protect Democracy
  • Philip Wallach, American Enterprise Institute 

Public Opinion Research

In addition to the efforts of the Working Group, the 秋葵视频 commissioned a poll by the Center for Public Opinion at UMass Lowell that was taken prior to the 2024 election. The results, released in January 2025, revealed displeasure with the state of American politics and receptivity to changes in how Congressional representatives are elected. 

Read the press release and key findings.

Array of red, white, and blue stickers with the text "I Voted" on them.
RECOMMENDATION 1.2 & 1.3

Our Common Purpose includes multiple recommendations designed to achieve equality of voice and representation. 

Recommendation 1.2 - Introduce ranked-choice voting in presidential, congressional, and state elections.

Recommendation 1.3 - Amend or repeal and replace the 1967 law that mandates single-member districts for the House, so that states have the option to use multi-member districts on the condition that they adopt a non-winner-take-all election model.

Read in the report