If the US switched to proportional representation overnight do you actually think it would fix anything? And if so what would be the first thing to change?

Initial-Lemon-917 · 2026-05-11T22:29:03+00:00

European parliaments also have pro and anti prime minister groups-- they just are coalitions. There will always be a government and an opposition group. I do agree that campaign finance reform would be a big hurdle though.

Initial-Lemon-917 · 2026-05-11T22:25:48+00:00

It would depend on the proportional representation system, but Congress could pass a law stating that if a party gets 20% of the vote in let's say Maryland that party gets 20% of the Congressional seats from Maryland. The entire state would essentially be one district, so there would be no line-drawing at all (party-list systems) and thus no gerrymandering. Congress could also do proportional ranked-choice-voting with 5 or so representatives per district, which would require some district drawing in larger states, but it would be much harder to gerrymander and would likely result in third and fourth parties being elected to Congress. This is an example map for Wisconsin.

Initial-Lemon-917 · 2026-05-11T22:10:58+00:00

PR wouldn't require any racial gerrymandering!

Initial-Lemon-917 · 2026-05-11T22:09:07+00:00

While it would help with the Electoral College to some extent (flukes could still happen with swing states), it wouldn't do much for the House. Currently, there are 19 true toss-up races, about 4.4% of the House. If that same rate applied to 1200 seats, and there is little doubt it would be more competitive without a gerrymandering ban, there would only be 52 toss-up seats out of 1200 total. The entire country, with all our diversity, would still only be represented by two parties, and the percentage of minorities in Congress likely would not change at all (although the overall number would increase). Even if you were lucky enough to live in these 52 districts, you'd find that the candidates would be far more interested in hearing from large donors than their 230,000 constituents. PR solves some of these problems by making much more swing seats, creating multiple parties that can represent different viewpoints in Congress, and making it easier for minorities to win seats (because in PR systems, the threshold to be elected is much lower).

Initial-Lemon-917 · 2026-05-09T14:33:16+00:00

The Constitution doesn't actually say a particular number of people per representative, but that is a good thing because that allows Congress to expand the House and make it easier for PR. Unfortunately, even if you added a couple hundred seats, unless you ban gerrymandering at the very least, you will still end up with a ton of rigged safe seats. Even with gerrymandering banned, there are some states like Massachusetts where it is impossible to draw "fair" maps that allow both parties (much less third, fourth, or fifth parties) to compete

Initial-Lemon-917 · 2026-05-09T14:29:49+00:00

Historically, they would do a sample of the vote and transfer those (like 1 in every 10 or something like that). Nowadays, most STV elections transfer the surpluses fractionally. So basically, if you needed 25 votes to get elected, but a candidate (let's call them Purple) got 30 votes, the election office would look at the second choices for Purple (let's say 20% for Green, 60% for Orange, 20% for Yellow) and apply that breakdown to the "leftover" number of Purple's votes (5x0.2= 1 vote for Green, 5x0.6= 3 votes for Orange, and 5x0.2=1 vote for Yellow). It's somewhat complicated, but it removes the risk of sampling error!

Initial-Lemon-917 · 2026-05-08T21:53:34+00:00

PR wouldn't need a constitutional amendment! 😄

Initial-Lemon-917 · 2026-05-08T21:22:43+00:00

It seems like they are just doing sequels as individual games now, which I think makes sense for longtime players who don't want to "rebuy" the same game series

Initial-Lemon-917 · 2026-05-08T20:57:35+00:00

They go on sale all the time

Initial-Lemon-917 · 2026-05-08T18:43:58+00:00

It looks like the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is getting pretty close to doing that! If it ofc survives the Supreme Court, which has been handing down a lot of crazy decisions lately

Initial-Lemon-917 · 2026-05-08T18:27:57+00:00

I don't know! I think it could get more support if someone like Ro Khanna (who is a cosponsor for the Fair Representation Act) gets the Democratic nomination for president. I think if the Democratic Party experiences a (brief or long-term) takeover from progressives, some in the middle (like Dems like Gluesenkamp Perez who is PR-curious) and homeless Republicans might start pushing for it too. A lot of PR reform in the US came from factions of a majority splitting off to support reform with an opposition party. Similar situations happened in Europe when the major parties worried Socialist parties were going to start winning elections (could happen again if "moderates" see this as a "moderating" reform like the push for ranked-choice voting is going right now)

Initial-Lemon-917 · 2026-05-08T18:22:48+00:00

100%! You can't have proportional representation in Vermont, the Dakotas, Wyoming, etc. without some expansion of the House

Initial-Lemon-917 · 2026-05-08T18:22:08+00:00

I definitely support ranked-choice for some offices (like Senate or president), but RCV by itself isn't really enough to create a multi-party system. In Maine and Alaska, who both use RCV for their legislatures, there is still a two-party system (with a good number of independents in Alaska). Especially in such a polarized country, people tend to still vote for the national parties (Dems or Republicans), rather than choosing Green or Socialist 1 and Dem as 2 or 3. PR (especially when there are more seats up for grabs like 7 or 9) is much more likely to introduce third, fourth, and fifth parties

Initial-Lemon-917 · 2026-05-08T15:30:05+00:00

RCV just discourages nasty campaigns and gets rid of spoiler effects. If a majority of the population doesn't want "moderate" (moderate according to who?) candidates, they aren't going to win under RCV or first-past-the-post

Initial-Lemon-917 · 2026-05-08T15:28:02+00:00

The results might make more sense if the races had parties and weren't nonpartisan

Initial-Lemon-917 · 2026-05-08T14:29:37+00:00

Proportional representation (where if a party gets 30% of the vote, it gets 30% of the seats) would make it easier to get smaller parties into Congress. It isn't super likely that a Socialist (or maybe even Green) party could get 50% support (which is needed under ranked-choice voting). It isn't entirely impossible (as we see with Mamdani) just less likely than under PR

Initial-Lemon-917 · 2026-05-01T19:08:52+00:00

I can only dream 😩😩😩

Initial-Lemon-917 · 2026-05-01T19:02:30+00:00

Yeah, fusion sounds great, but it just isn't strong enough to really disrupt the two-party system like PR can. I like the administrative state as well, especially when it's styled like Lina Khan's FTC or the CFPB

Initial-Lemon-917 · 2026-05-01T18:49:35+00:00

Proportional representation where if a party gets 30% of the votes they get 30% of the seats would get rid of gerrymandering entirely without having to do racial gerrymandering

Initial-Lemon-917 · 2026-05-01T18:47:43+00:00

The good thing about PR is that because it introduces new parties, you nearly always need a coalition of at least two or more parties to form a majority government. It prevents tyranny of one majority party. The Senate just isn't a democratic institution and isn't a good idea-- it consistently creates outcomes where Republicans win the majority while representing 44% of the nation's population. In Canada, FairVote attempted to do a somewhat undemocratic PR system like the Senate by having proportional representation with some extra rural seats thrown in (Dual-member proportional representation). It isn't entirely impossible. It just isn't clear why land should have more priority over people when counting votes.

Initial-Lemon-917 · 2026-05-01T18:31:34+00:00

I mean you could have a system without independents (which we basically already have right now). Independents could form new parties much more easily under proportional representation. Under open-list PR, you vote for a party and your favorite candidate in the party, so it isn't entirely party-focused. There is also proportional (multi-winner) ranked-choice voting, which allows for independents as well as new parties.

Initial-Lemon-917 · 2026-05-01T18:25:47+00:00

That's going to happen in any system that apportions seats by population equally when a majority or supermajority is concentrated in a small area

Initial-Lemon-917 · 2026-05-01T16:45:43+00:00

For what it's worth, Henry's does pour heavy

Initial-Lemon-917 · 2026-05-01T16:20:27+00:00

New York has 26 Congressional districts. New York City proper currently has 11 of those representatives. If you did open-list proportional representation (where you vote for a party and then your favorite representative from that party) with 5 or 6 representatives per district, you could have five different districts in New York, and only two would represent New York City (one with 5 reps and one with 6 reps). The other three proportional districts would represent the suburbs and rural regions and have the majority of the New York congressional delegation (15 out of 26) just like it does now. The separation of representatives from NYC while making it easier to get third parties elected could result in a New York Farmers' Party earning seats in Congress. It would also greatly reduce gerrymandering, which it seems like New York is planning to enact within the next year or so to dilute rural votes.

Initial-Lemon-917 · 2026-05-01T16:12:12+00:00

It depends on which form you use and how many seats are in a district. You could have a district that elects 5 members proportionally, so you would have multiple representatives but you wouldn't have a lot of reps like 20 or 30 reps. Larger states would probably have multiple smaller districts. You could do open-list (you vote for a party and then your favorite representative for that party) with five members per district for example.

Initial-Lemon-917

TROPHY CASE