The political system of the United States is unquestionably broken. In 2016, there were only 21 House races that were considered toss ups. This is the result of a number of factors, from gerrymandering to geographic segregation. Even in competitive districts, the winner take all nature of US politics means the losing side gets no representation. A Democratic Congressmen from Virginia, Don Beyer, thinks he may have a solution and has proposed the Fair Representation Act earlier this week.
Beyer believes that the answer to this problem is a multi-pronged approach that addresses each major problem with the US House electoral system. To stem gerrymandering, his bill would create much larger, multi-member districts. To address the issue of a winner take all system, his bill would introduce rank choice voting, where voters rank each candidate running, and several members win. For instance, in a three member district with ten candidates running, the voters rank each candidate from 1 – 10, and then the top three candidates will become representatives. This helps to ensure that even the voters in the minority have their voices heard and receive representation.
Another benefit of this system is that it would allow for more moderates to be elected. When asked if there are any moderates left, Beyer said, “No, you have complete polarization. Right now the Republicans shove things down our throats, and if the Democrats take back the House, we’d shove things down their throats.” His bill would increase the number of moderates because candidates would want to be ranked fairly high on every ballot in order to be elected.
The Fair Representation Act is, for now, a pipe dream, as it is in almost every House members interest to keep the current system in place. A change in the status quo could lower their chance of re- election by giving voters other choices. This bill is in the interest of voters, not politicians, and must be considered as a way to fix the polarization of America’s broken political system.
