Despite widespread dissatisfaction with our political process, most policymakers tinker only at the edges of our electoral systems and have not seriously revisited their basic design and structure in decades. However, there is a forgotten history of full representation experimentation and success. John Adams, one of our founding fathers stated that our government “should be in miniature an exact portrait of the people at large. It should think, feel, reason, and act like them…. Great care should be taken to effect this, and to prevent unfair, partial, and corrupt elections.” Throughout our nation’s history, many communities did just that, by implementing full representation voting systems that would bring our elected bodies closer to Adams’ ideal of a reflection of the population. For a century Illinois elected its state legislature through cumulative voting, while dozens of U.S. cities adopted choice voting to promote fairer representation and better, more accountable government. Largely adopted before the Cold War, choice voting performed as promised, leading to fair racial representation, political diversity, and more thoughtful and innovative leaders. But choice voting's supporters faced the relentless hostility of party bosses, who manipulated concerns about ballot counting and fears of minorities to gain repeals in most cities. We are left with largely unfair, unrepresentative elections. Given increasingly lopsided elections and stagnant representation of women and communities of color, the time has come to overhaul our flawed electoral systems and seek empowerment through full representation.  

October 19th 2009
A better election system
Lowell Sun

Election expert Doug Amy explains how choice voting can "inject new blood" into the elections of Lowell (MA), and give voters a greater incentive to participate.

October 16th 2009
Haven't Detroit voters spoken enough?
Livingston Daily

In Detroit, there have been three mayors in the past two years and the current one has come under scrutiny. Perhaps a system like instant runoff voting will help bring political stability to motor city.

August 21st 2009
Black candidate for Euclid school board to test new voting system
Cleveland Plain Dealer

Limited voting, a form of proportional voting, will be used in Euclid (OH), in the hopes of allowing better representation of minorities.

July 2nd 2009
Reforming Albany
New York Times

FairVote's Rob Richie responds in a letter to the editor making the case for proportional voting systems to bring substantive reform to New York's legislature.