Through proportional representation electoral systems, like-minded groupings of voters win legislative seats in better proportion to their share of the population. Whereas winner-take-all elections award 100% of power to a 50.1% majority, proportional representation allows voters in a minority to win a fair share of representation. Proportional representation describes a broad range of methods that require at least some legislators to be elected in districts with more than one seat.

Proportional representation voting systems used in the United States include choice voting (voters rank candidates, and seats are allocated by efficiently distributing voters preferences using a proportional formula), cumulative voting (voters cast as many votes as seats and can give multiple votes to one candidate), and limited voting (voters have fewer votes than seats). Internationally, some proportional representation systems are based on voting for political parties, others for candidates. Some allow very small groupings of voters to win seats; others require higher thresholds of support to win representation. The common thread that defines proportional representation is promoting more accurate, balanced representation of the spectrum of political opinion. More than 100 communities in the United States use proportional representation, the Democrats require states to nominate presidential convention delegates by proportional representation, and almost all emerging democracies have chosen proportional representation. This family of electoral systems is becoming the international norm, with Iraq, Afghanistan, and the entire Eastern Bloc being recent welcome additions to the global community of proportional representation nations.

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September 12th 2005
Facts and Figures About Afghanistan's Elections
Reuters AlertNet

Afghanistan goes to the polls on Sept. 18 to elect a lower house of parliament and councils in each of its 34 provinces. This articles discusses key facts and figures about the election design, including the use of the single non-transferable vote (a

September 12th 2005
B.C. government promises second referendum on electoral reform

British Columbia government pledges to put choice voting in front of voters again in November 2008 elections.

July 31st 2005
Redistricting Reform: Road Map to Nowhere?
Sacramento Bee

The Greenlining Institute's Paul Turner and the New America Foundation's Steven Hill discuss the limitations of redistricting reform, as well as ways of improving it, such as through proportional voting in multimember districts.

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