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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November 4th 2006
Job One for Congress: improve elections
Sacramento Bee

FairVote's Rob Richie and The New America Foundation's Steven Hill urge Congress to ensure the integrity of the institution by improving the electoral process. This article has appeared in other newspapers as well.

November 3rd 2006
Eyes on the Prize
Asian Week

Author advocates the examination of instant-runoff and proportional voting as ways of updating an out of date electoral system.

November 3rd 2006
Bring Democracy Home
The Nation

Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation, outlines ways to improve the democratic process, advocating nonpartisan election administrations and encouraging IRV and proportional representation as alternatives to the current winner-takes-all system.

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