Electoral reform in the United States
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Electoral reform in the United States refers to the efforts of change for American elections and the electoral system used in the US.
Most elections in the U.S. today select one person; elections of multiple members in a district are less common. Elections where members are elected through majoritarian instant-runoff voting or proportional representation are relatively rare. Examples of single-winner elections include the House of Representatives, where all members are elected by First-past-the-post voting, instant-runoff voting, or the two-round system. The use of single-member districts means any increase in or decrease in the number of members means redistricting. The number of representatives from each state is set in proportion to each state's population in the most recent decennial census. District boundaries are usually redrawn after each such census. This process often produces "gerrymandered" district boundaries designed to increase and secure a majority of seats to the party already in power, sometimes by dispersing opposition party voters and sometimes by concentrating opposition party voters into just one district. This and other institutional features give an advantage to incumbents seeking reelection.
The Senate and the president are also elected by plurality. However, these elections are not affected by gerrymandering (with the possible exception of presidential races in Maine and Nebraska, whose electoral votes are partially allocated by vote tallies in Congressional districts). Aside from exceptions in Maine and Nebraska and the single-seat states, the presidential election uses multi-member districts (each state's electoral college seats) elected in state-wide contests, but there is no proportionality of representation because each state gives its EC seats as a block to the party with plurality of votes in the state.
Currently the only place in the U.S. where proportional representation is used to elect government members is at the city level. Cambridge, Minneapolis and Portland, Oregon are among the cities that use a P.R. system to elect their councils, specifically single transferable voting.
Proposals for electoral reform have included overturning the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. FEC, public and citizen funding of elections, limits and transparency in funding, ranked-choice voting (RCV) (single transferable voting or instant-runoff voting), redistricting to make multi-member districts, abolishing the Electoral College or nullifying its impact through the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, and improving ballot access for third parties, among others. The U.S. Constitution gives states wide latitude to determine how elections are conducted, although some rules, such as the ban on poll taxes, are mandated at the federal level.
The drive for proportional representation in the U.S. has a long history. PR activists from the 19th and 20th centuries include Pennsylvania Senator Buckalew, Annie Denton Cridge (and husband Alfred), William R. Ware at M.I.T., and many more. George Hoag wrote books on PR and STV. Illinois used cumulative voting in state elections for a hundred years to ensure that smaller minority groups had a chance to elect a representative. New York and more than 29 other U.S. cities used STV between 1915 and 1950, with Cambridge, Portland, Oregon and others using it today.