An Intercept article on new House bill outlines the proposals from some Democratic Congressmen to rewrite the rules on how districts are drawn, implementing rank choice voting and creating districts which can elect more than one representative.
The bill and its sponsors are
Virginia Democratic Rep. Don Beyer authored and introduced the Fair Representation Act, which would enact a series of reforms designed to make our elections more competitive and open them up to more parties. Democratic Reps. Ro Khanna of California and Jamie Raskin of Maryland have co-sponsored the legislation.
and it proposes
The bill would do three things: require all congressional districts to be drawn by independent redistricting commissions, establish multi-member districts, and have all districts use what’s known as ranked-choice voting (RCV).
The one concept I hadn’t heard of previously is the multi-member districts idea. The article describes the idea as
Multi-member districts would mean that voters in each district would have the opportunity to elect multiple legislators to represent them instead of just one — which would mean that more people in the district would have the opportunity to elect someone closer to their own ideology rather than being stuck with one lawmaker who may or may not represent their viewpoint.
I live in California where we use rank choice voting (RCV) and I think it is a great innovation. For those who are not familiar with RCV, instead of voting for just one candidate out of many, you vote for your first, second and third choices. So, if your first choice isn’t among the top two receiving first choices, then your second choice can be considered in determining the winner. As the article points out, “Under RCV, you can vote your conscience without helping a candidate you loathe win instead.”.
The concept of the creation of true districts by an independent group and following more of a geographical and town, borough, city grouping rather than strangely drawn district lines based upon political leanings will help to create less partisan representation. Add to this the power of combining RCV and multi-member districts and I believe you can create a much less partisan atmosphere that encourages more folks to participate in deep red or blue districts and will even lead to more 3rd party candidates having a shot at being a representative.
What do you think?