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Kate Vacek's avatar

How would proportional representation be implemented in a state with only one representative in Congress (like North Dakota, where I live)? Would we have to increase the number of seats in the House across all the states?

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Protect Democracy's avatar

Unfortunately PR does require more than one representative to work, so right now it can't be applied to Alaska, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming — but we also think it would work *extremely* well with lifting the arbitrary cap on the size of the House, which would be beneficial for all sorts of other reasons: https://www.ifyoucankeepit.org/p/where-will-they-all-sit?utm_source=publication-search

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P Fuller's avatar

I support both these initiatives, but in terms of expanding the House I favor the Cube Root Rule, which, I believe, would have given us about 693 members at the last census. Wouldn't having PR in every state almost require a "Double Wyoming" Rule, where Wyoming gets 2 reps and everyone else is sized accordingly? That's more like 1,149 seats, 2.5+x what we have now. Is it necessary that every state have PR, no matter how small?

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Nathan Lockwood's avatar

Great stuff! More on Massachusetts here: https://nathanlockwood.substack.com/p/can-the-bay-state-be-a-beacon-for

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Alex Marianyi's avatar

Is there a grassroots group lobbying Congress on this?

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Grace-in-Space's avatar

Can someone point me ro an explanation on the logistics of voting for this? E.g., if a population is 70% Democratic, and 3 reps could be elected, all 3 would be Democrats, right? How would representation for minority parties/racial groups/etc be factored in?

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P Fuller's avatar

Not sure what the author has in mind. Here's one example of how it could be done, with ranked choice voting and states with just one rep continuing to have just one.

https://fairvote.org/our-reforms/fair-representation-act/

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Burt's avatar

Proportional representation is impossible for Federal level positions as long as district boundaries must be within States. Individual States could achieve proportional representation for state level positions by allocating seats proportionally for the numbers of citizens registered in specific parties or a as independents. Each political party would be responsible for determining district boundaries for the number of seat allocated for their party. Similarly, the independents could establish a commission to determine the boundaries allocated for districts dedicated for independent voters.

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Carl Selfe's avatar

Rise. We have protests to do now. Good trouble.

https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/100-free-protest-signs?r=3m1bs

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