Under our winner-take-all electoral system, 49.9 percent of voters can
be left without a voice in government when their candidate loses.
Proportional Representation, on the other hand, awards seats in
government based on the percentage of votes received by each party.
Proportional Representation guarantees that every vote counts and it
increases voter participation while producing legislatures that better
reflect the breadth of political opinion.
One scholar suggests that the “basic principles underlying
proportional representation elections are that all voters deserve
representation and that all political groups in society deserve to be
represented in our legislatures in proportion to their strength in the
electorate. In other words, everyone should have the right to fair
representation.” Proportional Representation would create electoral
opportunities for blue state Republicans, red state Democrats and
moderates from both parties, as well as independent and third party
candidates.
In short, Proportional Representation would dramatically lessen the
degree of partisan polarization and further open up the American
political system. To find more information about Proportional
Representation, please click here .
Sac Bee Columnist Plugs New America Plan
Dan Walters, one of California's best-known political columnists, gave a plug to Mark Paul and Micah Weinberg's plan for proportional representation as a way to deal with the state's fiscal crisis. Read the column here.
Better Governance for California
New America's Mark Paul and Micah Weinberg have proposed a Big Idea for California: electing the state legislature by regionally based elections using proportional representation. Much better than today's red vs. blue winner-take-all districts, this method would make state government more accountable and more representative of the New California. Read their paper here.
