Poll shows growing support for proportional representation in U.S. elections

Fifty-nine percent of voters supported ranked choice voting for state elections after discussion. Under proportional representation, multiple lawmakers would be elected from the same district in rough proportion to each party’s vote share, so a party with one-third of the vote would win about one-third of the seats.

House races would move from single-member districts to larger multi-member districts, and the link between one geographic boundary and one member of Congress would weaken. That would make maps matter less and blunt the effects of gerrymandering, while also giving voters outside the two dominant parties more meaningful choices.

In March 2025, Protect Democracy and New America published Trapped in a Two-Party System, a white paper by Steven L. Taylor, a professor emeritus of political science at Troy University, arguing that the United States is exceptional among major democracies for the dominance of just two parties. The paper argues that voters want more choices at the polls, and that no other major democracy has such complete dominance by only two parties.

In Massachusetts, then-Governor Charlie Baker signed new congressional maps in November 2021 that still gave Democrats all nine House seats even though roughly one-third of the electorate votes Republican. Patrick Henry drew Virginia’s first congressional map in 1788 to block James Madison.

Proportional representation could also address low turnout, weak competition, and the underrepresentation of women and minorities. Proportional ranked choice voting is widely used around the world.

A proportional system would be more likely to produce coalition governments, where parties have to bargain after elections rather than win outright control on election night. It would also make representation less tied to a single neighborhood or county line, which could complicate constituent service even as it broadens the range of voters who can help elect someone.