What is Proportional Representation?

Proportional representation is the most widely used election method by the world’s democracies. The simple concept that drives this form of election is that voters should be represented in government in proportion to their numbers in society.

How Proportional Representation Works

Proportional representation elects multiple representatives in proportion of the number of people who voted for them. For example, 5% of the vote would be awarded 5% of the seats in government. or a party that won 40% of the vote would win 40% of the seats.

There are a number of different styles of proportional representation, including:

  • Open list

  • Closed list

  • Mixed member

  • Multi-winner ranked choice voting (which is technically known as “single transferable vote”)

What these methods all have in common, in addition to being more representative than U.S. elections, is that they elect multiple candidates to represent a district, thereby increasing the diversity of representation.  Learn more about these different election methods.

Why Proportional Representation?

  • More fair and democratic elections. In the United States, a candidate who wins 51% of the vote often wins 100% of the representation. With proportional representation, a portion of all voices are represented in the voting process, and elected bodies look more like the communities they represent. An example of this is that if renters make up a third of the population in a district, they are still able to get fair representation since they don’t have to rely on making up a majority of the population. Voters can get fair representation in proportion to their size of the electorate.

  • More voter choice. With often only two viable choices on a ballot in most U.S. jurisdictions, voters are left with very little power to elect who they truly like. A proportional representation voting system gives voters real options on their ballot, without having to feel like they are wasting their vote or using their vote to vote against someone else.

  • Women win. Multi-member districts allow for a larger bench of candidates to run for office without worrying about taking away the vote from another candidate. This allows for more women to run for office, and win, under a proportional representation voting system. And, many countries that use a proportional representation system also implement gender quotas that help ensure women are represented in government.