The Fair Representation Act
H.R. 3863
is a bill filed in the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

. Originally introduced in 2017 during the

115th Congress The 115th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States of America federal government, composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C., from January 3, 2017, to January 3 ...

Don Beyer Donald Sternoff Beyer Jr. (; born June 20, 1950) is an American businessman, diplomat, and politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, his district is in the heart of Northern Virginia and incl ...

( D– VA), it was reintroduced by Beyer in 2019 and 2021. The bill has three main provisions: * Establish independent

redistricting commission In the United States, a redistricting commission is a body, other than the usual state legislative bodies, established to draw electoral district boundaries. Generally the intent is to avoid gerrymandering, or at least the appearance of gerryman ...

s in all states to prevent

gerrymandering In representative democracies, gerrymandering (, originally ) is the political manipulation of electoral district boundaries with the intent to create undue advantage for a party, group, or socioeconomic class within the constituency. The m ...

* Creating multi-member districts for elections to the House of Representatives, with each district having at least 3 members * Require the use of ranked choice voting, in particular

single transferable vote Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate p ...

, to elect members to the House

Purpose

Beyer has stated the goal of the bill is to reduce polarization and partisanship by incentivizing elected representatives to appeal to a broader range of voters. Ranked choice voting and multi-seat districts would reduce the number of safe-seat districts and encourage more political competition as competition to the two-party system. The act is also alleged to ensure more

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

, both with political parties but also with the election of more women and minority candidates.

Reactions

Support

The bill has been supported by

FairVote FairVote, formerly the Center for Voting and Democracy, is a 501(c)(3) organization that advocates electoral reform in the United States. Founded in 1992 as Citizens for Proportional Representation to support the implementation of proportional r ...

Legislative history

References

{{reflist Proposed legislation of the 115th United States Congress Proposed legislation of the 116th United States Congress Proposed legislation of the 117th United States Congress Gerrymandering in the United States Single transferable vote Electoral reform in the United States

Purpose

Reactions

Support

Legislative history

See also

References