All Reports
FairVote Research Reports analyze American and international elections and election practices, studying the effect on voter participation, fairness in representation and competitive choice.
Fair Voting Plans
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No More Gerrymanders: Missouri
May 26, 2012
Lawmakers in Missouri have recently passed a congressional redistricting plan that distorts the state’s political representation in favor of Republicans and institutionalizes a decade of uncompetitive, meaningless elections.
To address the structural impediments of winner-take-all, FairVote has created an alternative— what we call fair voting — for Missouri’s congressional elections. Every voter in a fair voting system would experience a meaningful election and the great majority of voters would help elect a representative.
Latest Reports
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Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act: A History and Analysis of Relevant Supreme Court Cases
September 23, 2011This report traces the history of the Voting Rights Act, from its origins in 1965 through its opposition and its continued renewal. Specifically, the report details how Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act requires those states covered under Section 5 to preclear all proposed voting changes, including redistricting efforts, with the Department of Justice before their enactment. The advent of the Voting Rights Act, specifically Section 5, has been instrumental in preventing states from making changes which could potentially discriminate against racial and ethnic minorities. Throughout the history of Section 5 cases before the Supreme Court, the Court has yet to rule Section 5 is invalid.
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Fuzzy Math: Wrong Way Reforms for Allocating Electoral College Votes
September 16, 2011This updated analysis (first published in 2007) analyzes two of the three major options available to state leaders interested in reforming how a state allocates its Electoral College votes: the whole number proportional system and congressional district system. It evaluates them on the basis of whether they promote majority rule, make elections more nationally competitive, reduce incentives for partisan machinations and make all votes count equally. Our analysis reveals that both of these methods fail to meet our criteria and fall far short of the National Popular Vote plan, which is the third major option available to reformers.
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Federal Primary Runoff Elections and Voter Turnout Declines, 1994 - 2010
August 10, 2011Many states currently use runoff election systems during primaries for statewide federal posts. However, it appears that the two election runoff system leads to high turnout declines and a less representative second election.
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Presidential Elections State-by-State: Hardening Partisanship
August 1, 2011In recent decades presidential election outcomes have become more predictable in most states to the point that only a small minority of states are expected to be swing states in 2012. Due to the winner-take-all rule used by nearly all states (meaning a state awards all its electoral votes to the popular vote winner of that state), swing states receive much more campaign attention than their non-competitive counterparts.
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Legality of the Use of Ranked Choice Absentee Ballots for Military and Overseas Voters
July 18, 2011Ranked choice absentee ballots provide a legal and practical solution to the disenfranchisement of military and overseas voters in runoff elections. These ballots enable U.S. citizens covered by the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act of 1986 (UOCAVA) to cast votes when the ballot turnaround time between first and second elections is short.
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Redistricting Reform in the States: June 2010
June 16, 2011FairVote's most recent review of redistricting reform in the states in 2009-2010 presents a mix of optimism and frustration for supporters of redistricting in the public interest rather than in the best interest of the political duopoly.