Overview
House elections are broken
Our winner-take-all system has fundamentally broken elections to the U.S. House of Representatives. An overwhelming majority of voters live in districts locked up for one of the two major parties, and district lines fundamentally decide who wins and who loses, even when far out of step with the will of the voters.
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- Elections are not competitive. More than 80 percent of U.S. House districts are safe for the party that holds them. Only a small fraction are true toss-ups. As a result, millions of Americans are perpetually represented by politicians they oppose, with little hope of changing things at the polls.
- Outcomes are not fair. We project that in 2020, Democrats could lose control of the House of Representatives, even if a majority of voters want a Democratic House. Of the 38 states with at least three districts, 20 unfairly favor Republicans while 10 unfairly favor Democrats, and only eight have no significant skew in favor of either party.
- Representatives are more polarized than voters. Voters in general elections must choose between polarized candidates selected by highly partisan primary voters, leaving less partisan Americans without a route to representation.
- To see how things could be different under a more fair system, read our Fair Representation Act Report, or view our page on the Fair Representation Act.
