What Does The Fair Representation Act Do?

The Fair Representation Act is a proposed federal statute to change elections for Members of Congress. Beginning in 2022, House Members would be elected by ranked choice voting in primary and general elections. Members would be elected in multi-winner districts of up to five seats in states with more than one seat, with districts being drawn by independent redistricting commissions.

The bill consists of three core components:

1. Ranked choice voting
2. Multi-member districts
3. Requirements for congressional redistricting

Ranked Choice Voting for Primaries and the General Election

The Fair Representation Act requires that primary and general elections for Congress be held with ranked choice voting. The goal of this system is to maximize the number of voters who help elect a candidate.

The ballot will give voters the freedom to rank candidates in order of choice: 1st, 2nd, 3rd and so on.
Vote counting proceeds in rounds. At first, every ballot counts only for its 1st choice.
For the election of only 1 member, if a candidate receives a majority (50% + 1) of the votes, then that candidate will be elected.
For the election of more than 1 member statewide or in a multi-winner district, instead of one candidate winning with more than half the vote, more than one candidate will win, each with their own smaller share of the vote. That makes the system proportional, ensuring that multiple groups of votes can each elect representatives. The threshold to win depends on the number of winners:

1 winner	2 winners	3 winners	4 winners	5 winners
1/2 + 1 vote	1/3 + 1 vote	1/4 + 1 vote	1/5 + 1 vote	1/6 + 1 vote

At first, every ballot counts only for its 1st choice. If a candidate passes the threshold, they win one of the seats.
Votes cast for winning candidates in excess of the threshold (surplus votes) count for their next choices. This works by reweighting each vote so that all votes are treated equally and no votes are wasted.
In a round where no one passes the threshold, the candidate in last place is eliminated. If a voter’s top choice loses, their vote will count for their next choice.
This process repeats until all seats are elected.
In June of 2021, states will receive $1 million plus $500,000 per representative to pay for election administration and education costs associated with ranked choice voting.

Multi-Winner Districts in States with More Than 1 Seat

The Fair Representation Act repeals the single-winner district mandate (2 U.S.C. 2c) and replaces it with a multi-winner district mandate applicable to all states that elect more than one Representative.

Any state electing 5 or fewer members will not use districts, but will elect all statewide.
Any state electing 6 or more members will elect from multi-winner districts. Multi-winner districts may not elect fewer than 3 or more than 5 members each, with an equal number of persons per seat.
For primary elections, each political party will nominate candidates equal to the number to be elected in the district. States with “Top Two” primaries will advance twice the number to be elected in the district.

Requirements for congressional redistricting

The Fair Representation Act requires that any state drawing multi-winner districts must create an independent redistricting commission to adopt its district map.

A state using districts—only those electing 6 or more members—must do so either by establishing a citizens’ independent redistricting commission. The state may also delegate state legislative redistricting to the commission, though that is not required.
The makeup of the commission and its operation is based on the For the People Act, H.R. 1. The commission will ultimately consist of 15 members, 5 each from the majority party, the minority party, and the independent group. All of the procedural requirements in H.R. 1 apply.
After assembling an independent redistricting commission, a state is entitled to $150,000 per representative to offset its costs.
Districts must be drawn according to criteria, in the following order of importance:

compliance with the U.S. Constitution;

consistency with the Voting Rights Act;

providing racial, ethnic and language minorities an equal opportunity to participate in the political process and to elect candidates of choice;

no district can be completely safe for one political party (based on prior presidential vote totals);

as few districts as possible should elect 4 candidates (to avoid frequent 2-2 splits);

as many districts as possible should elect 5 candidates (to maximize proportionality);

as few districts as possible will divide any community of interest, municipality, county or neighborhood.

No district plan may unduly favor or disfavor any political party when considered on a statewide basis.
Each independent redistricting commission must operate transparently. After holding hearings around the state, it will publish preliminary maps, and then hold at least 3 further hearings with opportunities for public comment.
A majority of the commission (including at least one from each of the 3 groups) must approve a final congressional district map by August 15th of the year ending in the number one.
If the independent redistricting process fails to adopt a redistricting plan on that timeline, a plan will instead be adopted by a three-judge panel in Washington, DC, using the same criteria.

A state using districts—only one of those electing 6 or more Members—must do so by establishing a citizens’ independent redistricting commission. This approach is based on the proposal in the Redistricting Reform Act of 2015.

In states that must draw districts, a nonpartisan agency develops a pool of 60 candidates: 20 affiliated with the state’s majority party at the time of redistricting, 20 from its minority party, and 20 who are unaffiliated with either of those two parties. After a bipartisan legislative committee approves that pool, the nonpartisan agency randomly selects 4 from each category to create the 12-member commission. Those 12 choose a chair, who must come from the unaffiliated group. The commission then can operate.
After assembling an independent redistricting commission, a state is entitled to $150,000 per Representative to offset its costs.
Districts must be drawn according to criteria, in the following order of importance:: contiguity; consistency with the Voting Rights Act; no district can be completely safe for one political party (based on presidential vote totals from prior elections); as few districts as possible should elect 4 candidates (to avoid frequent 2-2 splits); as many districts as possible should elect 5 candidates (to maximize proportionality); respect for existing political boundaries and communities of interest; compactness; and respect for visible geographic features.

Each independent redistricting commission must operate transparently. After holding hearings around the state, it will publish preliminary maps, and then hold at least three further hearings with chances for public comments.
A majority of the commission (including at least one from each of the 3 groups) must approve a final congressional district map by August 15th of the year ending in the number one.
If the state does not establish the requisite non-partisan agency or legislative committee, if the legislative committee fails to approve a pool of applicants, or if the independent commission fails to approve a final plan, then a panel of federal judges will develop and adopt a congressional redistricting plan, guided by the same criteria.

What Does The Fair Representation Act Do?