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, representatives would be elected by proportional ranked choice voting in primary and general elections. Members would be elected in multi-winner districts of up to five seats, with districts being drawn by independent redistricting commissions. Senators would also be elected by ranked choice voting.

The bill consists of three core components:

1. Multi-member districts
2. Ranked Choice Voting
3. Requirements for congressional redistricting

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 generally nominate candidates equal to the number to be elected in the district, though states may permit parties to choose the number of their nominees. States with “Top Two” or "Top Four" primaries will advance twice the number to be elected in the district.

Ranked Choice Voting for Primaries and the General Election

The Fair Representation Act requires that primary and general elections for both Representatives and Senators 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 winner (as in Senate elections), if a candidate receives a majority (50% + 1) of the votes, then that candidate will be elected. However, if there is no majority winner after counting first choices, the race is decided by an "instant runoff." The candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and voters who picked that candidate as ‘number 1’ will have their votes count for their next choice. This process continues until there’s a majority winner or a candidate won with more than half of the vote.
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 voters can each elect their own representative. See how it works here.

States will receive $1 million plus $500,000 per representative to pay for election administration and education costs associated with ranked choice voting.

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 by establishing a citizens’ independent redistricting commission. States that already have such a commission can continue using it, so long as they follow the criteria listed below.
The commission will ultimately consist of 15 members, 5 each from the majority party, the minority party, and the independent group. 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.

What Does The Fair Representation Act Do?