NPR

Many voters say Congress is broken. Could proportional representation fix it?

With Congress increasingly polarized, there are growing calls to replace the winner-take-all approach for House elections with a system that advocates say could better reflect the country's diversity.

With an increasingly polarized Congress and fewer competitive elections, there are growing calls among some election reformers to change how voters elect members of the U.S. House of Representatives.

One potential alternative to the current winner-take-all approach for House races is known as proportional representation.

Instead of the single candidate with the most votes winning a House district's seat, a proportional representation system would elect multiple representatives in each district, distributing seats in the legislature roughly in proportion to the votes each party receives.

Supporters say proportional representation could help temper the rise of political extremism, eliminate the threat of gerrymandering and ensure the fair representation of people of color, as well as voters who are outnumbered in reliably "red" or "blue" parts of the country.

And last year, a group of across the U.S. said the time for Congress to

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