Making Our Votes Count
At the moment, the choices we face at the ballot box are probably either/or and, frankly, not working very well: ‘government shutdowns’, ‘split Congress’, and widespread arguing. A majority of us are unsatisfied with the two big parties.
Yet we have far more choices in our hands than many realise. The trouble is, when it comes time to vote for them, we often do not. And we end up with a rut. Our system favours incumbents precisely because voting for a third party seldom makes a real difference and is thus a protest vote leading nowhere.
Consider New England: most of the state voters are Republicans, yet not a single one of their Representatives is. What these folks have to say is affected by the way that their votes are translated into seats.
And it is not just in New England: even when drawing out new maps, ostensibly to make them fairer, it isn’t such a sure thing. The current iteration of Massachusetts’ district map, for example, has all Democratic representatives but was drawn as a more balanced map, including several Republicans.
Now let’s consider nations such as Germany. They use something called proportional representation. In broad terms, this means that any party getting a share of the votes is awarded that same proportion of seats in government. This means everyone shares their voice more equally.
There are various forms of proportional representation, but they are designed to reflect what each main group is thinking so that all the jigsaw pieces fit together.
Switching to this system of voting in the US would pose some big challenges for our legislators. It won’t be easy. But it’s not impossible, either. And in the meantime, there is no reason why cities and states can’t experiment with different voting systems to see what works best.
Finally, if we altered our voting system to be more fair, I think it would make a big difference. More people would have the sense that their voices count. The fighting might not stop, but perhaps we’d see a little less of it, and a little more government doing.
Share your opinion about it, and let us discuss!