A new white paper by Harvard Law School Professor Nicholas Stephanopoulos explains how under the Voting Rights Act— a core legal tool for preventing racial discrimination in voting—proportional representation can provide additional mechanisms for ensuring the fair representation of minority communities. 

While certain electoral policies can violate the Voting Rights Act by diluting the votes of minority communities, that is rarely, if ever, the case with proportional representation. Under proportional representation, minority-preferred candidates tend to win even more seats than under single-member districts. That is because proportional electoral systems are designed to help all groups of voters win their fair share of seats.

In a careful review of legal precedent and empirical evidence about electoral system effects on minority representation, Nicholas Stephanopoulos, Kirkland & Ellis Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, and leading election law scholar, summarizes the ways proportional representation in the United States can (and does) interact with the Voting Rights Act. In particular, he finds:

• Proportional representation in practice is very unlikely to violate the Voting Rights Act;
• Proportional (and semi-proportional) electoral systems can effectively serve as remedies to vote dilution in Voting Rights Act litigation; and
• The new wave of powerful, state-level voting rights acts may create more opportunities for proportional representation by encouraging their use as remedies in litigation.