New poll finds broad appetite for proportional representation

A new national poll conducted by Citizen Data on behalf of Protect Democracy confirms popular wisdom turned political trope — Americans are less than satisfied with their congressional representation. According to the poll, two-thirds wish they had more political parties to choose from. Less than half feel closely represented by their congressperson, and two-thirds don’t feel represented by Congress as a whole. These results hold true across the ideological spectrum — a majority of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents feel under-represented.

The familiarity of this dissatisfaction shouldn’t make it any less striking: in a functioning democracy, at least half of voters should feel represented overall, and most voters should at least feel represented by their individual congressperson. 

The poll also reveals that Americans are quick to understand that the way we elect our representatives results in under-representation, and are therefore open to changing our electoral system.

Taken together, these findings suggest that dissatisfaction with representation is due in large part to the winner-take-all design of our electoral system, where a single winner is selected to represent an entire district. Those polled intuited what scholars have long argued: that winner-take-all can result in systematic underrepresentation — especially in diverse societies with significant racial and political minorities — along with uncompetitive elections that make much of the populace rightly feel like their vote doesn’t count. 

It’s no wonder that most democracies around the world use some form of proportional representation instead, and that scholarly consensus recommends replacing winner-take-all with a more proportional system for U.S. elections, too.

What do Americans think of proportional representation?

Though it’s true that American voters are unsatisfied with the outcomes of our current system, most (in this poll, 59%) have never even heard of proportional representation. To gauge potential support, Citizen Data explained proportional representation in two different ways to two different test groups.

It turns out that straightforward information about the nature of proportional representation reliably increased support for using it to elect representatives. In the group that received a generic explanation, support for proportional representation increased from 24% to 52%. The increase was even more significant in the group that received the Thanksgiving metaphor, where support climbed from 27.4% to 61.5%.

Why is the Thanksgiving metaphor so effective? 

Protect Democracy has long used the Thanksgiving dinner metaphor to explain proportional representation — but this is the first time we actually put it to a national test. The poll asked voters to select their favorite Thanksgiving dish. To simulate a winner-take-all election, we split respondents into single-member-districts by census region and “elected” the most popular dish in each district. Every single district voted in favor of either turkey or stuffing — a perfect emulation of the confines of our two-party system. 

In a second simulation, each district was allowed to elect any dish that reached a 5% threshold of support. This proportional representation round was undeniably more tasty — in addition to turkey and stuffing, favorites like pumpkin pie, mac and cheese, and mashed potatoes were added to the menu. 

Census Divisions	Winner-Take-All	Proportional Representation (5% threshold)
New England  CT, ME, MA, NH, RI, VT	Turkey (44.7%)	Turkey, Stuffing, Pumpkin Pie, Green Bean Casserole
Middle Atlantic  NJ, NY, PA	Turkey (37.9%)	Turkey, Stuffing, Pumpkin Pie, Macaroni and Cheese
East North Central IL, IN, MI, OH, WI	Turkey (29.8%)	Turkey, Stuffing, Pumpkin Pie, Mashed Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes
West North Central IA, KS, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD	Turkey (37%)	Turkey, Stuffing, Pumpkin Pie, Green Bean Casserole, Sweet Potatoes, Rolls/Biscuits
South Atlantic DE, FL, GA, MD, NC, SC, VA, WV	Stuffing (29%)	Stuffing, Turkey, Pumpkin Pie, Sweet Potatoes, Macaroni and Cheese, Mashed Potatoes
East South Central AL, KY, MS, TN	Stuffing (26.5%)	Stuffing, Turkey, Macaroni and Cheese, Mashed Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Cranberry Sauce
West South Central AK, LA, OK, TX	Turkey (37.7%)	Turkey, Stuffing, Sweet Potatoes, Pumpkin Pie, Green Bean Casserole
Mountain AZ, CO, ID, MT, NM, NV, UT, WY	Turkey (44.6%)	Turkey, Stuffing, Pumpkin Pie, Green Bean Casserole, Macaroni and Cheese, Sweet Potatoes
Pacific AK, CA, HI, OR, WA	Turkey (31.5%)	Turkey, Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes
National Winner	Turkey (35.4%)	Turkey, Stuffing, Pumpkin Pie, Mashed Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes

Winner-take-all — where each district has only one winner — is the only paradigm most Americans have ever known. Even imagining alternatives is difficult. But when paired with an evocative metaphor, the unfamiliar mechanics of proportional representation become more accessible and even persuasive. And that’s without engaging in informational messaging that frames electoral system design as an urgent democracy issue — a connection that has proven to be an effective tool of persuasion in recent elections.

Implications for advocates

Proportional representation is gaining traction among reformers and opinion-makers, and in the media. But hyper-polarization and loud, extreme factions in our politics might be obscuring the fact that there’s room for broad public agreement on a better way of doing things — even if only a better way to hash out our differences. Americans are open to being persuaded in favor of proportional representation, they just need to be invited to engage.