Districts Plus

For those who like local, geographic-based representation, Districts Plus is a particularly attractive fair voting system. It makes every vote in every district meaningful in every election and ensures that the party that receives the most votes wins the most seats.

Districts Plus preserves the current system in which most representatives are elected from single-member districts. It adds "accountability seats" to the legislature to guarantee that when one party's candidates gets the most votes, that party will win the most seats. As a result, every contest in every district is meaningful in every election. Parties will have an incentive to field strong candidates in every district, no matter how imbalanced that district may be.

Districts Plus is a variant of a system that is commonly used internationally in countries such as Germany and New Zealand called Mixed Member Proportional Representation. It can be used to improve both single-member district, winner-take-all systems and multi-member districts elected under fair voting forms of proportional representation.

FairVote includes Districts Plus as a key policy to enhance the democratic process in our Policy Guide 2015.