12 Essential Resources on Elections and Structural Reform

  1. Comparative structural reform study –  FairVote worked with 14 leading academics to analyze the relative impact of 37 structural reforms (including reforms of redistricting, primaries, electoral systems and legislative rules) on 16 measures of democratic performance.
  2. Dubious Democracy - Data on congressional election vote totals, seats-to-votes, turnout, wasted votes, measures of competitiveness and more, in all 50 states, from 1982 - 2014.  
  3. Monopoly Politics and the Fair Voting Solution- Analyzes core problems in U.S. House elections and has 50 state overviews of elections as they are and as they would be with multi-seat, proportional voting rules. Projects 2016 congressional election results using a methodology that was 99.8% accurate in 2012-14.
  4. Ranked Choice Voting and Civility Study – Summarizes the results of an extensive academic study into the relationship between ranked choice voting and greater civility in elections, with a focus on seven cities using RCV in 2013-2014 and 15 control cities.   
  5. Fair Representation Voting Systems in the United States – Candidate-based methods of proportional representation (such as cumulative voting, limited voting and ranked choice voting) are used in over 100 local jurisdictions in the United States. This resource documents the use and history of fair voting in American jurisdictions.   
  6. Best Practices for Collaborative Policymaking – This 2015 report produced with the Bipartisan Policy Center reports on ways to improve the operation of legislatures in these polarized times based on established practices in the states.   
  7. Representation 2020 - Includes 50-state report on the status of representation of women in elected offices in the US and explains agenda of structural reform to improve women’s representation.  
  8. Elections Worldwide - News, analysis, and reports on world elections, as well as an interactive map of world voting systems.
  9. FairVote Blog – Provides regular analysis and reporting of local, national and international elections and electoral reform news.    
  10. National Democracy Slam Papers & Video –  Read 23 papers and watch 8 hours of panels and forums on 17 electoral reforms, from the Top Two primary to independent redistricting to the National Popular Vote plan, with audience votes on relative impact and value of reforms. Participants included two Members of Congress, NBC’s Chuck Todd and leading scholars and journalists.
  11. 2015 Policy Guide – 1-page introductions and statutory language of broad range of electoral reform and voting rights proposals.   
  12. Presidential Election Analysis - Follow the 2016 presidential campaign with our presidential tracker, primary election data and regular analysis and see detailed facts and analysis from recent presidential cycles.