Earlier this month, the House of Representatives expelled New York Rep. George
Santos following a damning report by the House Ethics Committee. Donate Today
Dear John,
Earlier this month, the House of RepresentativesexpelledNew York Rep. George
Santos following a damning report by the House Ethics Committee. News outlets
have highlighted Santos’s tumultuous tenure as proof that Congress ischaoticand
vitriolic. But Santos isn’t the only, or the biggest, reason why.
Let’s take a look at this year in Congress by the numbers. We’ve had:
* 1 debt ceiling scare
* 2 government shutdown scares
* 2 members indicted
* 2 near-fistights
* 3 members censured
* 19 votes for speaker
* 38 retirements announced
And for all that,just22 billshave been passed into law.
Why is Congress broken?
Congress is broken, in part, due to the incentives in our elections.Toxic
partisan gerrymanderingandour political geographyare shifting more and more
electoral competition to primaries, where members can often win with just20 or
30 percentof the vote – a tiny fringe of their party. And when voters can only
pick one choice, there’s little reason for candidates to reach out to anyone
beyond their most committed supporters.
This year, those factors have resulted in a few House members – chosen by a
fraction of a fractionof the electorate – holding Congress hostage for months at
a time. Take this fall's House speaker crisis, created by just eight members –
six of whom were first elected without even winning a majority of primary voters
in their hyper-partisan districts! There’s never a good time for our government
to be so dysfunctional, but with several international crises ongoing, right now
is especially bad.
What can we do about it?
Thankfully, there are oven-ready reforms that can help fix Congress, and they’re
gaining traction with voters, elected officials, and the media.
Ranked choice votinglets voters rank candidates in order of preference. This
simple change ensures our elected leaders have broad public support, gives
candidates a reason to reach out to more voters, and turns down the temperature
of our elections. Voters supported RCV inall seven citieswhere it was on the
ballot this year, and it has picked up recent endorsements from U.S. SenatorsJoe
Manchin,Mitt Romney, andLisa Murkowski, among others.
TheFair Representation Actwould combine ranked choice voting with multi-member
House districts – breaking the power of gerrymandering and shifting competition
back to general elections where more voters can weigh in. This “gold standard”
reform would ensure nearly every American can elect someone they support to
Congress – giving better representation to urban Republicans, rural Democrats,
communities of color, and everyone in between.
When a Democrat and Republican are both representing the same multi-member
district, they might be more likely to work together and solve problems than
throw (sometimes literal) punches.
The Fair Representation Act just received aspotlight on NPR, and was previously
endorsed by theNew York Times.
We’re excited to continue advocating for both ranked choice voting and the Fair
Representation Act in the new year. Thank you for supporting us in that effort.
Sincerely,
Ryan J. Suto
Interim Government Affairs Director and Senior Policy Advisor
P.S., Our Research and Policy Director Deb Otiswas recently interviewedfor
Ballotpedia's On the Ballot podcast. Give it a listen when you have a chance!
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