Electing representative representatives: a case for modified single transferable voting in American legislative elections

American government is founded upon the principle that its rulers should represent and be elected by its citizenry. To this end, America and its states elect large deliberative bodies charged with representing the people within their jurisdictions. The architects of federal and state governments, however, have struggled to create a voting system that elects legislative bodies which accurately represent their electorates. This paper first examines the successes and failures to create such a system in America. Most importantly, it proposes that adopting three-member districts and a modified version of single transferable voting would be the best system with which to elect members of Congress and the state legislatures. These changes would create competitive elections that would be more sensitive and reflective of the will of the electorate.