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Show 248 Oakley B. Gordon MAKING REPRESENTATIVE REPRESENTATIVES, A CASE FOR MODIFIED SINGLE TRANSFERABLE VOTING IN AMERICAN ELECTION Oakley B. Gordon (John Francis) Department of Political Science University of Utah honors college spring 2012 It is accepted by the free world that rulers of government should represent and be elected by their citizenry. It is further accepted that at least one body within a government should be com-prised of many elected officials, thereby allowing a greater representation of the sentiments of the electorate than the election of one ruler. America and its states are among the many govern-ments that adhere to these assumptions, as each have large elected deliberative bodies charged with representing the people within their jurisdictions. Both American and foreign 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 elec-tions that would be more sensitive and reflective of the will of the electorate. John Francis |