Voters cast ballots Tuesday at the Copland Center in Wyandotte, Mich.<\/p>\n
Finn Gomez\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
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Amid growing frustration with both major political parties, voters are open to some big changes.<\/p>\n
A new poll, commissioned by supporters of election reforms and shared with NPR, shows there is significant support for upending winner-take-all U.S. House elections and single-member congressional districts and instead moving toward proportional representation, a system that elects multiple representatives in a single district in rough proportion to a party's vote share.<\/p>\n
Earlier this summer, about 500 democracy and legal experts sent a letter to Congress urging members to consider proportional representation as a solution to the redistricting brinksmanship set off by President Trump last year.<\/p>\n
"There should be little doubt that the single-member district system is failing to deliver fair and representative outcomes," they wrote. "We urge Congress to adopt a proportional system of representation, solving the gerrymandering problem at its source."<\/p>\n
According to the poll conducted by the advocacy group Fix Our House and liberal think tank New America, half of 1,000 respondents said they support proportional representation, with nearly a quarter opposed. A third of those who participated said they were not sure whether they supported it or not.<\/p>\n
Lee Drutman, a senior fellow at New America, said he was surprised to see how much backing there is for proportional representation, despite the idea being fairly obscure in the United States.<\/p>\n
"It really did shock me how supportive people were of the various principles of proportional representation across the board," he told NPR.<\/p>\n
While support was highest among younger, more educated, more left-leaning voters, Drutman found that 6 in 10 Trump voters who have an opinion on proportional representation said they back it, too.<\/p>\n
Pollsters also walked respondents through some of the tradeoffs of proportional representation \u2014 including that it can lead to multiple parties having to find a way to work together.<\/p>\n
"For every one of those questions, people prefer the proportional system with multiple parties," Drutman said, "even if it leads to a coalition government that is maybe not quite as efficient."<\/p>\n
He said voters also weren't very concerned when asked about the possibility of proportional representation leading to some more extreme political parties.<\/p>\n
"One thing people said is they already think the parties are pretty extreme right now," Drutman explained. "So that's not quite the fear that some in the political class think it would be."<\/p>\n
Jocelyn Kiley, director of political research at the Pew Research Center, said voters writ large have been in a "prolonged period of disaffection with politics and the political system."<\/p>\n
She said Pew has found there is a lot of openness to reform, with nearly 70% of respondents to its polls saying they wish, at least somewhat, there were more political parties to choose from.<\/p>\n