Requiring Majority Winners for Congressional Elections: Harnessing Federalism to Combat Extremism
39 Pages Posted: 11 May 2021 Last revised: 24 May 2022
Date Written: May 10, 2021
Abstract
Congress should enact a law requiring a candidate for a seat in Congress to receive a majority of votes in order to win the election. Congress should let states determine what particular procedure to use to determine whether a candidate wins a majority, as there are significantly different methods of identifying a majority winner. While this simple piece of legislation might seem inconsequential—many Americans assume, erroneously, that elections already require majority winners—it in fact would cause states to undertake a form of experimentation in the details of electoral system design that would have the effect of counteracting the threat that anti-democracy extremism currently poses in America.
Keywords: election, majority rule, polarization, ranked choice voting, plurality, Senate, primaries
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