Four years after the 2020 Census, America’s redistricting wars are still in full swing. Rather than have fair maps for the decade, we’re instead seeing lawsuit after lawsuit and map after map. 

Passing the Fair Representation Act (FRA) would end these chaotic redistricting dramas, with: 

1. Clear national standards for congressional districts, and more importantly
2. Multi-winner districts so that the importance of how the lines are drawn will decrease greatly.

With the FRA, political wrangling over maps could be a distant memory.

Instead of a once-a-decade event, battles over redistricting have become a years-long affair. With no national law to stop partisan gerrymandering, and the Supreme Court declining to take on the issue, the process for challenging gerrymandered maps is muddled, inconsistent, and slow. Republicans currently control the House of Representatives by just five seats. With such a razor-thin margin, it could be partisan gerrymandering as much as voter preference that determines which party controls the House in 2025. 

This has led to a flurry of state and federal lawsuits, including recent dramas in North Carolina, New York, and South Carolina:

• In February 2022, the North Carolina Supreme Court struck down the congressional maps drawn by the GOP-majority state legislature as an impermissible partisan gerrymander. However, after the composition of the state Supreme Court changed following elections in November 2022, that ruling was overturned and the legislature drew a partisan gerrymander for the 2024 elections. That map is now facing federal lawsuits alleging racial gerrymandering, which could change the maps in time for the 2026 elections. From 2018 to 2026, North Carolinians could see five different congressional maps in five consecutive elections.
• In New York, a similar saga is playing out. In 2022, the Democratic-controlled legislature passed a partisan gerrymander after the state’s independent redistricting commission deadlocked. That gerrymander was struck down by New York’s highest court, which chose a map itself. Similar to North Carolina, after a new judge was appointed to the highest court, New York Democrats won a lawsuit to start a new redistricting process. The legislature overrode the map drawn by the independent redistricting commission in favor of one that is more advantageous to Democrats.
• In 2022, Alabama and Georgia held elections using congressional maps that had already been found to violate the Voting Rights Act in federal court. South Carolina will do the same this year. This uncertainty is bad for voters and elected officials alike – it’s difficult to serve constituents well if they keep changing. Ultimately, it’s possible that South Carolina voters could vote in their first fair, non-gerrymandered districts halfway through the redistricting cycle.

The Fair Representation Act would prohibit partisan gerrymandering and establish clear national standards for drawing districts. Such standards would make flip-flopping court decisions on the legality of maps far less likely, and keep redistricting to a once-a-decade phenomenon. 

More importantly, it would also create House districts of three-to-five members elected with ranked choice voting. In single-winner plurality elections, a partisan gerrymander can leave large groups of voters who support the minority party in a district completely unrepresented. 

Under the FRA, any group of voters whose size exceeds the election threshold (typically 17% to 25% depending on the district’s size) has the power to elect a representative of its choice. This increased representation with proportional RCV makes any attempt at gerrymandering much less effective. In addition, the FRA would eliminate congressional redistricting entirely in states with five or fewer House seats.

Passing the Fair Representation Act is the best way to solve partisan gerrymandering and make the House more representative! Visit FairVote Action to learn how you can help build support for the FRA.