Ranked-List Proportional Representation

American jurisdictions are considering switching to proportional representation (PR) in volumes unseen for a hundred years. But the forms of PR currently being debated have drawbacks. The most (domestically) prominent of these, proportional ranked-choice voting (P-RCV), is both vulnerable to vote leakage among parties and cognitively challenging for voters. Another salient system, open-list proportional representation (OLPR), risks underrepresenting minority voters. This Essay therefore introduces a new form of PR—ranked-list proportional representation (RLPR)—that promises to alleviate these concerns. Under RLPR, voters first vote for a single party, then rank only that party’s candidates. Voters’ party votes determine each party’s seat share, and voters’ candidate rankings establish which of each party’s candidates win its allotted seats. Like all forms of list PR, RLPR makes it impossible for votes to leak across party lines. RLPR is also cognitively simpler for voters because it asks them to rank only one party’s (not all parties’) candidates. And RLPR’s sequential reallocations of votes typically lead to proportional minority representation (both intraparty and overall). Accordingly, American jurisdictions should add RLPR to their menu of PR options for general elections. If they choose to adopt it, they should pair it with P-RCV in the primary election.