A History of Full Representation Experimentation and
SuccessDespite widespread dissatisfaction with our political
process, most policymakers tinker only at the edges of our
electoral systems and have not seriously revisited their basic
design and structure in decades. However, there is a forgotten
history of full representation experimentation and success. John
Adams, one of our founding fathers stated that our government
“should be in miniature an exact portrait of the people at
large. It should think, feel, reason, and act like them…. Great
care should be taken to effect this, and to prevent unfair,
partial, and corrupt elections.” Throughout our nation’s
history, many communities did just that, by implementing full
representation voting systems that would bring our elected
bodies closer to Adams’ ideal of a reflection of the population.
For a century Illinois elected its state legislature through
cumulative voting, while dozens of U.S. cities adopted choice
voting to promote fairer representation and bette