A good challenge, even though it may be hard for you to see how it is possible because it has not been done yet in this nation.
Let's start with Portland.
There are nine people on the city council, one of them Mayor Snyder. She is not part of the Constitutional Invocation; she will get voted in as winner-taking-all also when Local Revolutions gets its way -- unless the city decides that they don't want a Mayor anymore, but just a city manager. That could happen. Most likely, folks will still want their Mayor.
Allow me to include having 9 people on the Portland City Council nevertheless for calculations' sake.
In Proportional Voting, at least 90% of the voters are going to get the representative they voted for in one of these 9 seats.
Compare that to today. The minimum is 50% for all these district and at-large candidates. Let's consider how this impacts our red-and-blue reality.
Overall, Portland is a very Democratic bulwark, but 19% voted for Trump in 2020. The rating for Portland is: D D D D D (capital Ds for Democratic, not a regular d in sight).
So, today, all council seats went to Democrats or to Democratic leaning representatives.
The r is not found in Portland on the City Council. The R is definitively not found in Portland. Meanwhile, 19% voting for Trump indicates that at minimum 1 and perhaps 2 council members should be R or r, and today they are D, or d, and perhaps a closeted r.
So, the truth is not out there about what the voters want.
And that's just in our red-and-blue world.
In Proportional Voting, the voters can vote for red, blue, yellow, green, orange, purple, brown and pink. Next to an R, there could be a G or an L in these seats as well. Today? Not a chance.
But..., says the two-party system, you cannot run on party colors. Locally, no one can vote on party lines. And that means that the majority party may end up winning all the seats while parading a scala of differently looking representatives that nevertheless all toe a specific party line while not telling anyone that they are toeing a party line while everyone knows they are toeing a party line.
In short, Republican voters are suppressed being expressed in Portland.
In short as well, all other parties that would have gotten seats are not getting any seats in Portland.
When viewing a US City's political colors, the word monochromatic is in full force.
When viewing a City with Proportional Voting, the word will be a variation on rainbow.
What represents freedom? Monochromatic or rainbow?
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16 Counties. I picked Cumberland.
5 districts.
District voting minimum is 50% of the voters getting the one they want.
Proportional Voting with 5 seats, minimum of 83.33% of the voters getting the one they want.
Cumberland Maine: D D D D D, very liberal, even more so than Maine.
Still, 30% voted Republican in Presidential elections.
Between one and two Commissioners should be staunch Republicans.
In Proportional Voting, however, one should expect two Democrats, a Republican, a Libertarian and a Green Party County Commissioner.
Not happening today because voters are bound by majority-rule. They must pick good cop or bad cop. Pink cop is nowhere to be found.
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Envision that a vote is $10, and that in district voting you go to a store with 6 items, though with only a good chance to pick from 2 items. The majority decides which item that is.
In Proportional Voting, you still have that same $10. But now there are 20 items (for say six seats). You pick your candidate, and you either get your candidate or you get a candidate that is much like your candidate.
Which store would you prefer to spend that $10?
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Maine. Population 1.36 Million. A relatively high voter turnout: 38% for local issues in 2021 (but this was 19% in 2019).
Norway: 61% of all eligible voters showed up in local elections (not a percentage of registered voters but of all voters).
Once the local connection is severed, as it apparently is in Maine, the connection to the larger political reality is not there either (except for the specific politicians that landed a local seat wanting a further career in politics).
Voters are staying home in Maine in large numbers for local Maine elections.
In Proportional Voting, the voters are free to pick their own representatives. These are not pre-chewed by the political party in control at the local level. Voters respond because they are empowered when they are given political freedom.
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Once the local level has a rainbow of politicians at the local level (and not a rainbow of candidates all representing one party), then the political parties will start paying attention to all voters that today they are not paying at all.
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When at the local level, and blue comes in large varieties, then the voters pick the blue version they like best. A large group likes red, but they are in the minority. Blue wins.
Then, the State holds elections, and it turns out that not every place has blue representatives. There are indeed red representatives as well.
At the Federal level, Maine delivers two candidates that are not super strong either direction. A Republican leaning toward the center, and an Independent.
At the Federal level, Maine delivers two House Democrats, showing why there is an independent and a center-leaning Republican for Senators. Had these Senators not been strongly themselves while not-being Democrats, they would not have won. And at the same time, voters vote in majority for a not-democrat because they finally can.
Repeat: With 2 districts, the Democrats win both House representatives.
With one Senator at a time, the large Republican group can influence the outcome. A Democrat, going astray toward the Republican side, can win all Republican voters. Those Republicans are a major advantage. Yet better not tell them that the candidate is Democratic at heart. The Republicans happy, the Democrats happy. The Voters? Happy?
Dissatisfaction all-around because the voting system does not deliver political voting freedom. We get the person in the middle; we don’t get the one we want for ourselves. The collective decides; the individual’s freedom is muted.
Once voters at the local level can vote freely, individually, the candidates at the Federal level will be informed.
So, once it turns out that the Green Party wins 40 seats in the Maine House of Representatives, then voters will color the Independent Senator Green.
Today, they cannot, because they are held inside a straight-jacket of voters picking with a choice from among just 2 because they are forbidden to have a plethora of meaningful choices at the local level.
Once voters have access to meaningful choices at the local and State levels, the 4 Maine representatives to the Federal level are not going to be just Democrats or Republicans, or Not-Telling because I am scared.
One of them, maybe two, will be from a third and maybe a fourth party.
