Ranked choice voting (RCV) is having and holding onto its moment in the US, displaying benefits ranging from extending the timeline of citizens' votes to cutting high election costs and yielding more diverse outcomes. These advantages have not gone unnoticed and garnered support for the system, building a robust movement for better elections. The costly midterm election season in Texas' 28th District is just one illustration of an unfortunate missed opportunity where RCV could have a huge positive impact.

This landscape leaves a question for RCV proponents: What is the best way to implement RCV across the country? Should the strategy focus on local adoption, or will it take a federal mandate?

By Katie Usalis

This was originally published in The Fulcrum on 4/15/2022.

Last month, Texas kicked off the midterm season with another batch of high-profile races going into a runoff — 23, to be exact.

Texas election law states that primary candidates must win with a majority, which becomes tricky when there are more than two candidates running. This results in an extraordinary amount of elections being forced into a runoff, where the top two candidates compete head-to-head in a second round of primary elections.

What’s so wrong with this? Two words: time and money. Both of which women candidates generally have less of.

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By Katie Usalis

Originally published in TheWrap, 3/23/2022

Elections within the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and in U.S. politics have striking similarities. The Academy has one major leg up on our politics, though: its readiness to update its rules to meet 21st-century needs and values.

By Katie Usalis

Originally published in The Fulcrum, March 9th, 2022.

March 8 was International Women’s Day, established by our foremothers in 1910 as a day for women to join together and fight for equal rights. Although it has essentially evolved into International Virtue Signaling Day by governments, corporations and groups across the globe that aren’t actually doing much for women’s rights, I think it is an important opportunity to reflect on the status of women.

We at RepresentWomen are, of course, honoring this day by reflecting on the status of women in politics.

Download Our FAQ 

A plain text version of this page is available here

Recently updated with 2021 data, this slideshow provides an overview of how the Fair Representation Act would help improve representation for women.

Download 

https://representwomen.app.box.com/embed/s/725eky8bweun00kcvkffkww5ihh9hz8g?sortColumn=date&view=list5004000

infogram_0_7b4a08b3-ec94-4608-b6ec-19fdf919d0dc2021 RCV in USA (Dynamic)https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed.js?b8etext/javascript

infogram_0_a19f1e8e-2fd8-4452-b95e-a0c073fa3ea4RCV Ballot Measure - Sample Languagehttps://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed.js?6Yatext/javascript

Released: June 2021

In 2021, we published an article in Politics and Governance on the history and impact of single- and multi-winner ranked choice voting on women’s representation in the U.S. In addition to revisiting some of the research from our 2016 and 2020 reports, this article allowed us to dig deeper into the available literature on ranked choice voting and identify knowledge gaps that should be addressed in future research. 

Read Our 2021 Article