Should the US change its voting system?

[Chief Justice Keef]

A big complaint this election cycle is that many Americans are tired of the two-party system and the "lesser of two evils" situation, citing the massive unpopularity of the two main candidates this election cycle that will still most likely earn over 90% of the vote.

This can be attributed as a common symptom of "first-past-the-post" voting, which basically says that whichever candidate gets the most votes wins the election. Unfortunately, this doesn't allow for political diversity because strategic voting becomes an issue. It doesn't make sense why you'd have multiple parties on both sides of the political spectrum when having two parties to represent the left and right makes more sense in terms of political power. It's called Duverger's law, which states that first-past-the-post systems will favor a two-party system.

So, for the inclusion of political diversity, should the US change it's voting system to allow for the inclusion of more political parties? Possible alternatives could include mixed-member proportional representation or a single transferrable vote system.

[Chief Justice Keef]

I believe a mixed-member proportional system would be best for future elections. You can watch CGP Grey's video on the system (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT0I-sdoSXU), but basically citizens would vote twice, for their favorite political party and their preferred candidate. The number of seats are doubled in this case. After the vote is counted, members of each political party would be assigned to the seats proportional to the popular vote. I imagine the proportions would be based on the popular vote in each region.

For example, if the popular vote in Washington reads 55% Democrat, 40% Republican and 5% Libertarian this November, and Washington has 20 seats (double its current total of 10), then Democrats would earn 11 seats, Republicans would earn 8 seats and Libertarians would earn 1 seat.

This would best reflect the actual totals of the popular vote, and it wouldn't scare away voters from third parties because it ensures a better likelihood of representation, which right now is the ultimate goal of third parties. Along with that, it would help prevent gerrymandering and minority rule, because the represenatives would represent the actual popular vote. This could help prevent situations like Ohio, which is considered a swing state yet 75% of the districts are held by Republicans.