Equal Voices Act

The Equal Voices Act seeks to fundamentally change how many Members sit in the U.S. House and how they are chosen. The bill would set the total number of Representatives so that each Member represents about 500,000 people, by taking the total U.S. population, dividing by 500,000, and rounding to the nearest odd whole number. This would increase the size of the House (roughly to the mid-600s seats, given current population). The new total would be used for apportionment after a decennial census. The bill also allows states to adopt multi-member districts (where more than one representative is elected from a district) and, if they do, may employ ranked-choice voting for those elections. Additionally, a Commission would be created to study and recommend the optimal number of House Members across censuses if population shifts create a substantial change in seats. The bill authorizes funding to support any resulting expansion in space, facilities, staff, and resources. In short, the Act aims to make each representative closer to 500,000 constituents, expand the potential size and structure of the House, and give states options to use multi-member districts with ranked-choice ballots, all while creating a mechanism to guide future adjustments after major demographic changes.