"Would America benefit from proportional representation?"
"Yes.
Before I get into the positives and negatives that come with using such a system, an explanation of our current system is in order. Currently, the United States uses a system called Single Member District Plurality (SMDP). The system is pretty self-explanatory: an election for one member of a legislature or local council is decided by whoever has the most votes, regardless of whether the top finisher gets 50 percent of the vote. The only states where this is not the case is in Louisiana and Washington, where the top two vote getters in all elections proceed to a runoff election if no one gets above 50 percent of the vote (with the passing of Proposition 14, California will also be added to this list). The SMDP system is also used in the United Kingdom, Canada, and South Korea."
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