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A plural district or multi-member district refers to an electoral district in the United States of America which can send multiple individuals to represent the same district. Currently, these districts exist only at the level of state and local governments. Such districts existed during multiple periods in the United States House of Representatives, with multiple prohibitions and allowances being enacted throughout history. The first federal (national) ban on multi-member districts for the House was by the 1842 Apportionment Bill. Currently, multi-member districts for the House are banned by the Uniform Congressional District Act. States which used multi-member districts to elect multiple members to the House did so from some of their geographically defined districts. They did so on a single ballot (block voting) or on separate concurrent ballots for each seat (conducting multiple plurality elections).
Multi-member districts give more populous counties or established Congressional Districts fair representation without redistricting (specifically, dividing them). Multi-member districts exist in other countries and bodies.
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There are several states which allow one district to elect more than one representative to the state legislature. Some states which employ this system appear below.[1][2][3]
The states below always use multi-member districts.[2]
- Arizona
- New Jersey
- South Dakota
- Washington
This is a table of every instance of the use of plural districts in the United States Congress until the first hand that was enacted in 1842. Instances after are not included.
| Congress | State:plural district(s) (#detailed) |
|---|---|
| 3rd | MA:13 (#1, 2, 3, 4) |
| 4th | PA:2 (#4) |
| 5th | |
| 6th | |
| 7th | |
| 8th | MD:2 (#5), PA:8 (#1, 2, 3, 4) |
| 9th | MD:2 (#5), NY:2 (#2 combined with 3), PA:8 (#1, 2, 3, 4) |
| 10th | |
| 11th | MD:2 (#5), NY:4 (#2, 6), PA:8 (#1, 2, 3, 4) |
| 12th | |
| 13th | MD:2 (#5), NY:12 (#1, 2, 12, 15, 20, 21), PA:14 (#1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10), NJ:6 (#1, 2, 3) |
| 14th | MD:2 (#5), NY:12 (#1, 2, 12, 15, 20, 21), PA:14 (#1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10) |
| 15th | |
| 16th | |
| 17th | MD:2 (#5), NY:10 (#1, 2, 12, 15, 20), PA:14 (#1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10) |
| 18th | MD:2 (#5), NY:7 (#3, 20, 26), PA:14 (#4, 7, 8, 9, 11, 16) |
| 19th | |
| 20th | |
| 21st | |
| 22nd | |
| 23rd | NY:12 (#3, 8, 17, 22, 23), PA:5 (#2, 4) |
| 24th | MD:2 (#4), NY:12 (#3, 8, 17, 22, 23), PA:5 (#2, 4) |
| 25th | |
| 26th | |
| 27th |
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- Theory and principles
- Electoral district § District magnitude, the number of members per district
- Compatible with
- Block voting, a vote/ballot for multiple members to be returned, usually on a first-past-the-post plurality basis
- First-past-the-post, a vote/ballot for one member to be returned, on a plurality basis
- Multiple ballots, one per designated seat, using system above
- Proportional representation, any voting system which seeks to result in representation in proportion to the number of respective votes cast in an election, or multi-member district, overall
- General ticket – the return of a single winning party or team's candidates for a set of electoral districts, or for each multi-member district which uses it
- Representation at-large – a representative/territory being undivided for every purpose as to a representative body. The most populous at large districts/regions tend to be multi-member
- Multi-member districts
- State constitutions in the United States
- State legislatures
- State legislature (United States)
- List of United States state legislatures
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