Editing Gerrymandering (section)

===Changing the voting system===
As gerrymandering relies on the wasted-vote effect, the use of a different voting system with fewer wasted votes can help reduce gerrymandering. In particular, the use of [[multimember district]]s alongside voting systems establishing [[proportional representation]] such as [[party-list proportional representation]] or [[single transferable voting]] can reduce wasted votes and gerrymandering. Semiproportional voting systems such as [[single nontransferable vote]] or [[cumulative voting]] are relatively simple and similar to ''[[first past the post]]'' and can also reduce the proportion of wasted votes and thus potential gerrymandering. Electoral reformers have advocated all three as replacement systems.<ref>See, e.g., Richard L. Engstrom, The Single Transferable Vote: An Alternative Remedy for Minority Vote Dilution, 27 U.S.F.L.Rev. 781, 806 (1993) (arguing that the Single Transferable Voting systems maintain minority electoral opportunities); Steven J. Mulroy, Alternative Ways Out: A Remedial Road Map for the Use of Alternative Electoral Systems as Voting Rights Act Remedies, 77 N.C.L.Rev. 1867, 1923 (1999) (concluding that ranked-ballot voting systems avoid minority vote dilution); Steven J. Mulroy, The Way Out: A Legal Standard for Imposing Alternative Electoral Systems as Voting Rights Remedies, 33 Harv.C.R.-C.L.L.Rev. 333, 350 (1998) (arguing that preferential voting systems enhance minority representation); and Alexander Athan Yanos, Note, Reconciling the Right to Vote With the Voting Rights Act, 92 Colum.L.Rev. 1810, 1865–66 (1992) (arguing that Single Transferable Voting serves to preserve the minority party's right to representation).</ref>

Electoral systems with various forms of proportional representation are now found in nearly all European countries, resulting in multi-party systems (with many parties represented in the parliaments) with higher voter attendance in the elections,<ref>{{Citation|last1=Pintor|first1=Rafael López|title=Voter Turnout Rates from a Comparative Perspective|url=http://www.idea.int/publications/vt/upload/Voter%20turnout.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070216045624/http://www.idea.int/publications/vt/upload/Voter%20turnout.pdf |archive-date=16 February 2007 |url-status=live|access-date=7 March 2014|last2=Gratschew|first2=Maria|last3=Sullivan|first3=Kate}}</ref> fewer wasted votes, and a wider variety of political opinions represented.

Electoral systems with election of just one winner in each district (i.e., "winner-takes-all" electoral systems) and no proportional distribution of extra mandates to smaller parties tend to create two-party systems. This effect, labeled ''[[Duverger's law]]'' by political scientists, was described by [[Maurice Duverger]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Duverger|first=Maurice|url=http://archive.org/details/politicalparties0000duve|title=Political parties: their organization and activity in the modern state|date=1964|location=London  |publisher= Methuen|page= 217|isbn=978-0-416-68320-2}}</ref>