Personally Accountable Representation (PAR) is a process by which each lawmaker becomes directly responsible to a group of citizens who all share his or her political outlook. To create this relationship between each representative and his or her constituents requires the following steps:
1) The community schedules an election in which all the candidates will compete for all the seats in one combined election or in districts with at least four representatives.
2) Candidates get on the ballot by winning a party’s nomination or by obtaining a sufficient number of voter signatures.
3) The local election board circulates basic information about all candidates to all potential voters.
4) On Election Day, each voter gets a “preferential ballot.” Each voter can mark which candidate is his or her first choice, second choice, and so on.
5) When the ballots are counted, the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated from the running. All the votes for that candidate go to his voters’ second choices. Then, the next candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. All the votes for her go to her voters’ next choices. In this way, the lowest drawing candidates are eliminated one by one. Candidates are eliminated until the number remaining equals the number of seats to be filled.
6) The day after the election, every voter is mailed a card that lists the election winners. Each voter is asked (but not required) to check off the name of the winner that he or she prefers and mail the card to that winner. Each representative thereby gets his or her constituents’ names and addresses. So he can send his voters regular reports about what he is doing in the legislature.
7) Each lawmaker gets voting power proportional to the number of his or her voters.
PAR Offers The Following Advantages Over Other Election Methods: