Alternatives to Single-member Plurality Districts: Legal and Empirical Issues*

While single-member districting (smd) is the most common form of representation in the U.S., apportionment schemes at the state and local level often make use of multimember districts (Klain 1955; Jewell 1971), the polar type of which is, of course, the at-Iarge election; •'̂ and in one state (New York) weighted voting is the most common of the various systems in use for county government.^ In the late 196O's and 7O's such non-smd systems have come under increasing challenge as violating 14th Amendment "equal protection" standards.