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# Not Our Congress: New Reports Show Just How Much Our Elections Have Failed Us
- URL: https://ivn.us/not-our-congress-new-reports-show-just-how-much-our-elections-have-failed-us/
- Published: 2023-03-01T13:46:19.000Z
- Updated: 2024-01-23T01:25:40.000Z
- Author: Shawn Griffiths
- Tags: News

The 2022 midterm elections were the least competitive, and most partisan in modern history, according to new findings from the nonpartisan group, FairVote. As a result, the "People's House" isn't actually representative of the American people at all.

[FairVote](https://fairvote.org/?ref=ivn.us) released two reports this week: *[Dubious Democracy](https://fairvote.org/report/dubious-democracy-2022/?ref=ivn.us)*, which highlights the astounding lack of competition in congressional elections, and its annual *[Monopoly Politics](https://fairvote.org/report/monopoly-politics-2024/?ref=ivn.us)* report, which projects the results of congressional elections up to two years in advance.

Both reports include shocking details regarding the state of American democracy. In *Dubious Democracy*, FairVote found that 24% of eligible voters cast a ballot for a winning House candidate. This is the lowest number from the group's reports since 2014.

“It’s no surprise that Americans don’t feel represented by Congress – most of us didn’t vote for them,” said Rob Richie, President and CEO of FairVote.

The report also found that 84% percent of House races were decided by at least 10 percentage points. Two-third were decided by 20 points or more. And, the **average** margin of victory in House races was **28 points**.

“Competition is down, partisanship and gridlock are up, and the vast majority of voters are trapped in one-party districts where our votes don’t make a difference," said Richie.

*Monopoly Politics* takes a look at the "incumbency bump," or the advantage that incumbent members of Congress have when seeking reelection. Reports over recent years have found that this bump is falling --and hit another historic low in 2022.

On the surface this might sound like a good thing. But the incumbency bump is not falling because of increased competition. It is falling, FairVote says, because of "the increasing importance of whether a candidate has an R or D next to their name, and decreasing importance of their history with the community and record of constituent service."

In other words, partisanship is stronger than incumbency advantage, and is a much greater factor than who a candidate is or their record.

FairVote has made its projections for the 2024 congressional election cycle. In *Monopoly Politics*, the group predicts a record 369 safe seats. The report defines "safe" as an election that will be decided by 10+ percentage points.

This is the highest number of safe seats since 1996\. FairVote also predicts there will only be 25 true "toss=ups."