Charles Rollin Buckalew (December 28, 1821 – May 19, 1899) was an American lawyer, diplomat, and Democratic Party politician from Pennsylvania.

He was a graduate of Harford Academy, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, where he studied law.

In a number of speeches, notably in the Senate on July 11, 1867; at a large public meeting in Philadelphia in November of the same year; before the Social Science Association at Philadelphia in October 1870; and in the Senate of Pennsylvania on March 27, 1871; as well as in the report of the Select Committee on Representative Reform of the United States Senate, of which be was chairman, Buckalew argued persuasively for the use of cumulative voting in the election of representatives in Congress, state legislatures, town councils and other bodies.

He resumed the practice of law when he left Congress in 1891, age 69, in Bloomsburg, Columbia County, where he died on May 19, 1899.

[1] Buckalew's writings and speeches on cumulative voting were collected in an 1872 book titled Proportional Representation.