Congressional Redistricting

Every ten years the United States goes through two related procedures following the federal census: (1) reapportionment, which is a process of reallocating seats in the House of Representatives to the states based on population and; (2) redistricting, which is the process whereby state governments redraw congressional district lines to create districts with more or less the same number of residents in each district.

The first of these processes is mathematical.

The second process is political. There is no mathematical approach that will reliably meet the criteria established by law and by federal courts.

What does the US Constitution say about congressional districts? Nada. Zilch. Representatives are allocated to states by state population and representatives must reside in the state they represent. No mention of districts. Then there is the requirement of the fourteenth amendment for equal protection of the laws. The Court has ruled this means "one person, one vote."

The constitution also provides there may not be more than one representative per thirty thousand population, but there must be at least one representative from each state.

The total number of representatives is set by law, not by the constitution. The last time the number was increased was in 1913, when each member represented about 200,000 voters. Following this year's reapportionment, each member will represent about 710,000 voters.

If you find it hard to get your representative's attention, this is certainly one reason.

When citizens of other western democracies learn about our redistricting system, they are puzzled. Most have some form of proportional representation, which requires no redistricting.