Re-apportioning the House & electoral college

[Salty]

Salty said: ↑
Not really - if all districts were equal - than a congressman would represent some 750,000 citizens.

But Wyoming only has a population of 585,000 well below the average.

That's why the right thing to do is to make every district the size of the smallest one. That increases the size of the house but it's more representative.

So another small state has a population of 750,000. How many reps would they get? If 2 - then each one represents 325,000

 

[FollowTheWay]

Salty said: ↑
Not really - if all districts were equal - than a congressman would represent some 750,000 citizens.

But Wyoming only has a population of 585,000 well below the average.



So another small state has a population of 750,000. How many reps would they get? If 2 - then each one represents 325,000

One because otherwise the smallest district would be 325K and everything recalculated.

 

[Salty]

One because otherwise the smallest district would be 325K and everything recalculated.

Here is the list of the least popular state/commonwealths

---------------------------------------------------------# of reps
35 Kansas ...............2,907,289 ..................4
36 New Mexico ...... 2,081,015 ..................3
37 Nebraska ...........1,907,116 ..................3
38 West Virginia ......1,831,102 ..................3
39 Idaho ..................1,683,140.................. 2
40 Hawaii ...............1,428,557.................. 2
41 New Hampshire 1,350,575 .................. 2
42 Maine ............... 1,341,582 ..................2
43 Montana ............1,062,330 ..................2
44 Rhode Island ......1,061,712 ..................1
45 Delaware ...............971,180 ..................1
46 South Dakota .........877,790.................. 1
47 North Dakota ..........755,238 ..................1
48 Alaska .....................738,068 ..................1
49 District of Columbia .703,608 ..................1
50 Vermont ..................623,960 ..................1
51 Wyoming .................573,720 ..................1

FTW - In your opinion - how many reps should each of the above listed
States/Commonwealths have?

 

[RighteousnessTemperance&]

Let’s focus on what is really at stake. Listen to what they are saying and what it would really mean. From the article (emphasis added, as well as []):

Rebalancing the House would be healthy for lots of reasons. Among them, urban areas would finally have equal weight, and federal dollars might start flowing in proportion to where more people live [including sanctuaried illegal aliens and non-citizens].

And while small states would lose some clout, as long as they all send two senators to Washington, they would still have an outsized say in government.​

The ratio of congressmen to senators has stayed between 3.50 and 5.05 since 1793, and between 3.95 and 4.53 since 1873, with an overall average of 4.30. The ratio was stabilized at 4.35 50 years ago. There are no good reasons to change that ratio.

Smaller states only joined the union with the understanding that they would not be overwhelmed by the larger. Further increasing seats in congress would not be a good thing. Urban areas already have far too much representative power.

 

[Salty]

So how would do it?

 

[RighteousnessTemperance&]

So how would do it?

Also, remember that what they propose (adding electors per population) aims to give more power to urban areas so that they further affect the presidential vote. They would prefer mob rule, or as close to it as they can get.

 

[Revmitchell]

I agree with Madison who helped design the original Electoral College system.

It would, however, revive a sound idea from James Madison, who helped design the original system. He had proposed a constitutional amendment that would have guaranteed an increase in the size of the House to keep up with population growth. It wasn’t adopted.

The current system disproportionately gives power to small states that are not growing.

This post shows you do not understand the electoral college or the founding of the country.

 

[Salty]

I agree with Madison who helped design the original Electoral College system.

It would, however, revive a sound idea from James Madison, who helped design the original system. He had proposed a constitutional amendment that would have guaranteed an increase in the size of the House to keep up with population growth. It wasn’t adopted.

The current system disproportionately gives power to small states that are not growing.

FTW - can you provide a link for the proposed amendment?

 

[RighteousnessTemperance&]

FTW - can you provide a link for the proposed amendment?

He did. It’s the first one in the PDF linked in "constitutional amendment."

 

[Salty]

I agree with Madison who helped design the original Electoral College system.

It would, however, revive a sound idea from James Madison, who helped design the original system. He had proposed a constitutional amendment that would have guaranteed an increase in the size of the House to keep up with population growth. It wasn’t adopted.

However the COTUS Article 1 - Section 2 - states in part : "The number of representatives shall not exceed one
for every thirty thousand, but each State shall have at least one Representative..." Thus the proposed amendment was unnecessary.

The current system disproportionately gives power to small states that are not growing.

NO!!!

15 States/Commonwealths have 3 or less Representatives, for a total of 26 members.
26 members = 5.97% of the House.

So please explain how those 15 States/Commonwealths can have any real power with only 5% of the vote.
And keep in mind - in this day and age - Representation, in the House for the most part, is no longer based on
States/Commonwealths but rather on political affiliation. -


NOW - seeing that the House is based more on politics - how about this solution:

Representation would be based on party affiliation, utilizing voter registration roles.
If the Democrats have 39.2% of all registered voters - then the Democratic Party
(thur popular vote) would have 39.2% of the House (39.2 divide by 435 = 170 reps.
If the Green Party has 1.4 % of registered voters - their allocation would be 4 seats.
If the (Jerry) Farwell/Pat Robertson Party has 0.44% = 2 House seats.

 

[church mouse guy]

How about leaving the American Republic alone!

 

[Salty]

How about leaving the American Republic alone!

So you are saying you disapprove of the 27 amendments to the COTUS?

 

[church mouse guy]

So you are saying you disapprove of the 27 amendments to the COTUS?

Thank you! I see that my statement is vague. I intended it to be specific about the structure of Congress and the Electoral College, which I do not want changed. Why should I? I am from a smaller state with a mostly rural or small town population in the middle of the rust belt. We had eight years of stagnation and decay under Obama and if the Democrats could extract more money from rural people, then city people would reduce us to absolute poverty and starvation while they spent the country into another Cuba. Remember the Democrats are not the CEOs of the large companies.

I am not so sure that I like the one where Pelosi is in line to be President. And no one likes the one about the income tax. But on the issue of changing the setup of the Congress or the Electoral College, I want no changes.

 

[FollowTheWay]

FTW - can you provide a link for the proposed amendment?

The link is in the quote, "constitutional amendment."