United States Congressional Apportionment - Apportionment Methods

Apportionment Methods

Apart from the requirement that the number of delegates for each state is at least one, a state's number of representatives is in principle proportional to population, thus assuring reasonably consistent representation to the people regardless of the state boundaries and populations. No method of calculating a fair distribution of voting power across the various states was known until recently and five distinct apportionment methods have been used since the adoption of the Constitution, none of them producing fully proportional distribution of power among the states. Some of these methods were even susceptible to the apportionment paradox. In 2008, however, a so-called One-Person-One-Vote model was introduced by J. Toplak in Temple Law Review, which distributes the states' power in the House of Representatives exactly 'according to their Numbers'. Under this system, however, members of the House of Representatives do not have equal voting power. The method would be constitutional since the U.S. Constitution does not require Congressmen to have equal voting powers but does require the voters to have votes of equal weight.