Not Quite One Person, One Vote

Yesterday, the Census announced population figures for 2010. These data determine how many seats each state gets in the US House. The official Census video on reapportionment says that the process " ensures that each congressional district, from Maryland to California, has roughly the same number of people."

That is not really true.

As we point out in the chapter on campaigns and elections (p. 332), the principle of "one person, one vote" means that all districts within a state should have equal population. But this standard does not rule out variations among states. Under the Constitution, every state gets at least one representative, and fractional voting is not possible, so disparities are inevitable. Under the 2010 data, for instance, Montana's one House member will represent 994,416 people, while each of Rhode Island's two representatives will represent 527,624.

		NUMBER OF	RESIDENTS
	APPORTIONMENT	REPRESENTATIVES	PER SEAT
	POPULATION	BASED ON
STATE	(APRIL 1, 2010)	2010 CENSUS
Montana	994416	1	994416
Delaware	900877	1	900877
South Dakota	819761	1	819761
Idaho	1573499	2	786750
Oregon	3848606	5	769721
Iowa	3053787	4	763447
Louisiana	4553962	6	758994
Oklahoma	3764882	5	752976
Missouri	6011478	8	751435
Mississippi	2978240	4	744560
North Carolina	9565781	13	735829
New Jersey	8807501	12	733958
Arkansas	2926229	4	731557
Virginia	8037736	11	730703
Massachusetts	6559644	9	728849
Kentucky	4350606	6	725101
Maryland	5789929	8	723741
Ohio	11568495	16	723031
Indiana	6501582	9	722398
Alaska	721523	1	721523
Colorado	5044930	7	720704
New York	19421055	27	719298
Connecticut	3581628	5	716326
Kansas	2863813	4	715953
Illinois	12864380	18	714688
Arizona	6412700	9	712522
Wisconsin	5698230	8	712279
USA	309183463	435	710767
Tennessee	6375431	9	708381
Michigan	9911626	14	707973
Pennsylvania	12734905	18	707495
California	37341989	53	704566
Texas	25268418	36	701901
Florida	18900773	27	700029
Georgia	9727566	14	694826
Utah	2770765	4	692691
New Mexico	2067273	3	689091
Alabama	4802982	7	686140
Hawaii	1366862	2	683431
Nevada	2709432	4	677358
North Dakota	675905	1	675905
Washington	6753369	10	675337
Maine	1333074	2	666537
Minnesota	5314879	8	664360
South Carolina	4645975	7	663711
New Hampshire	1321445	2	660723
Vermont	630337	1	630337
West Virginia	1859815	3	619938
Nebraska	1831825	3	610608
Wyoming	568300	1	568300
Rhode Island	1055247	2	527624