PSL November Question

A major topic of debate today is the fairness of redistricting and congressional representation. At the moment, states’ populations are not proportional to the number of congressional representatives they have in the house, and thus, electoral votes are not equal among the states by population. For example, states with a single representative, such as Delaware, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Vermont, only receive one electoral college vote for their entire population although it is not representative of their population size. This problem is way presidential candidates, such as Donald Trump, may win the electoral vote but lose the population vote and still become the presidential elect. Congressional representation is therefore NOT representative. States with fewer people per representative hold more voting power than states with more people per representative. One solution to this problem would be to set a standard number of people per representative among every state. This way, voting power is equal to each electorate as they represent the same number of votes. Also, more frequent censuses should be conducted in the United States to ensure that the congressional representation is proportional to the constantly changing population of each state.

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