Question:

“Redistricting is a big issue in many states including Ohio, however that only addresses party imbalances inside a single state, not the representation imbalance that exists between the states.  A look at the apportionment of Congressional Representatives in the House reveals the extremes of this disparity – Wyoming’s 579,315 citizens and Montana’s 1,050,493 citizens are each represented by a single Representative in the House, arguably giving each Wyoming constituent a greater share of representation than each of Montana’s.  Moreover the District of Columbia’s 601,767 citizens have zero voting representation in Congress, nor do the more than 4 million American citizens in Puerto Rico, Guam, etc.  Is there a way to change Congressional apportionment in the House to make it “fair”?  If yes, how? If no, why not?

Answer:

According to the Reapportionment Act of 1929, there can only be a maximum of 435 representatives in the House of Representatives. One way to make the voter representation in the House of Representatives more even is to repeal this act and increase the amount of representatives until each district equals one of Wyoming’s, or something similar. This would be hard to pass in Congress, with areas such as those that have more representation per person, they would be more likely to vote down on the issue. Also, depending on demographics, each party may be against it, not over whether it would help or hurt the people, but because it could change the party balance.

An extremely outlandish way to even out representation, is to have House districts not rely on state borders. While this would make it possible to make districts less partisan, and allow for a more equal representation, it is extremely out there and would not be feasible in the current political climate. The only way to make work, would be to dismantle the electoral college and and basically get rid of the whole concept of federalism. It would undermine state’s rights and allow for a more nationally centered government. Again, this plan is not feasible and could never be implemented.

One of these two options could work regarding representation for the District of Columbia. The first option, the better one, is to give the District of Columbia one representative. This would give them representation, at least in the House, similar to Wyoming. In turn though, they would not be able to elect any Senators because they are not a state. The reason that they would not get a Senator but still a Representative is because the District of Columbia is the nation’s capital, but it is not at the same level as state, giving it only some of the privileges.

The second option would be to split the District of Columbia into two separate ‘mini-districts.’ One district would then attach to one of Maryland’s, and one will become part of one of Virginia’s district. This is the less feasible option because this might not be something that either the state of Maryland or the state of Virginia would agree to. It also would give roughly 150,000 people to a district in each state, making those districts’ representation lower. Again, this is an option that would be almost impossible to implement, so the first option would be better.

In terms of Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories they should not get representation because they are not stated. Puerto Rico has repeatedly elected to not become a state so they should not have representation. It would be fine if they had a spectator in the House and the Senate, but no actually representative. If any of these territories wanted representatives then they should vote for statehood. Without that they should not have a Congressman or woman.

Representation in government has always been a tenant of our country and it is important that citizens of the United States get that representation. Even with that though there are limits on who can get that representation. As of now representation is delegated only to the states and it should not change much from this. The only group that should also be allowed representation is the District of Columbia, and that is even only partial representation. No other groups should be allowed to have a representative in our government unless they are a state.

For politics, society, and law scholars my peer mentor is Bren Moreno. She is a fourth year biology and bioethics major. Along with being involved in PSL, she is also in the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority. She really enjoys spending time with her AGD sisters especially when participating in philanthropy.

Since Bren started college her perception has really changed. At first she found school super overwhelming, but as time went on she found that the campus seemed smaller and now that she’s a senior “you know where things are and that’s what’s crazy about it.” She said that she stopped second guessing herself once she figured things out. Ev en being a senior she still has not done everything on campus. One thing that she still wants to do is go to the pool.

Even though she has had a lot memories in college her favorite is from one of her first few weeks on campus. During her first football game, when everyone linked up and sang Carmen Ohio at the end, she almost started crying, and to this day this is her most memorable moment in college.