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Determining House Districts

The Intersection of Politics and “Creative” Drawing…

Part1: Determine the # of Reps in each state

**To start off the process, we have to know the total population of the US….- How do we determine the total population of the

US? 1) Take a census of

the US = about 308 million people

Once we know this number, we have our starting point…

US Population Distribution by county

Now we need to know how many people will be in each/every

districtWe must determine a “target” number of

how many people per district on averageSo that every district is equal…or close to it.

One person, one vote…

How might we determine that “target” # (the # of people that would be in any/every district)?

The Target # Average number of people in

each district…

2) Divide the total population by the # of House seats

Target # = 308,000,000 / 435Target # = About 710,000 people

per district

How many districts will each state get?

Once we know average population of each district, we can then determine how many we should give to each state.

3) Divide the population of each state by the target #

How many districts would PA get?

PA pop. (13 million) / 708,000 = # of PA districts

What is the number? (you already know it…)

Handing out the seats**At this point, the math is done and Congress

distributes the seats to each state….

4) Apportionment – distributing seats to each state based on answer to #3

**Every 10 years, seats are reapportioned according to changes in state populations

As the population of the US increases generally, what happens to the “target #”?Will the target # ever get “too large”? What might have to happen then?

Part 2: Drawing New District Boundaries (if necessary)

**State legislatures have the job of drawing boundaries for US House districts Both Democrats and Republicans in the

state legislature draw up a plan for district boundaries

They will use census data, such as party affiliation, voting records, and race and religious data to help them.

A vote is taken to approve a plan (maj plan wins)

The Basic Rules

Because of abuses by states, the Supreme Court has ruled that when drawing districts, at least 2 rules must be followed:1) Must be compact and contiguous

All parts must touch, and it must be as geographically small as possible

2) Must have about the same number of people

All districts must be as nearly equal in population as possible