Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T05:10:40.056Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Apportionment Matters: Fair Representation in the US House and Electoral College

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2009

Brian J. Gaines
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science and the Institute of Government and Public Affairs, University of Illinois. E-mail: [email protected]
Jeffery A. Jenkins
Affiliation:
Woodrow Wilson Department of Politics and Faculty Associate in the Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

The 2000 presidential election made various electoral institutions—from ballot format to voting mechanisms—suddenly prominent in public debate. One institution that garnered little attention, but nonetheless affected the outcome, was apportionment. A few commentators, looking ahead to 2004, noticed that Bush would have won more comfortably had the apportionment based on the 2000 census already been in place for the 2000 election. Little attention, however, was paid to the method by which 1990 census data were used to generate the 1992–2000 apportionment, even though there are many ways to perform that allocation, the United States has used different methods over its history, and the precise algorithm turned out, in this instance, to matter. More generally, previous discussions of apportionment methods have neglected the point that allocation to states of US House seats simultaneously determines Electoral College weights. Since the Electoral College has built-in biases favoring small states, an apportionment method that partially offsets this bias might be justifiable. We revisit some criteria by which one might prefer one apportionment rule to another, in light of this double duty.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

*Adams, John Quincy. 1977 [1832]. Letter to Daniel Webster. In. The Papers of Daniel Webster, ed. Wiltse, Charles M.. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.Google Scholar
Balinski, Michel L., and Young, H. Peyton. 1982. Fair Representation: Meeting the Ideal of One Man, One Vote. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
*Dean, James. 1832. Letter to Daniel Webster. Reproduced in Register of Debates, 22-1, Appendix, 4/5/1832, 98–99.Google Scholar
Edwards, George C. III. 2004. Why the Electoral College Is Bad for America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Ernst, Lawrence R. 1994. Apportionment methods for the House of Representatives and the Court challenges. Management Science 40 (10): 1207–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
*Hamilton, Alexander. 1966 [1792]. Letter to George Washington. In The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, ed. Syrett, Harold C.. New York and London: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Hardaway, Robert M. 1994. The Electoral college and the Constitution: The Case for Preserving Federalism. Westport, CT: Praeger.Google Scholar
*Hill, Joseph. 1911. Letter to William C. Huston, Chairman of the House Committee on Census. Reproduced in Apportionment of Representatives. H. Rept. 12, 62nd Congress, 1st Session, April 25, 1911.Google Scholar
*d'Hondt, Victor. 1878. La representation proportionelle des parties par un directeur. Ghent.Google Scholar
*Jefferson, Thomas. 1990 [1792]. Opinion on Apportionment Bill. In The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Cullen, Charles T.. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Kesterlman, P. 2005. Apportionment and proportionality: A measured view. Voting Matters 20: 1222.Google Scholar
Loosemore, John, and Hanby, Victor J.. 1971. The theoretical limits of maximum distortion: Some analytic expressions for electoral systems. British Journal of Political Science 1 (4): 467–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
*Sainte-Lagüe, André. 1910. La Représentation et la méthode des moindres carrés. Comptes Rendus de l'Academie des Sciences 151: 377–78.Google Scholar
Schuster, Karsten, Pukelsheim, Friedrich, Drton, Mathias, and Draper, Norman R.. 2003. Seat biases of apportionment methods for proportional representation. Electoral Studies 22 (4): 651–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seelye, Katherine Q. 2003. “Shifts in States May Give Bush Electoral Edge.” New York Times, December 2.Google Scholar
United States Department of Commerce, et al., Appellants v Montana et al. 1992. 118 L Ed 2d 87 [No. 91-860].Google Scholar
*Webster, Daniel. 1832. Committee report. Reproduced in Register of Debates, 22-1, Appendix, 4/5/1832, 92–111.Google Scholar