Frank Schmidt wrote: >> Even better! >> A post I wrote last October: >> >> The problem with the electoral college is not in the electoral >> college, but in the way populations are represented in Congress. I >> would think that this lack of representation on an everyday basis >> would be of much greater concern. >> >> Just to make sure my message is clear: *The Problem Is A Lack Of >> Fair >> Representation* >> >> Using Wyoming as a benchmark, where you have 1 congressperson per >> (roughly) 500,000 people, 2 Senators (as always) and 3 Electoral >> votes. >> >> Compare to California where you have 1 Congressperson per 639,088 >> people, 2 Senators, and 55 Electoral votes. >> That doesn't sound all that bad offhand, but if California had >> representation equal to Wyomings you would get 67 Congresspersons >> and >> 69 Electoral votes. That is a net gain of 12 Congresspersons and 14 >> Electoral votes. >> >> This lack of representation effects at least 48 states that I can >> identify. Of those states, 25 are short one representative, and 10 >> are shorted by 2. Only Iowa and DC are represented in the same >> proportion as Wyoming and the rest are shorted between 3 and 14 >> representatives. >> >> Law limits Congress to 435 Representatives, but if representation >> were proportional there would be 549, an increase of 114 >> representatives. I do not see why this number should be unwieldy or >> why it would cause difficulty. >> >> xponent >> Census Data Maru >> rob > > The difficulty is, when you have done the above and look at the new > data, you'll find another state which is better represented than any > other. I think the current system is so designed that it minimizes > the difference between the actual number of Representatives (in > Wyoming 1) and the deserved number (in Wyoming about 0.8), so your > proposed change would probably make the situation much less > desireable by your standards. > > I find the difference between the voters for district winners and > the > voters for other candidates more of a problem. The first group has > 435 > Representatives, the other has none. The real problem is that the > most > voters will either always be in the first group, or always be in the > second group; relatively few change between the groups. Many in the > losing group have already given up voting because of that.
I think you miss the point by some margin here. Regardless of what party a Representative belongs to, that Rep is still responsible to everyone in his district in the sense that the Rep is the person one goes to with a grievence or a plan. I would have no problem asking Tom Delay (Ugh.....my congressman....and one I would never under any circumstances vote for) for help with some matter, because that is part of his job. I don't have to like my Rep in order to apply for his services. The other issue is representation. My state is unfairly represented when compared to Wyoming or Alaska. And that unfairness spreads even to representation by electors in presidential elections. Who is elected is irrelevent. What is relevent is that my vote is worth less in every way measurable than a voter in Wyoming. That is unfair and should be redressed. Will it change things in a manner which I favor? Well.....Bush might still have been elected under my proposal, but that would be OK because it would have been a fairer election. There is no blaming or finger pointing involved here actually. It took many years before our system got so skewed and I don't think many people realize just how much it could effect "the wishes of the people as filtered through the college of electors". I have not tried to calculate (I realize this would be hard to make accurate in any case since I cannot predict electoral district boundries in states that have more electors) how this would have changed the most recent election. I don't think I would be happy (nor would the opposition) to find that a fair representation would have changed the results, so I have not even given it thought. I have a greater interest in fairness than winning in any case. xponent No Taxation Yadda Yadda Maru rob _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
