One Person One Vote - Baker V. Carr

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In a pure democracy the principle of one person one vote is required, but in the form of government created by our founding fathers the principle of one man one vote only applies electing members to the House of Representatives.

In order to present t the tyranny of the majority, our founding fathers decided to a direct election in the House, but an indirect election in the Senate. This model provided an important check and balance that would protect a minority from the abuse of power by a majority.

The Supreme Court has ruled numerous times that one person's vote must be counted equal in the state legislative bodies. Before Baker v Carr, Reynolds v Sims and the states had a bicameral legislatures with one house representing the people and one house representing the people. The senators represented the counties equally and the assembly represented the people at large. This is the same model used by the federal government with the states being represented equally in the senate and the people of the states being represented based on their population.The principle of one person one vote is applicable in the House of Representatives, but is not in the Senate. In the chart below you will notice that the people in the states are not equally represented in their legislatures.

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Apportionment.us                          Thirty Thousand.Org


The larger the assembly district the more expensive it is to run for office. The average winner of a seat in the California Assembly spent over $700,000 to get elected, In most states it costs less than $50,000 to run for office.

To re-apportion our state legislature, two thirds of the senators and two thirds of the assemblymen and women most vote on a Constitutional amendment. Then the voters of the state would need to vote on the proposed amendment.

If the state legislators refuse to fix the problem, it will be up to the people to amendment the Constitution through a ballot initiative.

In the New Hampshire states Assembly there are 400 Assemblymen representing the state's 1.3 million people, while in California their state Assembly has 80 assemblymen representing nearly 40 million people. The ratio in New Hampshire is one representative for every 3,327. The people in California have a ratio of one representative for every 487,000 people.

 

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  • The Men Who Elected George Washington

    In a pure democracy all of the eligible voters participate in the direct election of the President. In our republic the President is elected by representatives of the people in indirect elections.

    Our system of government employs both a direct election of representatives in the House and an indirect election in the Senate.

    If senators and representatives were both chosen in direct election  a tyranny of the majority could deprive the minority of their rights. This system converts our bicameral legislature into a unicameral legislature with two houses representing the same constituency.

    The candidate winning the popular vote is a state receives all of the state's electoral votes. The system of winner take all disenfranchises the minority and violates the principle of one man one vote.

    By abolishing the Electoral College we convert our Constitutional Republic in to a Democracy.

    A National Popular Vote would give the states with the largest populations with power to dominate the people living in the smaller states. The Electoral College was created to prevent the tyranny of the majority.

    The Constitution mandates that each state is entitled to one representative for every 30,000 inhabitants. Today the average Congressional District has over 700,000 constituents. We should have over 10,000 Congressional Districts and one Presidential elector for each representative. 

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