Representation - Proper Numbers in the House

[Online Professor]

Proper Representation in Congress

In the 1870 census it was reported that the population of the United States was 39,818,449. This meant there should have been 1,328 Representatives in Congress and therefore, 665 Representatives would need to be seated, to form a quorum. As you can see from the table however, there were only 293 Congressional Districts in 1870; 372 members short of the 665 needed to conduct business and a full 1,035 seats short of the Constitutional mandate issued in Article One.

Therefore, the United States Congress was operating without a quorum in 1870 and has been unconstitutionally operating without a quorum ever since 1840. To this day, this problem has still not been corrected. In fact, it has grown exponentially instead.

With a population of 308,400,408 million people, there should have been 10,280 Representatives, NOT 435. With 9,845 vacant seats there is no quorum, so in order to conduct business, the House would need to have at least half of the 10,280 seats filled. This translates to at least 5,140 Representatives present to do business.

Table by: Morton IX

Population * - 3/5 Rule applies	Existing Members	Article I, Section 2, Clause 3	Deficit	Census Year
3,584,570*	65	120	55	1787
3,929,214*	105	131	26	1790
5,308,483*	141	177	36	1800
7,239,881*	182	242	60	1810
9,638,453*	213	322	109	1820
12,866,020*	240	429	189	1830
17,069,453*	223	569	346	1840
23,191,876*	233	774	541	1850
31,443,321*	178	1,049	871	1860
39,818,449	293	1,328	1,035	1870
50,155,783	325	1,672	1,347	1880
62,947,714	333	2,099	1,766	1890
75,994,575	386	2,534	2,148	1900
91,972,266	391	3,066	2,675	1910
105,710,620	435	3,524	3,091	1920
122,775,046	435	4,093	3,658	1930
131,669,275	435	4,389	3,954	1940
150,697,361	435	5,024	4,589	1950
179,323,175	435	5,978	5,543	1960
203,302,031	435	6,777	6,342	1970
226,545,805	435	7,552	7,117	1980
248,709,873	435	8,291	7,856	1990
281,421,906	435	9,381	8,946	2000
308,400,408	435	10,280	9,845	2010
331,108,434	435	11,036	10,601	2020

 

[David Shipp]

In approximatlyu 1984 the original First amenment became the 27th amendment due to a college student who understood teh contitution much better than his professor. The professor who , like a normal liberal, worked off the premise that ideas are "common Sense' rather than facts, gave teh student a poor mark for his paper about amendments. This led the student to persue his idea and he was intrumental in having the 27th amendment retified. This became the longest period from congress to ratification or over 202 years.  Now, my question for all who read this,; Does any one know who this student was and is he still alive and how can he be contacted?  I wish to find out how he accomplished getting the original first amendment passed and can we do that for the original second amendment?  In researching the dangers of a COS, I find there is little information on how to rarify an amendment. Once "The States" are in charge of ratification, all bets are off as far as what rules will be followed. It seems as though any state congressmand may go to the house of REpresentatives and say that My State has ratified this amendment and that is it. Ratified by one of 3/5ths  Then it snowballs if popular with in the states.

[David Shipp]

I would love to see proper representation. The knee jerk reaction is that we would need a stadium for congress. In reality, representatives would NOT need an office or presence in Washington at all. They would ONLY need an office in their community.  I love this.