bobharan2004
Dec 18, 2017
Voting and Elections
Gerrymandering is a problem the founding fathers didn’t foresee when they met in Philadelphia in 1787. They didn’t foresee the problem of how to draw congressional district lines because it was never their intent to cut up the states into artificial districts. According to the Constitution, the House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen by the, “People of the several States.” In setting the residency requirement for members the House, the Constitution simple says that a member be an Inhabitant of the State. Nothing in Article 1 of the Constitution, which created the legislative branch, says anything about congressional districts. The solution to the problem of gerrymandering is simple, don’t divide the states up into artificial districts which basically rig elections to favor one party over another. If a member of congress is supposed to represent the people of an entire state shouldn’t the people of the entire state have a vote in their selection? Instead of trying to solve the problem of how to fairly draw district lines by drawing the lines differently, erase the lines and elect the entire house congressional delegation, at-large. Each voter would have one vote and the candidates with the most votes, equal to the number of representatives allotted to the state, would become the members of the House of Representatives from the state. This method would also give minority parties a better chance of having representation in Congress. Bob Haran, Arizona.
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