Section I —The Promise: A Representative House
A. Drafting the Constitution — On September 17, 1787, the final day of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, a momentous last-minute revision was made to reduce the minimum from 40,000 to 30,000.
B. Selling the Constitution — In 1788, the Federalist Papers projected the size of the House would grow to 400 by 1840, yet over two centuries later we have been allowed only 35 more than that number.
C. The Ratification Debates — These are some of the principal arguments made for and against the Constitutional language that was intended to determine the size of the House.
Section II —Trying to Correct the Omission
A. The Other First Amendment — So great was the significance of this issue in the ratification debates that the very first amendment ever proposed by Congress was specifically intended to prevent the problem of oversized and unequal House districts.
B. President Washington’s Veto — President Washington objected that “there is no one proportion or divisor which, applied to the respective numbers of the States will yield the number and allotment of representatives proposed by the Bill.”
Section III —The Congressional Principalities
A. The Representative Cartel in the House — Since 1804, the House has only tripled in size even though the nation’s population has increased by a factor of 48.
B. Enormous House Districts — The average House district is nearly 660,000 and will exceed 1.3 million by the year 2100.
C. The Democratic Devolution — As a result of the expanding House districts, there has been an insidious and substantial disenfranchisement of the voter.
D. Disenfranchising the Voter through the Expansion of Suffrage — The expansion of suffrage, combined with increasingly larger districts, has resulted in a 208-fold increase in eligible voters since 1804.
Section IV — Congress vs. the Constitution
A. One-Person, One-Vote — The “One-Person-One-Vote” rule requires that each district be “as mathematically equal as reasonably possible.”
B. Some Districts are More Equal than Others — Why are 525,000 citizens in Rhode Island are politically equal to 745,000 in Utah?
C. One-Person, One-Fractional-Vote — The citizens of some states are over-represented in the national legislature, while those of other states are unfairly under-represented.
Section V — Our Imperial House
A. The Incumbency Franchise — There is a powerful correlation between increasingly larger districts and the entrenchment afforded by the incumbency franchise.
B. Corruption in the House — Members of the House encounter many more corrupting influences than the rest of us. When combined with their legitimate need for a substantial amount of donated funds, this puts these men and women in a highly vulnerable position.
C. Voter Alienation — Is the government run for the benefit of all?
Section IX — The Electoral College
A. Why are there 538 Electors? — Each state is allowed a number of electors equal to the total number of their Congressional delegation.
B. The Neubauer-Zeitlin Analysis — The larger the Electoral College, the more likely that it will correctly reflect the popular vote.
C. Making the EC more Representative — How the Electoral College can become representationally reliable.
D. What is the Electoral College? — The 12th Amendment to our Constitution outlines the process for electing the President.
E. Electoral College Pros & Cons — A summary of arguments supporting and opposing the EC.