In the latest round of House apportionment following the 2020 Census, the state of New York lost a seat by an extremely small margin: if a mere 89 people were added to the state’s 20 million population, it would have kept the seat. Political observers pointed to the Census’s tendency to undercount minority and immigrant populations as the primary culprit. However, New York’s seat loss is as much as an issue of apportionment as it is of counting: the current apportionment method used by the federal government, Huntington-Hill’s method, is biased against the more populous states such as New York. If an alternative apportionment method were used, such as Webster’s method, New York would also have kept the seat. This article discusses four historical apportionment methods – Hamilton’s method, Huntington-Hill’s method, Jefferson’s method, and Webster’s method. These methods are then evaluated against three criteria of within-quota, consistency, and unbiasedness. The article proceeds to show that Huntington-Hill’s method has produced biased apportionment results in eight out of nine apportionments since its official adoption in 1941. It concludes with the recommendation of replacing the current apportionment method with the only unbiased divisor method: Webster’s method.

Us House Congressional Representatives serving Macon-Bibb County.

Congressional districts are the 435 areas from which members are elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. After the apportionment of congressional seats among the states, which is based on decennial census population counts, each state with multiple seats is responsible for establishing congressional districts for the purpose of electing representatives. Each congressional district is to be as equal in population to all other congressional districts in a state as practicable. The boundaries and numbers shown for the congressional districts are those specified in the state laws or court orders establishing the districts within each state.

Congressional districts for the 108th through 112th sessions were established by the states based on the result of the 2000 Census. Congressional districts for the 113th through 115th sessions were established by the states based on the result of the 2010 Census. Boundaries are effective until January of odd number years (for example, January 2015, January 2017, etc.), unless a state initiative or court ordered redistricting requires a change. All states established new congressional districts in 2011-2012, with the exception of the seven single member states (Alaska, Delaware, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming).

For the states that have more than one representative, the Census Bureau requested a copy of the state laws or applicable court order(s) for each state from each secretary of state and each 2010 Redistricting Data Program state liaison requesting a copy of the state laws and/or applicable court order(s) for each state. Additionally, the states were asked to furnish their newly established congressional district boundaries and numbers by means of geographic equivalency files. States submitted equivalency files since most redistricting was based on whole census blocks. Kentucky was the only state where congressional district boundaries split some of the 2010 Census tabulation blocks. For further information on these blocks, please see the user-note at the bottom of the tables for this state.

The Census Bureau entered this information into its geographic database and produced tabulation block equivalency files that depicted the newly defined congressional district boundaries. Each state liaison was furnished with their file and requested to review, submit corrections, and certify the accuracy of the boundaries.

This report summarizes Alberta's performance in 2009 in meeting the requirements of the Master Agreement on Apportionment for the South Saskatchewan River Basin. This report relies on the data provided in the Prairie Provinces Water Board's annual report for 2009, which contains the official water quantity and quality results for the year.