Apportionment 2020
Critical Analysis
According to the data in the map above, how many states lost House seats in the 2020 reapportionment?
According to the data from the map above, how did the 2020 reapportionment impact the number of house seats in your state?
The average congressional district population size will increase after the 2020 reapportionment. Each member of the House of Representatives will represent an average of 761,169 people based on the 2020 Census. This will be an increase of 50,402 (7.1% increase) compared with the average of 710,767 people per representative based on the 2010 Census. Delaware will have the largest average district size (990,837), while Montana will have the smallest average district size (542,704). Baker v. Carr (1961) established the doctrine of one person, one vote. Explain why, despite this ruling, Congressional districts don’t all have precisely the same number of people.
Why does the map and the composition of the U.S. House change every ten years?
Describe the role the following play in reapportionment:
Congress
President
Census Bureau
For which party is the newly apportioned Congress good news?
Why aren’t Puerto Rico and The District of Columbia included in the apportionment counts?
The scramble for the last of the 435 seats for voting members in the House was remarkably close. Minnesota received the final assignment, Karen Battle, chief of the bureau's population division, said during the press conference. "If New York had had 89 more people, they would have received one more seat," Battle added. How might this difference impact the 2024 presidential election?
Now that the congressional House Seats and Electoral college votes have been reapportioned, what do the states do with these numbers?
Some argue that we shouldn’t ever take seats away from states, simply add news seats to states with population growth and uncap the size of the House of Representatives. Make a claim about whether we should keep the cap on the size of the U.S. House.
Learning Extension
Action Extension
Contact your state legislators and let them know how they should redistrict (distribute) their apportioned seats.
Visual Extension
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