Houseofreps

The House of Representatives

Membership

• 435 members

• Larger body of Congress

• Number of seats per state based on population

• Each state must have at least one

Qualifications

• To be elected to the House of Representatives, you must be:• At least 25 years old• A citizen of the U.S. for at

least 7 years• A legal resident of the

state you are representing

It is a tradition to live in the district you represent, although it is technically not required

• Your rep is Cliff Stearns- District 6

Term of office

• 2 year terms

• Elections in November of even-numbered years

• Term begins on Jan. 3rd

• Every 2 years, all 435 members must run for re-election

• Over 90% of all representatives are re-elected each year

Representation and reapportionment

• Census (population count) every ten years• First census was taken in 1790• Most recent was 2010• Next will be 2020

• Reapportionment- pop. of each state (based on census) determines new number of representatives• Some states lose reps• Some states gain reps• Total number always remain

435- since 1911

Congressional redistricting

• After number of representatives is decided, states must draw up districts

• One district per representative

• Redistricting-setting up new district lines after reapportionment has been completed

• Problems• Unequal population between districts• Gerrymandering

Gerrymandering

• District boundaries drawn in an irregular way, where one particular political party gains advantage

• Named after Elbridge Gerry- drew a salamander shaped district in Massachusetts to help his party gain advantage-a cartoonists added a head, wings, and claws to the district map and called it gerrymandering

• Gerry + Salamander = Gerrymander!

The original gerrymander

gerrymandering- Florida District 3

Gerrymandering- Illinois district 4

gerrymandering

• 2 types- “Packing” and “Cracking”• Packing

• Crowding the other party’s voters into one district ensures that your party of choice will win all the other districts

• Cracking• Dividing the other party’s voters into small groups

within each district weakens their voter base

• Supreme Court has ruled that districts must be compact and physically adjoining, but gerrymandering still exists today.