FRACTIONAL VOTING FOR THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
A Need for Change in the Method of Voting in the United States House of Representatives
There must be a change in voting procedures in the United States House of Representatives. While United States Senators derive their authority from the State they represent as an entire entity acting as one, members of the United States House of Representatives derive their authority from the individual people they represent. Therefore, the House of Representatives must struggle to represent each constituent of their respective congressional districts.
Congressional Representatives’ constituents cannot be individually represented by maintaining one whole number vote per Representative. With the average population attributed to a Congressional Representative being approximately 712,684 people (as of 2010), this maintains that those individual constituents are in full agreement with each other on every vote cast by their representative. This is absolutely absurd. It is outrageous to believe that simply because a majority of a particular population agreed to elect one person as their Congressional Representative, all the citizens in that district, from that point on, completely agree on all subsequent issues. To alleviate this disproportionate, inaccurate, and non-representative method of “1 vote 712,684 people” form of representation, the House of Representatives needs a method of casting one Congressional Vote, but still allow for all the voices of their constituents to be heard at the Federal level, thus supporting a democratic process in the House of Representatives, and providing a greater checks and balances system to the Federal Republic.
A fractional vote method in the House of Representatives will allow for the voices of each constituent to be accurately and truthfully represented in the government (which exists to speak these constituents’ voices in the first place).
How Fractional Vote in the House of Representatives Works
One Representative has 137 constituents. His one Congressional Vote is made up of 137 fractions of 1. Each constituent makes up one part of the Representative’s vote. For any bill, resolution, or other congressional action that requires a vote from the House of Representatives, the Representative will have to cast 137 Constituent Votes to make up his 1 Congressional Vote. The Constituent Votes do not all have to be the same; for that would defeat the purpose of the fractional Constituent Vote. Each constituent may vote as he or she pleases, whether it be “Yay”, “Nay”, “Abstain”, or otherwise. The Representative must cast all votes according to the Constituent Votes as each constituent dictates their fraction of the Congressional Vote. However, the Representative must cast all Constituent Votes, even if constituents do not voice their vote; therefore, the Representative may cast any non-voiced Constituent votes as the Representative sees fit.
It is the duty of the constituents to voice their fraction of the vote to the Representative. No person can cast a Constituent Vote in place of another person. It is the responsibility of the Representative to allow for a reasonable means, deemed reasonable by his constituents, for the constituents of their district to communicate their votes and desires to the Representative. It is also the responsibility of the Representative to provide accessible copies of all legislation, including that which is in any committee on which the Representative is a part of, to all of the constituents of his congressional district.
Constituent Votes will not be a set constant number. The number of Constituent Votes will fluctuate with the number of registered voters in the Representative’s congressional district. Simple ways must be devised to resign registration in one district and register in another district. For existing voters, upon registration to vote in any new congressional district, proof of prior voting registration and residence in the citizen’s previous district must be proven. Presentation of prior residence and submission and forfeit of voter registration from the citizen’s prior congressional district, along with proof of new residence, should be suitable for such proof of congressional district switching. Voters registering to vote for the first time must present proof of being a citizen of the United States of America and proof of residency in the congressional district in which they are registering.
Upon moving to a different congressional district, the district the constituent leaves will lose that Constituent Vote; the district to which the constituent moves will gain that Constituent Vote.
The “Yays” have the vote with 5.74 Congressional Votes to the “Nays” 3.25 Congressional Votes.
This form of factional voting disregards the actual Congressional Vote of the individual Representative. Instead, it tallies the entire accumulation of individual Constituent Votes from throughout the nation and assigns them to a final congressional vote count. This takes power away from two factions: large lobbying interests and the tyrannical majority. Whereas the United States Senate will still be able to maintain majority rules voting, the House of Representatives will be able to counter that by allowing each citizen proportional to the population represented by the House of Representatives.
No longer will lobbying parties be able to appeal to particular States that hold a greater number of Congressional Votes simply to pass laws and actions favorable to those lobbying parties. The Federal laws and actions will have to appeal to the States with fewer voting districts as well as those with many districts. Because the larger States will not hold such a disproportionately greater sway over the passing of laws simply because they have more Congressional votes, the laws passed and actions conducted within the Federal government will have to appeal to everybody in the nation.
No one group of States will be able to dictate law to any other State simply because there are more people in one State than the other. Citizens’ districts with smaller populations will have proportionally greater authority than those who are constituents in districts with greater populations. This proportional difference will be balanced against the population difference in larger districts. In the larger districts, more people will be able to vote to balance the proportional difference in the distribution of the Constituent Votes in the smaller districts. This will provide greater equality between States in the House of Representatives. As it stands now, States such as California, New York, Texas, and Florida hold greater power by themselves in the House of Representatives than Louisiana, Wyoming, and New Mexico combined. This fractional vote will equalize the power of the States in the Federal government.
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