Voting Rights and Redistricting
Constitutional Provisions, Laws, and Court Rulings
Following and based on each decennial census, the 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are apportioned — or divided up — among the 50 States, with each State entitled to at least one representative. A Federal statute requires that apportionment occurs every 10 years. Accordingly, in order to comport with the constitutional standard of equality of population among districts, at least once every 10 years, most States must draw new congressional district boundaries in response to changes in the number of Representatives apportioned to the State or shifts in population within the State. In addition to various State…
