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Apportionment: Who Can't Vote and Why? (1964-07-19)
About this film
From the time of the Revolution to the late nineteenth century, equal representation was the general rule in America. But in this century, while the population of the cities has increased with the great industrialization movement, the power of government has remained in the hands of rural legislators. The evidence of this inequality in state governments is striking. In California, 11 percent of the voters can control the state senate. In Missouri, 20 percent can control the lower house. In New York 35 percent can elect a majority of the state assembly. There is no state in the Union in which a minority cannot reign in at least one legislative house. In California again, one state senator from Los Angeles represents more than six million people, while another state senator from the northern countries represents only 15,000 people. In Connecticut, the town of Union, with a population of less than 500, has two representatives in the House of Delegates, while Hartford, with 160,000 people, also has two delegates. Since 1962, the United States Supreme Court has handed down three far-reaching decisions that will ultimately bring about drastic changes in the apportionment systems of the f…
Directors & creators
National Educational Television and Radio Center
Subjects
public broadcasting, AAPB, Of People and Politics
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