One man, one vote means Each Vote Counts Equally

In 1964, only 568 people lived in one legislative district in Nevada, while approximately 127,000 lived in another. Idaho had a similar gap in voting power, with 969 people in the smallest district and 93,400 in the largest. These types of differences in the power to choose state legislators led to the United States Supreme Court decision in Reynold v. Sims, explaining that such unfair voting power violated the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution.

The Court held that the effect of each vote should be nearly the same and ordered states to redistrict so that the number of people allowed to vote for each office was roughly equal. For the full story, pick up a copy of the Mountain Home News or click on this link to subscribe to the newspaper’s online edition.