Weightless Votes
Does "one person, one vote" protect persons, or voters? The Court has never resolved this question. Current practice overwhelmingly favors equal representation for equal numbers of persons. Opponents charge, however, that this approach dilutes the "weight" of some individual vote...
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Veröffentlicht in: | The Yale law journal 2012-05, Vol.121 (7), p.1888-1910 |
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Format: | Artikel |
Sprache: | eng |
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Zusammenfassung: | Does "one person, one vote" protect persons, or voters? The Court has never resolved this question. Current practice overwhelmingly favors equal representation for equal numbers of persons. Opponents charge, however, that this approach dilutes the "weight" of some individual voters' votes. This Essay examines what that might mean, and concludes that there is no coherent individual interest in the "weight" of a vote. It argues that the one person, one vote doctrine is really about something else: protecting the political power of numerical groups. In light of this conclusion, the last section of this Essay explores whether the numerical groups this doctrine protects ought to include all persons living in a jurisdiction, or only the citizens of voting age. |
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ISSN: | 0044-0094 1939-8611 |