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| One voter, one vote Constitutional Amendment |
| 2005-06-24 |
| US Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI) represents the eastern half of the "thumb" of Michigan. And she has come up with a great idea: Changing the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution so that only citizens of the United States who can actually vote are counted for the purposes of Congressional apportionment. The 14th Amendment is generally known as the "equal protection" Amendment as Section 1 states in part, "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States -- nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." But Rep. Miller's Amendment attaches to Section 2 which reads: Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. The effect of this language is that every ten years the Bureau of the Census counts everyone in residing in the United States - legally or illegally. The Census bureau then dutifully reports on how many "persons" are living here and where they are living. They then decide, based upon this number how the 435 Members of Congress get split up among the 50 states, apportioning them among the states. The problem arises because illegal aliens are "persons" for counting and apportionment purposes but, because they are in the US illegally, often find it inconvenient to cast votes in Federal elections. Ms. Miller's resolution would change Amendment 14, Section 2 to read: Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by counting the number of persons in each State who are citizens of the United States. As of last this writing there are 23 co-sponsors of the resolution - none from California. Why? If apportionment is based upon citizens rather than persons then California would lose six seats. Texas, Florida and New York would lose one each. Those nine Members of Congress would be re-distributed among the remaining states. Here's why this is important. According to the CNN website recounting the results of the 2004 elections, there were 331,868 votes cast in the election in Michigan's 10th District (which is the eastern half of the Michigan "thumb"). Democrat Xavier Becerra won re-election in California's 31st District with only 110,411 votes. Why? Because there are so many illegal aliens in that portion of LA County who cannot vote. |
| Posted by:Mrs. Davis |
| #7 The change I'd like to see: "nor deny to any |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2005-06-24 13:13 |
| #6 Good idea. And Good Luck! Wouldn't make much different here in Washington state where illegal aliens, felons, the dead and imaginary friends are allowed to Vote (so they would be counted even under this). |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2005-06-24 11:53 |
| #5 Won't this just give states an incentive to push for citizenship for their illegal aliens? |
| Posted by: BH 2005-06-24 11:53 |
| #4 I'm from Caliphornia now, but I'm happy to say it's far, far from Caliphornia. |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2005-06-24 10:58 |
| #3 Smith, Jones or Cruz? |
| Posted by: Dr. Spembolov 2005-06-24 10:58 |
| #2 I am a regular poster with a well known name from California. This idea has merit! |
| Posted by: Regular Poster Anon 2005-06-24 10:52 |
| #1 How soon can we implement this? Good to see a strong idea coming out of my home state for a change. Gotta love the thumb. |
| Posted by: Slulet Glater4736 aka Jarhead 2005-06-24 10:00 |