History of 19th-century congressional redistricting in Ohio

rdf:langString History of 19th-century congressional redistricting in Ohio

rdf:langString The redistricting of United States congressional districts is made by the legislatures of the states every 10 years, immediately following the official announcement of the federal census that serves as the basis of the apportionment. It was long the practice that the apportionment thus made stood until after the next decennial census. However, the power rests with the legislature to change or adjust the apportionment during the interim and in 1845, the tradition in Ohio of reapportioning following the decennial census was broken. For the last half of the century, it was the policy of the party in power in the legislature to secure the largest amount of political advantage in making the apportionments, and they were made whenever the political control of the assembly changed. From 1878 to 1892, the state was reapportioned six times as power oscillated between the two parties. A partisan majority in the legislature has it in their power to so apportion the districts as to enable the minority of the voters in the state to elect a majority of the congressional delegation, or to empower a bare majority of the voters to elect almost the entire delegation, in effect disenfranchising the minority. No apportionment of Ohio was absolutely free from partisan bias.