The Apportionment Problem
Module 5 Assignment 1
Bobbi Brooks
Argosy University, Seattle

For this assignment, I needed to find out how many representatives are going to be assigned to each of the 10 states in the newly democratic nations. The first step was to add all of the state’s populations together. The total population is 532,188. The next step was to divide each individual states population by the total population to see how many seats that each state should receive for representation. After I have a percentage, I give a representative for each whole number. Once I add up the whole numbers, I have 95 out of my 100 seats spoken for. The remaining seats need to be assigned out by the highest fractional value of each …show more content…

How and why could an Alabama Paradox occur?
An Alabama Paradox happens when the population increases and the fractional number left over goes to a smaller amount. For example, if their population still only gets them 2 representatives but because of the fractional number before they got 3 but now the fractional number went down and they no longer qualify to get the extra seat.
Explain how applying the Huntington-Hill apportionment method helps to avoid an Alabama Paradox.
The Huntington- Hill apportionment method was an equal proportions method. It had a fixed house to avoid conflict and by using a fixed house number, the Huntington- Hill method helped to avoid an Alabama Paradox.
Based upon your experience in solving this problem, do you feel apportionment is the best way to achieve fair representation? Be sure to support your answer.
I do feel that apportionment is the best way. In today’s society, people are always moving from state to state and the populations are always changing. Smaller population states deserve to have representation and from the table I made above, you can see that would not always be the case. By using apportionment, it is guaranteed that each state will receive a representative regardless of their size.
Suggest another strategy that could be applied to achieve fair representation either using apportionment methods or a method of your choosing.
I know that this may