One person, one vote: Difference between revisions

"'''One person, one vote,'''" (formerlyalso known as "'''one man, one vote,'''") expresses the principle that individuals should have equal representation in voting. This slogan is used by advocates of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_equality political equality] to refer to the concept that voters may not vote multiple times in an election, and to advocate for electoral reforms such as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_suffrage universal suffrage], combatting [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering gerrymandering], eliminating the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Electoral_College electoral collage], and to advocate for voting reforms which ensure an [[Equally Weighted Vote|equally weighted vote]], such as [[STAR voting]] and [[Approval voting]].

The British trade unionist [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Howell_(trade_unionist) George Howell] used the phrase "one man, one vote" in political pamphlets in 1880.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Howell|first=George|date=1880|title="One man, one vote"|url=|journal=Manchester Selected Pamphlets|volume=|pages=|via=JSTOR 60239578}}</ref> During the 20th-century period of de-colonisation and the struggles for national sovereignty, from the late 1940s onwards, this phrase became widely used in developing countries where majority populations sought to gain political power in proportion to their numbers.[{{citation needed]|date=August 2017}} The slogan was notably used by the [httpshcttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_resistance_to_South_African_apartheid anti-apartheid movement] during the 1980s, which sought to end white minority rule in South Africa.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lewis H. Gann|first=Peter Duignan|title=Hope for South Africa?|publisher=Hoover Institution Press|year=1991|isbn=ISBN 0817989528|location=|pages=p. 166}}</ref>

In the United States, the "one person, one vote" principle was invoked in a series of cases by the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Court Warren Court] in the 1960s, during the height of related civil rights activities.[5][6][7][8][a] Applying the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution, the Supreme Court majority opinion (5–4) led by Chief Justice Earl Warren in Reynolds v. Sims (1964) ruled that state legislatures, unlike the United States Congress, needed to have representation in both houses that was based on districts containing roughly equal populations, with redistricting as needed after censuses.<ref>"Reynolds v. Sims". ''Oyez''. Retrieved 2019-09-21.</ref><ref>Charlie B. Tyler, "County Government in the Palmetto State", University of South Carolina, 1998, p. 221</ref> Some had an upper house based on an equal number of representatives to be elected from each county, which gave undue political power to rural counties. Many states had neglected to redistrict for decades during the 20th century, even as population increased in urban, industrialized areas. In 1964, Wesberry v. Sanders, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that equality of voting - one person, one vote - means that "the weight and worth of the citizens' votes as nearly as is practicable must be the same." and ruled that states must also draw federal congressional districts containing roughly equal represented populations.<ref>"ONE MAN, ONE VOTE: DECADES OF COURT DECISIONS". ''New York Times''</ref>