It’s my understanding the individual states had a system very much like the national Electoral College until it was struck down by SCOTUS in the 1960s. In that way the large cities couldn’t dominate the rural counties.
“It’s my understanding the individual states had a system very much like the national Electoral College until it was struck down by SCOTUS in the 1960s. In that way the large cities couldn’t dominate the rural counties.”
They actually almost all had bicameral legislatures modeled after the US Congress. Then the SCOTUS said it was illegal to have a State Senate that was apportioned on the basis of territory, and not population. So here in California, we now have a State Assembly with 80 members and a state Senate with 40 members and each Senate seat encompasses two Assembly seats. The net effect of the ruling “one man, one vote” was to further concentrate political power in the major population centers. And here, with the Census not differentiating between citizens and non-citizens the districts were further skewed in favor of places like Los Angeles where one third to one half of the residents are illegals, who were, nonetheless, counted as citizens for the purpose of redistricting. Statistics show if Los Angeles County was apportioned legislative seats based solely on citizens, it would loose as many as 6 US House seats. Ditto for the State Assembly and Senate. The RATS and their $hitball Leftist judges have really done a job on our Republic, and we can only hope that the “new,” Constitutional SCOTUS will “allow” Trump to spit the Census next year, so that the 2020 redistricting will eliminate the illegal from the process. What they have done to our Legislative system, is probably the most damaging effect of their being here. California, if you look at is on a land area basis is Conservative, but with 10 million illegals living in Los Angeles and the surrounding counties, there is such a concentration of RAT power, that they cannot be overcome by the people who live elsewhere in the state. Even the SF Bay Area, doesn’t have enough illegals to have the kind of effect that SoCal does.