Huntington-Hill method

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The Huntington-Hill method of apportionment assigns seats by finding a modified divisor D such that each constinuency's quotient (population divided by D), when rounded by geometric mean of the lower and upper quota, yields the correct number of seats. When envisioned as a proportional voting system, this is effectively a highest averages method in which the divisors are given by \sqrt{n(n+1)}.

The United States House of Representatives uses this method of apportionment to assign representative seats to each state.

[edit] Example

Although the U.S. House of Representatives currently uses the Equal Proportionment Method, Congress has not always used it. In fact, George Washington used the presidential veto power for the very first time in order to block apportionment legislation less favorable to his home state of Virginia. Had Congress used the Equal Proportionment Method to apportion House seats according to state population following the 1790 census, the House of Representatives would have been apportioned as follows (for an historically accurate House size of 105 seats):

State Population Quotas Lower Upper G. Mean Rnd. Dir. Seats
Connecticut 236,841 6.81 6 7 6.48 up 7
Delaware 55,540 1.60 1 2 1.41 up 2
Georgia 70,835 2.04 2 3 2.45 down 2
Kentucky 68,705 1.97 1 2 1.41 up 2
Maryland 278,514 8.00 8 9 8.49 down 8
Massachusetts 475,327 13.66 13 14 13.49 up 14
New Hampshire 141,822 4.08 4 5 4.47 down 4
New Jersey 179,570 5.16 5 6 5.48 down 5
New York 331,589 9.53 9 10 9.49 up 10
North Carolina 353,523 10.16 10 11 10.49 down 10
Pennsylvania 432,879 12.44 12 13 12.49 down 12
Rhode Island 68,446 1.97 1 2 1.41 up 2
South Carolina 206,236 5.93 5 6 5.48 up 6
Vermont 85,533 2.46 2 3 2.45 up 3
Virginia 630,560 18.12 18 19 18.49 down 18
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