The Iowa example

With its 435 elected members and terms of only two years, the U.S. House of Representatives is intended to correspond to the political views of the country's citizens. However, due to the partisan manner in which districts are drawn, this purpose is thwarted.

In 2012 Democratic candidates received approximately 49.16 percent of the vote while Republican candidates received about 48.03 percent of the vote. Despite this, Republicans won a majority of House seats. Specifically, the Republicans won 234 seats or 53.8 percent of them. In contrast, the Democrats, who nationally received the most votes, only won 201 or 46.2 percent of the seats.

North Carolina provides one of the most egregious examples of this situation. Democrats received 51.4 percent of the popular vote. However, they won only four of 13 House seats. On the face of these numbers, something is seriously wrong, and it cannot be said that citizens are fairly represented.

While contesting partisans will always affect how districts are drawn, this influence should be minimized. The following suggestions are based on the method used by Iowa to draw its districts:

* Districts can't divide counties unless the population of a county is large enough to warrant more than one district.

* Counties in districts must be contiguous.

* The population of each district can't deviate by more than 1 percent from the ideal size (For example, if state population is 3 million, then 750,00 would be the ideal size).

* Districts should be reasonably compact.

JOHN PIEPHO, Cape Girardeau