[EL] Shrinking legislatures

Thu May 16 13:35:43 PDT 2019

The New Mexico Legislature has varied in size since its inception, starting
with 49 House members and 24 in the Senate in 1912, to the present 70 House
and 42 Senate. Generally it has been a slow increase over the years, but
looking at a chart of number of members by Session, the 26th Session
(1963-1964) had 66 House members, the 27th (1965-1966) had 77, and the 28th
(1967-1968) dropped to the now-current 70. I have not been able to find
anything that documents why the numbers have varied over the years, but
since the number of members is set in the state Constitution (Art. IV, Sec.
3), presumably the Constitution was amended each time the numbers changed..

Douglas Carver
Albuquerque, NM

On Thu, May 16, 2019 at 1:36 PM Gaddie, Ronald K. <rkgaddie at ou.edu> wrote:

> Georgia went from 205 House, 54 senate in the 1962 county-apportionment
> legislature, to 180 House, 56 Senate at some point before the mid 1970s.
> I'm tracking down the precise change date.
>
>
> Keith Gaddie, Ph.D.
> Executive Faculty Fellow of the University of Oklahoma
> Senior Fellow of Headington College  <http://ouheadingtoncollege.org/>
> President's Associates Presidential Professor of
>   Political Science, Journalism, & Architecture
>
> "I would like to build a University of which the football team could be
> proud." ~George Lynn Cross
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Law-election <law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu> on
> behalf of Zach West <zachwest1 at gmail.com>
> *Sent:* Thursday, May 16, 2019 2:16 PM
> *To:* David Segal
> *Cc:* law-election at uci.edu
> *Subject:* Re: [EL] Shrinking legislatures
>
> Ohio used to change the number of house and senate seats at each
> election.  Each county was guaranteed at least one seat, regardless of
> population size, and additional seats were given to counties with unusually
> large populations.  They usually had around ~130-140 representatives, and
> ~30-35 senators.  Post *Reynolds v. Sims*, Ohio adopted the current size
> of 99 state reps and 33 state senators.
>
> Gongwer has a chart showing the size of each session.
> http://www.gongwer-oh.com/public/gahis.html
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.gongwer-2Doh.com_public_gahis.html&d=DwMFaQ&c=qKdtBuuu6dQK9MsRUVJ2DPXW6oayO8fu4TfEHS8sGNk&r=itJIms9G3wxvyGkmVqA7xg&m=tO_xNtfv18aLAiKTNq79Wq2kpzTxDO-pVAcqT3FA1VA&s=Rl-bvBzHt0rauyA6HeHofIw15FLetoA1YWksWtFNOok&e=>
>
> On Thu, May 16, 2019 at 2:57 PM David Segal <davidadamsegal at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> We went from 100 -> 75 in the RI House and 50 -> 38 in the Senate in 2002.
> Constitutional amendment, put on the ballot by the legislature.
>
> On Thu, May 16, 2019 at 2:55 PM David O'Brien <dobrien at fairvote.org>
> wrote:
>
> Nebraska shrunk the size of its legislature when it voted to switch to a
> unicameral system in 1934. Prior to that referendum, it had a Senate with
> 33 members and a House of Representatives with 100 members. Today it only
> has a 49-member Senate.
>
> On Thu, May 16, 2019 at 2:42 PM Edelman, Paul <
> paul.edelman at law.vanderbilt.edu> wrote:
>
> I am in search of examples of legislative bodies that have shrunk, either
> of their own volition or by order of some superior entity.   They seem to
> be as uncommon as shrinking university administrations.  Does anyone have
> any examples?  Thanks in advance.
>
>
>
> Paul
>
>
>
> Paul H. Edelman
>
> Professor of Mathematics and Law
>
> Vanderbilt University
>
> paul.edelman at vanderbilt.edu
>
> 615-322-0990
>
>
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>
>
> --
> Sincerely,
>
> David O'Brien
> Staff Attorney, FairVote
> 6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 240
> Takoma Park, MD 20912
> O: (301) 270-4616
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