MODULE 9

APPORTIONMENT & VOTING

APPORTIONMENT & VOTING

LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the lesson, students are expected to:

 describe the basic notions of apportionment and voting;

 use each method of apportionment to distribute items fairly to several
groups of a population;
 identify the apportionment method that will satisfy the fairness criteria.

INTRODUCTION

The Philippines like any other democratic countries select the members of legislative
bodies according to votes. Selection of representatives is performed by commonly known as an
election method. The mathematics of apportionment and voting are important elements in a
democratic form of government. These are being practice in the selection of leaders, passage of
ordinances and coming with a decision on certain issues. Article 6, Section 5 (2) of our
constitution states that:

“The House of Representatives shall be composed of not more than

two hundred and fifty members...who shall be elected from legislative
districts apportioned among the provinces, cities, and the Metropolitan
Manila area in accordance with the number of their respective inhabitants...”

Beyond politics and governance, apportionment and voting are important mathematical
tools in fairly allocating group of people to places to do tasks. Campus organizations elect their
leaders by voting, nurses can be assigned to hospitals according to the number of patients
requiring care, distribution of relief goods can be apportioned based on the number of bakwits
in evacuation centers, panel of judges in a competition make decision by voting, police officers
can be assigned to precincts based on the number of reported crimes, math classes can be
scheduled based on student demand for those classes, and business corporations decide on
matters using particular voting system.

Lesson 1: Apportionment

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To apportion means to make a proportionate distribution of some goods and

apportionment is the result of apportioning. Apportionment is the problem of dividing a fixed
number of things among groups of different sizes. In politics, this takes the form of allocating a
limited number of representatives among voters.

The mathematical investigation into apportionment rooted in the US congress. Since

1790, the US House of Representatives have employed different methods to apportion itself to
decide how many voters will be represented by each member of the House. Some of these
techniques include the Hamilton Plan, the Jefferson Method, Webster Method and the
Huntington-Hill apportionment.

Like in the Philippines, there are two types of representatives in the chamber:
a) representives from congressional districts and b) party-list representatives. Although each
district should have a population of at least 250,000 people, all provinces have at least one
legislative district, regardless of population, whose residents vote for their own congressman
Some big cities have more than one representative and the city is divided into districts.

You may also visit the following page:

https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/sis/resources/videos/apportionment-machine.html

HAMILTON method

The Hamilton method of apportionment was proposed by Alexander Hamilton in the US

Congress in 1790 to assign voting seats in the House of Representatives to each state. Under the
Hamilton plan, the total population is divided by the number of required representatives. This
method is based on standard divisor and standard quota of the population. The standard divisor
is defined by the formula

𝑃
𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝐷𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑠𝑜𝑟(𝑆𝐷) =
𝐴
where
P – is the total population
A - is the total allocation or the number of available seats to be assigned

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On the other hand, standard quota is the allocated number of representatives from each
subgroup and is given by

𝐺
𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑄𝑢𝑜𝑡𝑎 (𝑆𝑄) =
𝑆𝐷
Where
G – is the size of the group

**If the sum of the standard quotas is not equal to the required number of
representatives, assign additional representatives to the subgroup with the largest decimal
quotient.

Problem 1

Suppose the University Student Council needs 25 representatives to be chosen from the
different college in the University. The population is shown in the table below. Use the Hamilton
plan to determine the number of representatives in each college.

Colleges Population
College of Education 1,459
College of Agriculture 450
College of Arts and Sciences 1,230
College of Hotel and Management 2.457
College of Business Administration 2,796
TOTAL 8,392

Solution
The standard divisor for the population is

8,392
𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝐷𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑠𝑜𝑟 (𝑑) = = 335.68
25

Then calculate the standard quota and determine the number of representatives.

Colleges Population Quotient Standard Number of

𝐺 Quota Representatives
𝑆𝐷

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College of 1,459 4.35 4 5

Education
College of 450 1.34 1 1
Agriculture
College of Arts and 1,230 3.66 3 4
Sciences
College of Hotel and 2.457 7.32 7 7
Management
College of Business 2,796 8.33 8 8
Administration
TOTAL 8,392 23 25

You may also visit:

https://study.com/academy/lesson/hamiltons-method-of-apportionment-in-politics.html

JEFFERSON method

It was proposed by Thomas Jefferson after the Hamilton plan was vetoed by resident
Washington. The Jefferson method of apportionment uses a modified standard divisor (𝑑𝑛 )
which is chosen by trial and error until the sum of the standard quota is equal to the required
number of allocations or representatives. There can be more than one number to choose from
as a modified standard divisor, and the number will always be smaller than the standard divisor.
Repeat the trial and error until the correct number of representatives are apportioned.

Problem 2

From the previous example problem number 1, determine the number of representatives
by using Jefferson plan.

Solution
By trial and error, identify the modified standard divisor (𝑑𝑛 ) and calculate the quota.
(Note: Round down into lower quota)

(𝑑𝑛 )
Colleges 330 300 308

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Population
COEd 1,459 4.42 4 4.86 4 4.72 4
COA 470 1.42 1 1.57 1 1.52 1
CAS 1,230 3.72 3 4.1 4 4 4
CHM 2,457 7.44 7 8.19 8 7.96 7
CBA 2,796 8.47 8 9.32 9 9.06 9
Total 8,392 23 26 25

Therefore the modified divisor (𝑑𝑛 ) is 308 that gives the appropriate quota.

You may also visit:

https://study.com/academy/lesson/jeffersons-method-of-apportionment-in-politics.html

ADAM’S method

This method of apportionment was proposed by John Quincy Adams in 1822 as

alternative to Jefferson method in 1832. Adam’s method is the mirror image of Jefferson’s
method: instead of rounding all quota down to their lower quotas, it rounds them up to their
upper quotas.

Problem 3

From the previous example problem number 1, determine the number of representatives
by using Adam’s Method.

(𝑑𝑛 )
Colleges 330 300 308
Population
COEd 1,459 4.42 5 4.86 5 4.72 4
COA 470 1.42 2 1.57 2 1.52 2
CAS 1,230 3.72 4 4.1 5 4 4
CHM 2,457 7.44 8 8.19 9 7.96 7
CBA 2,796 8.47 9 9.32 10 9.06 8
Total 8,392 28 31 25

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WEBSTER’s method

This was introduced in 1832 by Senator Daniel Webster and is the combination of
Hamilton method and Jefferson method. It used ordinary ranking making it completely unbiased.
The modified standard divisor is determined using trial and error.

Finding the standard divisor is by dividing the total population by the number of people
to be apportioned. Use this standard divisor as the first modified divisor. Divide each state’s
population by the modified divisor to get the modified quota. Round each modified quota to the
nearest integer using conventional rounding rules. If the sum is too large, pick a new modified
divisor larger than 𝑑𝑚 . If the sum is too small, pick a new modified divisor smaller than 𝑑𝑚 .
Repeat the trial and error until the correct number of representatives are apportioned.

Problem 4

From the previous example problem number 1, determine the number of representatives
by using Webster Method.

Solution

8,392
𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝐷𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑠𝑜𝑟 (𝑑) = = 335.68
25

Then calculate the standard quota and determine the number of representatives. Hence
by trial and error, we could attain the modified divisor which is 308 .

Colleges Population Hamilton Jefferson Webster’s

Method Method Method
College of Education 1,459 4 4 4
College of Agriculture 450 1 1 1
College of Arts and 1,230 4 4 4
Sciences
College of Hotel and 2.457 7 7 7
Management
College of Business 2,796 9 9 9
Administration
TOTAL 8,392 25 25 25

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Comparing the results of the three methods, Webster’s method is the same with Jefferson
Method.

You may also visit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYwx7dVJ8CM

The HUNTINGTON-HILL method

The Huntington-Hill method of apportionment uses the geometric means to round

standard quotas until the sum of the modified quotas equal the exact number of seats to be
apportioned. You may need to modify the standard divisor to get the exact total allocation. To
find the geometric mean, multiply the upper and lower quotas then get the square root. If the
geometric mean is less than the standard quota, the final apportionment is based on the mower
quota. If otherwise, assign the upper quota.

The formula is as follows:

𝐺2
𝐻=
𝐴(𝐴 + 1)
Where
G – is the size of the Group
A - is the current number of items assigned to this group

Problem 5
The College Student Council is composed of students from each of the
undergraduate classes. If a new student representative is added to the council, determine which
class the new student council member should represent.

CLASS Number of Number of

Students Representatives
First Year 2015 12
Second Year 1755 10
Third Year 1430 9
Fourth Year 1309 8

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Solution: Calculate the Huntington-Hill number for each the classes.

First Year: Second Year:

(2015)2 (1755)2
𝐻1𝑠𝑡  𝐻2𝑛𝑑 
12(12+1) 10(10+1)

𝐻1𝑠𝑡  26,027 𝐻2𝑛𝑑  28,000

Third Year: Fourth Year:

(1430)2 (1309)2
𝐻3𝑟𝑑  𝐻4𝑡ℎ 
9(9+1) 8(8+1)

𝐻3𝑟𝑑  22, 721 𝐻4𝑡ℎ  23,798

CLASS Number of Number of HA

Students Representatives

First Year 2015 12 26,027

Second Year 1755 10 28,000
Third Year 1430 9 22,721
Fourth Year 1309 8 23.798

According to Huntington-Hill apportionment principle, “the state with the highest HA, will
receive the new representative.” Therefore, the second year class will be represented by the new
student council member.

You may also visit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh_KL5XQYrk

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SELF ASSESSMENT No. 1

1.
1. Which of the following states is more poorly represented?

State Population Number of

Students Representatives
A 92,250 15
B 83,200 16

2. An Ayala prime condominium in Makati City consisting of 3 buildings has the number of
current unit owners indicated in the table below. A total of 32 board of directors will be needed
to govern the residential complex. Use the Hamilton method of apportion the said number of
directors to the three buildings.

Building Number of Unit Owner

A 345
B 248
C 410

3. Use the Webster method for apportionment to answer problem number 2.

4. Use the Jefferson method for apportionment to answer problem number 2.

5. If one board of directors is added, which building will be entitled for the additional director
using the Huntington-Hill number in problem 2?

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