We are approaching the 250th anniversary of our country's founding, and it seems like it might be a good time to check under the hood.

Representation is the foundation of our democratic model. However, the feeling that we are not adequately represented in Congress is universal. Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, Greens, old school Whigs. Regardless of your political persuasion or declared affiliation, everyone agrees that our representative democracy is lacking… well, representation.

In an effort to explore this issue, we are offering an interactive way to envision new representation models. Grab your powdered wig and pull up your breeches, you're now a founding father (or mother or person or whatever). You can see in real time what the House might look like if every 30,000 citizens really had a single representative to call their own (like originally prescribed in the Constitution) or if the number of a state's Senators allocated were based on pet cats per capita (jk).

The original way has seen its fair share of changes, and from the cheap seats we're sitting in, some more change might not be a bad idea.

Figure out the secret sauce and save our democracy!

Basic scenario rules

For the purposes of being able to compare the past to the present, here are a couple of basic scenario rules we'll pretend are real.

  • All statistics and population numbers used are sourced from at least 12 months preceding the election using the census or nationally verified figures, whichever is most recent to the required date.
  • The House of Representatives number can be changed and reallocated between states, with a minimum of one representative per state.
  • The Senate number remains at 100 but can be reallocated between states, with a minimum of 1 Senator per state.
  • The data sourced is what is. You get what you get and you don't get upset.

House of Representatives

Current

    Reallocated

      Senate

      Current

        Reallocated