Jefferson Apportionment Method
In 1791, Jefferson proposed a different method. His method involved changing s until the sum of the lower quotas matches the number of seats. This is why the Jefferson method is called a divisor method.
Step-by-step process:
1.Calculate:
s= Population/Number of seats
2.Find d so that when:
Q(S)= [state population/s-d]
is added for all states, the exact number of seats is reached.
This is often done by trial and error, tweaking d to reach the number of seats.
EXAMPLE 1
A company has 890 employees. A committee of 21 people is to be elected to represent four divisions of a company with 360, 315, 135 and 80 employees.
We want the quotas to come out higher so we reach 21 seats. This means that the divisor s needs to be smaller. We can try something convenient like d=0.38, so that:
s-d=42.38-0.38=42
With d=0.38 the total number of seats is 19, not 21. We need an even smaller divisor so we should increase d. If d= 2.38, then:
s-d= 42.38- 2.38 = 40
By modifying the standard divisor to 40, we have now apportioned the correct number of seats. However, the Jefferson Method fails the quota rule, which states that a state's apportionment should be either the floor or the ceiling of its ideal quota obtained by dividing its population by the standard divisor s. We will illustrate this with an example.
EXAMPLE 2
Population is 1,229,000 and there are 57 seats. So s= 21,654.4. This won't work so we can try
s-d=20,300
As we can see in the table, State D is apportioned 17 seats, yet its ideal quota is 15, so the Jefferson Method fails the quota rule.
Mariela Duran - Grace Jackson - Hannah Quiroz