ricts, large minorities of voters
are not represented. Numerous plans of "Proportional
Representation" have been advocated. One such plan is in operation
in Illinois[13] for the election of members to the State house of
representatives. Each district elects three members on a general
ticket. The voter may give one vote to each candidate, or one and a
half votes to each of two candidates, or three votes to a single
candidate. Therefore, the minority, by concentrating their votes on
one candidate, may elect a representative to the legislature, when
under the district system they would not be represented.

[Footnote 13: On proportional representation, read "Government in State
and Nation," pp. 14, 15.]

Qualifications of Representatives.--Section 2, Clause 2. _No
person shall be a representative who shall not have attained to the age
of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United
States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State
in which he shall be chosen._

In the original States there was great diversity of qualifications for
members of the lower houses of their legislatures. But some uniform
system was necessary for the National organization, and so the few
simple requirements of this clause were introduced. It is understood,
however, that the States may not add other qualifications. While a
representative must be an inhabitant of the State in which he is chosen,
he need not, so far as the Constitution requires, be an inhabitant of
the district. But the instances have been few in which a member of the
House has not been also an inhabitant of the district which he
represents. According to the English system of representation, a member
of the House of Commons frequently represents a borough or county in an
entirely different part of the kingdom from that of which he is an
inhabitant.

May the House refuse to admit a person duly elected and possessing
the necessary qualifications? This question arose in the 56th
Congress, in the case of Brigham Roberts of Utah. He was finally
excluded.

Present System of Apportioning Representatives.--Section 2 of
Amendment XIV contains the rule of apportionment that is now in
operation. This became a part of the Constitution, July 28, 1868.

_Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States
according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of