Cornell University’s Legal Information Institute addresses the “one-person, one-vote rule” as a legal rule that one person’s voting power ought to be roughly equivalent to another person’s within the same state.

The League of Women Voters (LWV) answers “What is One Person, One Vote?” by referencing the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment which guarantees the government cannot “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws”. The LWV then adds “That protection applies to voting rights and fair elections in two critical ways: equal access to the ballot and equal representation in government.”

Wikipedia begins a lengthy description of “one man, one vote” or “one vote, one value” with “a slogan used to advocate for the principle of equal representation in voting.”

If the reader is now guessing this might be about the census and redistricting, you are correct! About six months ago I wrote on “Census Bills in Congress” which talked about the Equal Representation Act which had been introduced in the Senate by 19 Senators including Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI). A similar bill had been introduced in the House of Representatives. These bills will insure only legal citizens are factored into the census count when it comes to Congressional Districts and the Electoral College. Both of these bills are still in the “Introduced” phase of the legislative process.

Another pertinent piece of legislation is the Safeguard America Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE Act. In the House, HR 22 has been passed and sent to the Senate. In the Senate S 128 has been introduced. This legislation requires identification to prove citizenship when registering to vote.

A month prior to the “Census Bills in Congress” article I also wrote a “Plan Ahead: Census 2030” article which asked several basic questions about the upcoming census. Questions like “Who is counted and where?” and concerns like “citizens versus residents” were addressed. The issue of college students voting at school or at home was surfaced. One question was “If all the college students can vote on campus, then why do we have non-resident tuition?”

I have reviewed all this as I have since seen at least three articles that have “added fuel to the fire” on the complex topics of the census and representative government of the citizens involved. The first was that Representatives August Pfluger (R-TX-11) and Chuck Edwards (R-NC-11) introduced the Citizen Only Updated National Tally (COUNT) Act to codify and expand President Trump’s Executive Order issued in his first term to eliminate fraud and other inaccuracies in the U.S. Census Bureau. The supporting article stated that there was over counting of population in eight states (all blue) and undercounting in six others (all red) in the 2020 Census.

Then I received a letter from Charlie Kirk’s widow about what Charlie was working on just prior to his untimely death. She described the “UN-RIG THE CENSUS Emergency Petition” and shared these facts: “The U.S. Census Bureau admits it significantly miscounted (emphasis hers) the U.S. population in 25% of states in the last census” and “The enormous population of illegal aliens (roughly 18.6 million) was quickly counted and allowed to impact the apportioning of Congressional seats.”

Finally, I read a John Ellis article “Restoring Verifiable Elections” with a subheadline “The winning priority for Wisconsin’s next Governor” which offered some sage advice to the state’s governor candidates. The 7th and final step was “The 28-day residence rule, which allows out-of-state students to vote in Wisconsin’s elections, will end.” This will address some of the earlier concerns about college students and voting, but must address that Wisconsin residents must vote at home (absentee, if needed) and not in the campus municipality.

Once we get the census and the voting location concerns resolved, there is one more leg on this “three legged stool”. That is redistricting. Voting districts, whether municipal, county, or Congressional, must be in block shape; combining citizens with similar wants, needs, and values; and using natural or man-made boundaries already present where possible. Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District map should never have happened. The current configuration of the 94th, 95th, and 96th Assembly Districts that Governor Evers drew should never have happened. Prior to the current maps, La Crosse County was near perfect with the city being one Assembly District and the rest of the county being another – and they did not exceed the county boundary and no other Assembly Districts protruded into the County. That was text-book perfect!

These are some challenging concerns. There are problems in need of solutions at both the state and federal levels. It is past time for “we the people” to get informed, get involved, and contribute to the solutions. Campaign season is coming so prepare to ask the tough questions.