At-Large

An official elected by an entire jurisdiction rather than a subdivision of it is said to be elected at-large. United States senators, two for each state, run statewide and therefore are elected at-large. So are the governors and other constitutional officers in each of the fifty states.

Nearly all U.S. representatives, however, are elected from congressional districts that are smaller than an entire state; they generally do not run at-large. The only current exceptions are the representatives from the seven states—Alaska, Delaware, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming—that have the constitutional minimum of one House seat because of [Page 11]their small populations. In these cases the entire state is the district, and the House member effectively is a statewide officeholder.

States also are divided into districts for the purpose of electing members of their own legislatures. These state legislative districts are similar to congressional districts, only smaller in most cases.

The major exception is the California Senate, which has forty members. A population boom since World War II has earned California its current apportionment of fifty-three U.S. House seats. As a result, the forty state senate seats are larger than the fifty-three congressional districts.

Under the Supreme Court's baker v. carr ruling in 1962, both houses of a state legislature must be apportioned according to population. In many states the house is twice as large as the senate, and a senate district may comprise two house districts. Unlike Congress, some state legislatures still have multimember districts.

City council districts are often known as wards. Frequently a city council will be made up of some members elected at-large and others elected by the ward he or she represents.

Racial and ethnic minorities tend to oppose at-large election because it makes them less likely to gain representation in the legislative body in question. Many have favored the creation of minority-majority districts, in which minority-group voters make up most of the local population and thus have a stronger opportunity to elect one of their group to office. At-large elections place minority-group candidates in competition with members of the majority group, making it more difficult for them to win elections, especially in areas where voting tends to be racially or ethnically polarized.