Einstein said “Everything should be made as simple as possible but not simpler.” Please keep this in mind and wait a minute to read the whole proposal with the goal of solving this problem and promoting a better, more simpler way to understand redistricting.

It doesn’t matter but I’ve never agreed with or supported the ‘one man, one vote’ policy of requiring that all related political boundaries should have an equal number of voters with the exception of course of our US senators by state. Hence, do the senators of CA, NY, FL, and TX work harder than the senators from VT, WY, ND, SD, and NH? No they don’t. Is this fair? I also unequivocally say no.

Based on the above, and again please bear with me here, Utah should adopt the set-up. For ease and convenience, we should limit our counties to 26 or fewer, basically, no more counties than letters in the alphabet and named for each letter. Three counties will have to be incorporated into the other 26 and I suggest Daggett into Uintah, Piute into Wayne, and Rich into Morgan.

Counties in Utah are, by definition of the Utah Constitution, recognized as a political “legal subdivision.” This is a political process for political reasons. Just as states get two senators, our counties now will get one state senator and at least one state representative. Clear, easy, simple and understandable and 20 counties (of 26) would not have to go through this excruciating process. I believe the citizens/voters here would appreciate this simplification. As the Utah Constitution states, “All political power is inherent in the people…”, and most people I believe for these reasons would support this proposal.

Our most populated counties are Cache, Weber, Davis, Salt Lake, Utah, and Washington and listed here as having over 100K people. How ever many representatives we want to have over the first one (currently 75 in the House) can now be determined. So just to put forth a proposal, let me start with this. Of 26 counties, all have the one and one. The six largest now get more representatives and I would distribute them thus (total number): Salt Lake 22, Utah 12, Davis 8, Weber 6, Washington 4, and Cache 3. Using this method our House membership says the same and the Senate loses three. (Before one man, one vote ruling, we had one senator per county and that’ where the 29 senators came from.)

These six counties should be the only counties that have to go though this redistricting process and do it with county boundaries. Period. This means with 26 already determined, some 49 would come from the above six counties. Remember, our US House started with representing only 30K when the Constitution was first approved. Let me add that the number wasn’t increased due to members being so good at their job, it was increased because the federal government didn’t want to spend the money building a larger building to meet in.

This is about Utah and not about how the congressional boundaries are drawn but my boundaries here would also be based on easy to read, understand, and be kept within cities and county line.

The standard should not be one man, one vote but does the person really represent you, regardless of the economics, population, medium salary, natural resources, or other interests being considered. I want my two legislators to be experts and very well versed and knowledgeable about my county and not have to deal (in general) with all this info about another two or three counties. I would also appreciate both living in the same county as myself.

This is why I know the rationale of the current majority party and their reason of equal representation of urban and rural interests rings hollow. Counties have unique interests and generally are limited, the smaller and medium size by area than the larger counties. The larger ones have those interests due to mainly the population, not because of environment or natural geographical resources. Keep the interests of the county as a whole together. Keep the interests of the county as a whole together. There is a reason we have counties (although I could not find the answer to this question).

The last two counties Utah added were Duchesne (1913) and Daggett (1919). Its been over a 100 years now. Isn’t it time to upgrade, update, and uplift our processes and ways politically? As to having the 26 county names for each letter of the alphabet, wouldn’t it be a cool way for children to recite the alphabet in Utah?

For letters not now being used I’ve come up with some possibilities. Try these: Arches, Anasazi, Fremont, Franklin, Hickman, Lee, Logan, Nauvoo, Nimi, Navajo, Nibley, Oquirrh, Orton, Young, and Zion. Haven’t tackled Q, V, or X yet.

This can now be called the Utah way.

JH Thompson is a resident of Ogden.