Could a state set up constituencies for seats in the U.S. House of Representatives based on something other than the locations of voters’ residences?
For example, take a state like Maine which is currently entitled to send two members to the House. Could Maine have all males vote in one race and all females vote in another? (Please note that I’m definitely not advocating this. I’m just offering it up as an example of one way you could divide up the voters based on something other than where they happen to live.)
In the past, geographic districts were probably the only practical choice. Nowadays, though, with electronic voting, it seems like it could be more flexible.
Other than stating that the number of Reps a state gets is determined by it’s population (and the starting number of Reps each state was entitled to before the first census) the Constitution is silent on the matter.
There may be federal laws involved in how a state must determine it’s Representatives. For example, the number of Reps (435) is a matter of federal law, and is not in the Constitution.
If it’s not a matter of federal law, then I suppose it would be up to each state. New York could (supposedly) put everyone’s name in the race and put the top 31 vote getters in Congress.
My gut feeling, however (IANAL) tells me that federal law probably covers this.
I think that some state that had its reapportionment plan thrown out had to go and have an election where everybody in the state got to choose all the representatives and then they just got assigned 1-X.