That's an increase of 506,025 people, or 4.7 percent, in 10 years. The Constitution says that the 435 seats in the House of Representatives must be reallocated fairly among the states every 10 years, based on the national head count. It's a process known as reapportionment. Winners are Arizona, Texas, Florida and Georgia, which will each gain two seats. The big losers are New York and Pennsylvania, which will lose two seats each.
States losing one seat include Ohio, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Oklahoma and Mississippi.
That means two Democrats in northeastern Ohio could end up in the same district. It's a bit like musical chairs with 19 Congress members and only 18 seats. Lines to be redrawn Population shifts within each state are used to draw the political boundaries in the politically charged redistricting process. Earlier population estimates show that much of Ohio's population growth is in Republican-dominated southern and central Ohio. Some speculate that Brown and Dennis Kucinich, D-Lakewood, could wind up battling for the same seat in 2002.