About the new Congressional District 8

If you were part of the 8^th Congressional District in years past, most likely you are no longer in this District, sorry.  Here’s why.  Every ten years the U.S. Government is required by the Constitution to take a Census of its citizens.   If, like some, you were randomly selected to answer the “long” version of the Census you won’t have forgotten the detailed questions about your residence, your family, your job etc.  All the information the government really needs though is how many people currently live where ever it is they are living.  This is to ensure equal representation in Congress.  For example, in the early years of our country, the population was greatest along the Eastern seaboard and much sparser farther west.  In 1820, after the first Census in which Illinois was counted as a State, Illinois was apportioned just one Congressional Seat.  As the population of the states grew, apportionment allowed for the expansion of the House of Representatives and based on the Census, states were allowed a proportional number of Congressional Seats. The Reapportionment Act of 1929 set the number of seats in the House to 435 and Illinois held, 27 of those seats, it’s all time high.  But with the population booming elsewhere in America, our apportioned seats have declined consistently over the years resulting in a Seat or Seats lost after almost every census, since 1940. In November of 2012, we will only elect 18 Congressmen. 

 The 8th District, as it will look for the November 2012 election, comprises townships from Cook, Dupage, and Kane Counties.   Here is a picture from the Google Earth Satellite: