Introduction

Back in the 1830s, John Quincy Adams had an issue with the method of

apportionment used in the House of Representatives. Apportionment means the method
used to assign voting seats on a governing board to entities with voting rights.
He felt that the method of apportioning votes at that time was biased and favored
large states. So, he proposed his own method, the Adams Method of Apportionment,
which proposed that a modified divisor should be selected such that when the sum of
the Upper Quotas is tallied, it equals the exact number of seats to be apportioned.
Adams’s Method rounds all the shares up, since this will not give the correct
number of seats, standard divisor should be modified until the rounded shares add up to
the correct total.
Definitions:

 Standard Divisor (SD) is the total population divided by number of seats, used

to divide state populations.
 Standard Quota (SQ) is the state population divided by SD. This results in raw
score for seats to be allotted.
 Upper Quota (or UQ) is the closest larger whole number to the fractional SQ.
This is a whole number used as actual number of seats assigned.
 Modified Divisor (the MD) is a randomly selected divisor. It's used to divide
state populations.
 Modified Quota (MQ) is the state population divided by the MD. And it also
results in a modified raw quota.
 Modified Upper Quota (MUQ) is the closest larger whole number to fractional
MQ. It's a modified whole number of seats to be assigned.

Method
Step 1: Find the “Standard Divisor”.
Total Population
SD=
Number of House Seats
Step 2: Using the Modified Divisor, compute for the Standard Quota of each state.
State Population
Increase D by some d so that when State Quota = is rounded up for
D+ d
every state, these values add to the correct number of House seats.
State Population
SQ=
Standard Divisor
Note: The SQ is rounded up.
Step 3: Find the modified divisor (d). Using d as the divisor, compute each state’s
modified quota.
State Population
MQ=
Modified Divisor
Step 4: Each state is apportioned its modified upper quota.

Example
Gabisan Shipping Lines has 3 vessels: M/V Gloria 1, M/V Gloria 3 and M/V
Gloria 5, which can accommodate numbers of passengers (shown below). They hired
120 BSMT fresh graduates, in order to assist the rising number of passengers. How
many graduates should be apportioned on each vessel?
Vesse Rounded
l Passengers Fair Share Share
G1 758 29.42 30 Standard Quota
G3 997 38.69 39
G5 1250 48.51 49
Total 3005 120 118
Upper Quota

Total Population No. of House Seats

30 05
SD = = 25.767
120
758
Fair share = = 29.42
25.767
997
Fair share = = 38.69
25.767
1250
Fair share = = 48.51
25.767
 Let d= 26 Modified Divisor
Vesse Rounded Modified Quota
l Passengers Fair Share Share
G1 758 29.15 30
G3 997 38.35 39
G5 1250 48.08 49
Total 3005 120 118
 Modified Upper Quota
758
Fair share = = 29.15
26
997
Fair share = = 38.35
26
1250
Fair share = = 48.08
26

 Let d= 25 Modified Divisor

Vesse Rounded
l Passengers Fair Share Share
G1 758 30.32 31
G3 997 39.88 40
G5 1250 50 50
Total 3005 120 121

758
Fair share = = 30.32
25
997
Fair share = = 39.88
25
1250
Fair share = = 50
25

 Let d = 25.4 Modified Divisor

Vesse Rounded
l Passengers Fair Share Share
G1 758 29.84 30
G3 997 39.25 40
G5 1250 49.21 50
Total 3005 120 120

758
Fair share = = 29.84
25.4
997
Fair share = = 39.25
25.4
1250
Fair share = = 49.2
25.4
References

 Mathematics of Apportionment pages 122-139

 Mathematics in the Modern World
 Study.com. Retrieved from https://study.com/academy/lesson/adams-method-of-
apportionment-in-politics.html
 Mathematical Association of America. Retrieved from
https://www.maa.org/press/periodicals/convergence/apportioning-
representatives-in-the-united-states-congress-adams-method-of-apportionment