Representatives, at the several periods of making the enumeration, shall be "apportioned among the several counties or districts, according to the qualified voters in each," with the proviso that any county having two-thirds of the ratio shall be entitled to one member.[4] With some exceptions to be commented upon hereinafter, the act reapportioning the House follows the plan of the Tennessee Constitution in allotting to those counties having two-thirds the ratio[5] a direct representative. The same two-thirds principle is extended by the 1962 Act to floterial districts comprising two or more counties.[6] The result of this extension of the two-thirds rule to floterial districts is, of course, to take some seats away from larger counties and districts. One reason for the rule embodied in the Constitution of theunits. A few examples will suffice to demonstrate the soundness of these conclusions.
As to population the senatorial districts have a spread between the 21st District with a voting population of 35,773 and the 6th Senatorial District with a voting population of 92,777.[9] Between these extremes there is no consistent pattern of voting population as between the various districts. Aside from the so-called urban counties of the state (Shelby, Davidson, Hamilton, Knox and Sullivan), the senatorial districts in rural East Tennessee have on the average approximately double the voting populations of the rural districts of Middle and West Tennessee, yet they receive no greater representation. For example, in East Tennessee the 7th District has 71,856 qualified voters; the 3rd District, 77,477; the 4th District, 79,801. These districts are primarily