The Congress of the United States of America is divided into two houses, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. Although, the Senators of each State as well as the Representatives are voted upon by the people, Senators are considered to be representatives of the State, and congressmen are considered to be representatives of the people from each given State. So too this is the reason why we have a bicameral legislature, so that the biggest States would not dominate the smaller States, however, the size differential in the States of today far exceeds what it was back at the founding of our nation, so that today, the State with the largest population in our country, which is California, has a population that exceeds in aggregate the twenty-two smallest States of the Union. This means that in the Senate, California has but two members, the same as every other State, whereas those twenty-two smaller States have in aggregate, forty-four members, signifying, that the smaller States have far more influence upon governmental policies than their small size would seem to represent.
In the House of Representatives, with the exception of the fact that each State is guaranteed at least one seat in that House, the seats are apportioned every decade by the population of each State, so that Wyoming, has but one representative, which therefore means that its district is the entire State of Wyoming, whereas California has fifty-three representatives, because of its large population, meaning that California is proportionally represented in the House of Representatives, unlike the Senate. In any State in which there are more than one representative, there then comes forth the issue as to how congressional districts are divided and gerrymander, which has a tremendous influence on which party does or does not win that district, but beyond that, whether that district reflects or doesn't reflect certain races to the exclusion of others as well as various factors of this ilk. For instance, if you were to break down each State, by the racial classification of its citizens, whites would represent the highest portion of that population within each State, with the exception of Hawaii, New Mexico, and California. This means, in effect, that congressional districts could be, and have been structured in such a way that one race is significantly over-represented, to wit, in the 115th Congress, there are a total of 102 minorities, which is 23.45% of the members of the House, whereas on a population basis, minorities are about 37% of the population. Incredibly, this percentage of minorities in today's Congress is the highest percentage, ever, yet it still doesn't represent fairly their proportion of this country.
All of the above, would signify, that even though each citizen is entitled to one vote, that not every vote is equal, by virtue of the fact, that if a given congressional district is structured in a way, and many are, that your vote as a minority or creed or race or class or circumstance, is basically a vote that will not influence the result of a preordained election, than your vote has no utility. While, impressive changes have been made over recent years, which has served to make congressional representation a far fairer and equal process, it still isn't in many cases, fair or equal, whatsoever. The bottom line is that if your representative is not a true reflection of the people, than that representative is not truly legitimate.