Why are some districts larger in total land than others

Most of our federal legislators, all of our state legislators, and many of our local legislators in towns and counties are elected from districts. These districts divide states and the people who live there into geographical territories. Districts are occasionally the same size as the whole jurisdiction: members of a local school board, for example, may each be elected from an area with the same boundaries as the overall school district that the board governs. Most of the time, though, district lines subdivide territory, so that there are several districts within one city or state, and representatives for each separate district. When that happens, we need some way to decide where the lines will be drawn.

In the colonial era, many districts were defined by the borders of towns or counties, or groups of towns and counties. The legislature was formed by assigning a certain number of representatives to each of these districts. So, for example, New York State's 1777 Constitution assigned nine representatives to New York "city and county," ten to Albany "city and county," four to Queens County, two to Kings County, and so on. And the infamous Massachusetts gerrymander of 1812 was really just a particular configuration of Massachusetts towns and counties.