---
kind: "section"
citation: "2 U.S.C. § 6"
title: "2"
title_heading: "The Congress"
number: "6"
heading: "Reduction of representation"
release: "119-102"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/2/6"
units:
  - "Chapter 1 — Election of Senators and Representatives"
---

# §6. Reduction of representation


Should any [State](/usc/2/4556.md?p=1) deny or abridge the right of any of the male inhabitants thereof, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, to vote at any election named in the amendment to the Constitution, article 14, [section 2](/usc/2/2.md), except for participation in the rebellion or other crime, the number of Representatives apportioned to such [State](/usc/2/4556.md?p=1) shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall have to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such [State](/usc/2/4556.md?p=1).


## Source credit

(R.S. § 22.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Codification

R.S. § 22 derived from act Feb. 2, 1872, ch. 11, § 6, 17 Stat. 29.