A geographically connected population is going to have a lot in common, and it makes sense that they would share a representative. Two neighboring farmers in A

A geographically connected population is going to have a lot in common, and it makes sense that they would share a representative. Two neighboring farmers in Alamaba are going to have a lot more in common with each other than with someone living in LA. For political representation purposes, it makes sense for those two farmers to share a representative. You're correct that this isn't necessarily optimal, but I don't think it's that bad either. It's a pretty good heuristic in making sure that: 1) everyone has a representative. 2) each representative is representing a group of people who can reasonably be represented (because they have shared interests/goals/concerns).