describe the two ways that officials gerrymander a district?
The battle lines for the next decade of US politics are about to be set. 1. gerrymandering, in U.S. politics, the practice of drawing the boundaries of electoral districts in a way that gives one political party an unfair advantage over its rivals (political or partisan gerrymandering) or that dilutes the voting power of members of ethnic or linguistic minority groups (racial gerrymandering). As an example of how powerful packing and cracking can be, lets imagine we have a state with 500 Democratic and 500 Republican voters perfectly evenly divided overall. In California, in fact, only one congressional incumbent lost reelection from 2000 to 2010. For Congress, the GOP doesnt have sole control over maps for the entire country; Democratic-controlled states and independent commissions will submit maps, too. But honestly, it's not. Try the game again, either as the same party or a different party. ThoughtCo. The outline of one of these districts was thought to resemble a salamander. But presumably other people feel - are more concerned about, say, the health of their constituents or the - you know, the - just being fair to everybody or just - you know what I'm saying? 2. The term "gerrymandering" was coined after a review of Massachusetts 's redistricting maps of 1812 set . In 1842, the Reapportionment Act required that congressional districts be contiguous and compact. MARTIN: Forgive me, but, you know, I'm sure some people are listening to our conversation who would think, well, that's just diabolical. And even though our elected officials change out every so often, a lot of the political strategists have been here for decades. The Census Bureau releaseddata to the states for redistricting on August 12. In the 2012 congressional elections, for example, Republicans won 53 percent of the popular vote but carried three out of four House seats in states where they oversaw redistricting. ThoughtCo, Dec. 20, 2020, thoughtco.com/what-is-gerrymandering-4057603. It has a surprising history and an uncertain future, as the nation awaits a ruling by the Supreme Court. It could be five Democratic seats. Democrats dont like the fact that Republicans took over a lot of state legislatures, and what weve seen with Democrats across the country is to look for bogeymen under every rock they can to explain their electoral failures. They are literally going through communities and drawing these lines to figure out which voters do they want in their district and which ones don't they want. Former Congressman Jason Altmire says thats given him a close-up view of how gerrymandering works. "Gerrymandering." Other GOP-controlled states: Republicans control the redistricting process in 14 more states, most of which are solidly red. MARTIN: So how do you relate this to the current moment? I want to just be clear that both parties have been accused of this, and both parties have been successfully sued because of this. In that case, the plaintiffs argued that the discriminatory effects of the redistricting plan could be measured objectively by comparing the efficiency of votes cast for Republican or Democratic candidates in state legislative elections since 2012. The second method is known as the "wasted vote." Definition and Examples, Why No Term Limits for Congress? Michigan, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania alone the three states with the worst gerrymanders in the last redistricting cycle accounted for 7 to 10 extra Republican seats in the House. Im against racism. Yet the Supreme Court has not granted these multiracial coalition districts the same legal protections as majority-minority districts, making them a key target for dismantling by partisan map drawers. Political gerrymandering characteristically results in a greater number of wasted votes for the disfavoured party (i.e., votes for a losing candidate or votes for a winning candidate in excess of the number needed to win), a discrepancy that can be represented as an efficiency gap between the parties when the difference between wasted votes is divided by the total number of votes cast. States where they could do so include Tennessee, Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana, Kansas, Ohio, and New Hampshire. This new district was awkwardly drawn to benefit his political party and happened to look like a salamander on the map. Why is making compact districts important? What it has become to mean is districts that I dont like because somebody else drew them. The former steel town of Tarentum in western Pennsylvania is a mix of working-class Republicans and Democrats. What Is Redistricting? This is especially the case in the South, where white Democrats are a comparatively small part of the electorate and often live, problematically from the standpoint of a gerrymanderer, very close to white Republicans. But not all. Causes of Death, Determinants of Mortality & Mortality Rates, Prorupted State, Elongated State & Fragmented State | Concepts, Examples & Shapes, Boundaries Overview & Types | Physical, Political & Cultural Boundaries, Geography of Religion | Relationship, Impact & Conflicts, Supranationalism, Devolution & Democratization | Concepts, Forces, & Examples. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, whose administration enacted a law in 1812 defining new state senatorial districts. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. In states where they controlled the process of drawing congressional district boundaries, they captured seven out of 10 seats with only 56 percent of the popular vote. And shifts in the parties political coalitions weakened some GOP gerrymanders as the decade progressed, since Democrats began to perform better in suburbs. This road is sort of the boundary. It happens every 10 years, after the census, to reflect the changes in population. The way congressional and legislative boundaries are drawn determines who wins federal and state elections, and ultimately which political party holds the power in making crucial policy decisions. With proportional representation and multi-member districts, a party winning 60 percent of the vote in a state would get about 60 percent of the seats in a state. Describe the two ways that officials gerrymander a district? The Brennan Center works to reform and defend our countrys systems of democracy and justice. Want to read all 2 pages? Cracking splits groups of people with similar characteristics, such as voters of the same party affiliation, across multiple districts. The redrawing of maps that followed produced some of the most extreme gerrymanders in history. Support our mission and help keep Vox free for all by making a financial contribution to Vox today. How so? With redistricting now beginning in many states, the need for Congress to pass reform legislation is more urgent than ever. How Vacancies in the US Congress are Filled, What Is a Caucus? The governors in most of those states have the authority to veto the plans. Before you play the gerrymandering game, get familiar with a few key terms that youll encounter: Write down what, if anything, you know about each of these terms. (This is a simplified example, but a map with a similar outcome was used in North Carolina, where Democrats won half the vote in 2018 but just three of 13 House seats.). And they are less likely to cooperate with each other, and that gets us to the politics we have now. If youre a member of Congress representing that type of district, you dont hear different points of view. The Republicans, they said, You realize if you fight this you lose your district. And Im saying, somehow youre missing the point. The For the People Act, a landmark piece of federal democracy reform legislation that has already passed the House, represents a major step toward curbing political gamesmanship in map drawing. The redrawing of maps that followed produced some of the most extreme gerrymanders in history. In the instance that gave the "gerrymander" its name . What happens then depends on which state court were talking about. What does it mean to make a district compact? Gerrymandering is by far the most effective modern tool for a party seeking to swing election outcomes in the US. We live in communities, our neighbors could be Democrats, Republicans, independents, people who vote, people who don't vote. The current redistricting cycle will be the first since the Supreme Courts 2019 ruling that gerrymandering for party advantage cannot be challenged in federal court, which has set the stage for perhaps the most ominous round of map drawing in the countrys history. Every decade, following the decennial census, the state legislatures of the United States are told how many representatives their state will send to the United States House of Representatives. Copyright 2020 NPR. To keep politics and the potential for gerrymandering out of the process, state lawmakers and public officials are prohibited from serving on the commissions. 7. That's the practice of drawing electoral district lines, sometimes in absurd shapes, in a manner designed not to benefit voters but to benefit the politicians of one party or another. Future GOP majorities in state legislatures or the House may feel more empowered to overturn the presidential election result, if gerrymandering ensures theyll face no electoral consequences. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/08/learning/lesson-plans/lesson-of-the-day-a-gerrymandering-game.html. From 1901 to 1992, no Afro-American had ever represented North Carolina. A Little History. Do you think that was fair? This is like original sin. A lot, says Katie Fahey. What about if the redistricting process had been controlled by an independent panel? For another group of states those using commissions to redistrict partisan outcomes are more difficult to game out. But that would be a major change in the way the House has long worked, with one member per district. To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. The public is largely shut out of the process," wroteErika L. Wood, the director of the Redistricting & Representation Project at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law. Because of where Democratic and Republican voters happen to live in swing states with much of the Democratic vote packed into urban areas it is usually easier to draw state maps that favor Republicans. The purpose of gerrymandering is to grant one party power over another by creating districts that hold dense concentrations of voters who are favorable to their policies. Until the Supreme Court's Incumbent Gerrymandering- This website helped me pass! There are more possibilities, and they add up. Its easy to spot an egregious partisan gerrymander, but determining what makes a fair or good map is tougher, and depends on what you value. More African-American districts meant less Democrats were elected. I dont think the African-American community was out to destroy the Democratic Party, but they were out to get the representation they thought they were entitled to. Both major political parties are responsible for the misshapen legislative and congressional districts in the United States. Unless that happens, we risk another decade of racially and politically discriminatory line-drawing. The purpose of gerrymandering is to grant one party power over another by creating districts that hold dense concentrations of voters who are . Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Louisiana each have Democratic governors and GOP-controlled legislatures, and that will mean some tense negotiations. Gerrymandering is the act of drawing congressional, state legislative or other political boundaries to favor a political party or one particular candidate for elected office. Please answer the following questions IN COMPLETE SENTENCES. After playing the game, read the recap, and then respond to the following questions: 1. Republicans held on to key governors offices in states like Florida, Georgia, and Ohio. Illinois is the only other big state where Democrats control map-drawing, but their gains there will likely be smaller. In 2010, Republicans in an effort to control the drawing of congressional maps forged a campaign to win majorities in as many state legislatures as possible.
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