Gerrymandering: Elections and United States
Should we, as a society, continue to let politicians use gerrymandering practices (drawing their own voting boundaries) across racial/partisan lines; thereby, diluting the minority vote?
While being on Facebook and participating in the political process of the Presidential campaign, I discovered that the election process is not a cut and dry one. The Republican Party was clearly honest in their approach of gerrymandering and bragging as they gerrymandered congressional districts in blue states. They wanted to control how state legislative and congressional district boundaries would be drawn, so they set about to control the redistricting process. Therefore, even thou a majority of Americans voted for Democrats in the Presidential election… the Republicans ended up controlling the house. They not only gerrymandered but, changed voting rules in the states and districts they controlled, and the ones they didn’t control they challenged the voting rules in court.
[Gerrymandering- what can be done about it? First we should define just what gerrymandering is. “Gerrymandering is redistricting; which is the process of drawing United States electoral district boundaries, often in response to population changes determined by the results of the decennial census”.
“To gerrymander is to divide an area into election districts giving one political party a majority in many districts. The word gerrymander is a portmanteau from the name of Elbridge Gerry and salamander. Gerry was the governor of Massachusetts when he signed a bill in 1812 to redraw the district boundaries to favor the Democrats and weaken the Federalists, who had better numbers at the voting booth. The shape of the district he formed was likened in appearance to a salamander, and political cartoonists emphasized that appearance to denigrate the Democrats. Gerry did not sponsor the bill in question and was said to have signed it reluctantly, but his name has gone into history as that of a villain. The word
While being on Facebook and participating in the political process of the Presidential campaign, I discovered that the election process is not a cut and dry one. The Republican Party was clearly honest in their approach of gerrymandering and bragging as they gerrymandered congressional districts in blue states. They wanted to control how state legislative and congressional district boundaries would be drawn, so they set about to control the redistricting process. Therefore, even thou a majority of Americans voted for Democrats in the Presidential election… the Republicans ended up controlling the house. They not only gerrymandered but, changed voting rules in the states and districts they controlled, and the ones they didn’t control they challenged the voting rules in court.
[Gerrymandering- what can be done about it? First we should define just what gerrymandering is. “Gerrymandering is redistricting; which is the process of drawing United States electoral district boundaries, often in response to population changes determined by the results of the decennial census”.
“To gerrymander is to divide an area into election districts giving one political party a majority in many districts. The word gerrymander is a portmanteau from the name of Elbridge Gerry and salamander. Gerry was the governor of Massachusetts when he signed a bill in 1812 to redraw the district boundaries to favor the Democrats and weaken the Federalists, who had better numbers at the voting booth. The shape of the district he formed was likened in appearance to a salamander, and political cartoonists emphasized that appearance to denigrate the Democrats. Gerry did not sponsor the bill in question and was said to have signed it reluctantly, but his name has gone into history as that of a villain. The word
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