District Map Case Study

Gerrymandering is defined as the establishment of boundaries of voting districts with the main objective of determining the partial or complete outcome of elections. Gerrymanders are designed with the main objective of insuring the defeat of specific individuals or electing political allies. There are a number of objectives of gerrymandering. Gerrymandering is usually carried out in order to allow for the reelection of incumbents or for the party in power to win more seats in an election than the number to which its percentage of the total vote properly entitles it. This only serves to subvert the will of the people since it denies them the amount of voting power that they are entitled

Soon after passage of the Voting Rights Act, federal examiners were conducting voter registration, and black voter registration began a sharp increase. The cumulative effect of the Supreme Court’s decisions, Congress’ enactment of voting rights legislation, and the ongoing efforts of concerned private citizens and the Department of Justice, has been to restore the right to vote guaranteed by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. The Voting Rights Act itself has been called the single most effective piece of civil rights legislation ever passed by

Gerrymandering serves only one purpose, to obtain an unfair political advantage over an opposing party. Both major political parties in the United States are guilty of gerrymandering. There are four ways to gerrymander a district: cracking, packing, hijacking, and kidnapping. Cracking is when voters of a certain political affiliation are spread out among multiple districts, diminishing their voting power. An example of cracking would be splitting up a city into multiple districts where the majority of voters live in outlying areas, knowing that the outlying areas vote a particular way. Packing is what happens when voters of a single party are placed in one district in order to reduce the effectiveness of their votes in other districts. Packing is often used for parties to obtain a partisan advantage when said party holds a minority

“The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting.” In the 1880’s poll taxes and literacy requirements that afterward advocated African Americans to vote. Meanwhile Klan violence frightens from police and employers, blacks were still “protesting”about voting rights. As a result, there were over two dozen blacks serving in state congress across some

There are two types of gerrymandering, the first is called packing. Packing is when you put the same type of people in one electoral district. Why is packing helpful?, well packing can decrease the chance of one party influencing the other party. Cracking is the other way of gerrymandering, this is when you spread one party out to decrease their impact on the district, causing the other party to win the district. Gerrymandering in general sounds a little wrong in a political view. It sounds very wrong after hearing about the great gerrymander in 2012. In the house of representatives we have 435 seats. To be able to determine how many seats go to a state every ten years the department of commerce holds something called a census. The

The Voting Rights act of 1965 was established on August 6, 1965. This law was set to outlaw discrimination of voting practices adopted in many Southern States after the civil war, including literary test as a prerequisite to voting. The act was signed into law by former president Lyndon Johnson after a century of deliberate and violent denial of the vote to African- Americans in the South and latinos in the Southwest as well as many years of entrenched electoral systems that shut out citizens with limited fluency in english. The voting Rights act of 1965 has traced back to the 14th and 15th Amendment where it grants citizenships to all persons born in the united states including former slaves and provided all citizens with equal protection

Nearly 100 years after the 15th amendment was ratified, vast disparities and blatant discrimination in voting process and practice were still pervasive, particularly in certain southern states like Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. The 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA) was enacted by congress to address this enduring inequity. Section 5 of the VRA requires that states meeting criteria set out in section 4(b) of the act, must obtain federal “preclearance” before enacting any laws that affect voting. Section 4(b) provides the conditions for the preclearance requirement as state or jurisdictions where less than 50% of minorities were registered to vote in 1964.

First, gerrymandering can dilute an opposing party's voter base. This is done by trying to spread out the candidate’s or party’s, the people who are running for Congress, main voter base by drawing districts that would place the voters in a

Gerrymandering is a form of boundary redistricting, in which the boundaries of an electoral district or constituency are modified for electoral purposes, often producing a contorted or unusual shape. The resulting district is known as a Gerrymander. Gerrymandering is used as a potential way to achieve desired electoral results for a particular party, or may be used to

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibits voting discrimination. With the condition to receive preclearance stated in section 5 of the Act from the Department of Justice before making any changes affecting the voting process, also came four other prohibitions. The prohibition of literacy test or other similar test or devices as a prerequisite to voter registration is one prevention. The requirement of jurisdictions with significant language minority populations to provide non-English ballots and oral voting instructions is another. Third is the prohibition of vote dilution, which is the remapping of districts to suppress the minority vote. The final provision was one of the most controversial of the Act. It established the federal oversight

The process in gerrymandering occurs when it’s time for the congressional state districts to be redrawn, which happens every 10 years(Altman). The goal of gerrymandering is to give your political party an advantage by giving them the most members in the House of Representatives or state legislature. Each state district sends one representative to the House, so when it’s time to redraw the districts, politicians will put as many voters of the opposing party in one district as possible, this way, the other party’s votes will be wasted in a district that they will already win, and will have no effect on the other districts that the party redrawing the districts plan to win. This gives the party redrawing the districts more members in the House and give them a yuuuuge partisan advantage when it comes to passing legislation favorable to their party's agenda, and to stopping legislation that opposes that party’s values.

2. Gerrymandering is used to describe the creation of an odd shaped electoral district in order to favor the candidates of one party. The problem is the district that breaks the other party’s majority into fragments happens when the party there by denying fair representation. That was the problem

Texas is a state that has always been recognized for its size and politics. Elections are a huge part of democratic societies that are intended for citizens to choose their public leaders and approve the policies set by candidates. Political parties and interest groups also play a key role in shaping opportunities for public participation. Most Texans and historians know that the Democratic Party’s historical dominance is important to state politics. It is less likely that people are not aware of the consequences of the one-party system for public participation and democracy in Texas. Like many of the rim South states, the white elitist belonged to the Democratic Party which stemmed from the end of Reconstruction until the late 20th

The Voting Rights Act was meant to rectify “a clear and simple wrong.” At the time of the act’s inception, President Johnson declared the VRA’s meaning, “Millions of Americans are denied the right to vote because of their color. This law will ensure them the right to vote.” The Voting Rights Act emancipated more than 700,000 black Southerners. Although African Americans made up only 13 percent of the United States population, they made up 36 percent of the South and a much greater percentage in some states, such as Mississippi and South Carolina. No longer could states generate shrewd new techniques to suppress the vote. The act helped remove literacy tests and other Jim Crow tactics that were in place prior. President Johnson called the act,

The Voting Rights Act 42 U.S.C. §§ 1973 et seq., decision is important regarding the laws governing voting rights and their relationship to minority voters. Its implication and effects however does not end within the legal realms and dimensions but continues through to society, culture, and human rights. The Voting Rights Act initially established in 1965 under Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration protected “racial minorities” from biased voting practices. It was a huge stride in the civil rights movement and a victory over harmful, archaic, and biased voting practices and traditions.