Gerrymandering Case Study

WOOSTER — The Wayne County Board of Elections will continue to be part of an appeal involving the Secretary of State’s office and a Wooster man’s bid to be an independent candidate for state representative in November.

Gerrymandering has existed long before there was a word directly referring to the action it entails. Gerrymandering is essentially the changing and controlling of district boundaries in order to manipulate the outcome. The term, which was printed for the first time in 1812, is a combination of the word “salamander”- the reason for this being that the first district (in Massachusetts) to be gerrymandered resembled the animal- and the last name of the governor of Massachusetts at the time, Elbridge Gerry. The manipulation of the outcome of congressional elections is rooted from corruption and the lack of a “perfect” way to please both the majority and the minorities in drawing the district boundaries.

Gerrymandering may prevent the purpose of members being elected on a single-member district basis because districts can be drawn favoring one political party. Gerrymandering is when districts have been drawn so the boundaries of legislative districts in bizarre or unusual shapes to favor one party. Gerrymandering protects incumbents and discourages challengers and it strengthens the majority party while weakening the opposition party

Gerrymandering is a brilliant but unjust technique. Elections like one in 2012 show us how their is corruption in the system. A party should not be able to win control of congress if the opposing party received more votes. In 2012 the Republicans gained control of the House although the Democrats received over a million more votes.

Say there is a state with a population of fifty, now three fifths of that state are democratic and the other two fifths are republican, now we need to separate this state into five congressional districts. The best way to do this would be so there are two republican representatives and three democratic. However with gerrymandering democrats can draw districts that are unfair and they get all five representatives, but if republicans draw the districts they can draw them were there are three republican representatives and only two democratic representatives. This process is seen through many states. In North Carolina forty-four percent of voters voted democratic, however thanks to a creative congressional map, seventy- seven percent of representatives were republican. The twelfth district in North Carolina is considered the most gerrymandered district in the country, and is home to two more of the top ten gerrymandered districts. Republicans rule six of the most Gerrymandered states, including North Carolina, Louisiana, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Alabama. The other four

Murphy, Bruce. "Murphy's Law: The Most Gerrymandered State in America.” Urban Milwaukee Murphy’s Law The Most Gerrymandered State in America Comments. N.p., 6 Aug. 2015. Web. 11 Jan. 2016.

In the article, the author uses numerous facts, as well as quotes from experts who have elaborated on the subject as well. One quote said by Paul Smith was,“Partisan gerrymandering of this kind is worse now than anytime in recent memories.” This is significant because he is talking about how much the republicans have taken advantage of gerrymandering and have used it to their best interest.

The Mc’Culloch v. Maryland case dealt with an issue between state and federal branches. The state

gerrymandering is a term that refers to someone use an unfair manipulation to change the election distinction in order to keep the interests of the party. It occurs when legislature let more political party supporters region included in the same district as the party candidate which allows the legislature's party to overwhelming victory. Yes, I think we need to end this practice because I believe it is unfair to the other candidate. If the gerrymandering happens, then what is the significance of the vote. There should have someone stand out to oversee the districting of the states. The United States as a country with freedom, equality, and justice, we should not allow this practice happen in any state it is not going to be helpful. The purpose

The Week Staff, authors of the article, “How to rig elections, the legal way”, use the article to explain what gerrymandering is and how it is used in the political system. According to the article, gerrymandering is a way for political parties to manipulate district lines to their advantage. This way, a specific party can gain more electoral votes in their favor. Many politicians use this technique, and it is perfectly legal for them to do it. However, just because gerrymandering is legal it does not mean it is fair. Many people are unaware of what gerrymandering is, and they do not understand what it does to the voting system. Gerrymandering is not fair to the voters, and redrawing districts should be given to people that are not partial

In “The Dangerous Game,” Rainsford is stuck on an island known as “ship-trap island,” after falling off his yacht, and is met by a ruthless, hunter who murders for sport. In High Noon, The newly married Will Kane is scares by the news that Frank Miller is coming back to town. He sent him to jail for murderer, but now, him and his gang are back for revenge. Although the film High Noon and the short story, “The Dangerous Game” have many differences like conflicts, there are a lot of similarities like setting and characters.

Gerrymandering, is a way for certain parties- Democrats, and Republicans- to legally rig an election. The way it works is every ten years the electoral maps have to be re-drawn, meaning the districts that our votes are counted towards are redrawn every ten years. Now this might sound very innocent but the way it is set up is so a commision can draw the districts on the map, meaning they can take a very highly saturated Democratic or Republican county, and break it up so that they can group parts with other places that don't have many other people of that same party. Now this may sound like it will hurt them because they're splitting up their strong front but the commissions are much more strategic, they only break up their strong holds to place them into other districts that they can easily win. Or they break them up to shift them into districts where they need more help. Now this may make you angry that the system is built this way, but their is some good news and that is this only works in six states, and also president Obama is trying to change it so that it is not possible anywhere.

Anyone running for President and any political office should address the three major problems that threaten our country.

The topic that I chose as one of the major problems in the United States, is gerrymandering. With gerrymandering being a factor that contributes to obtaining votes from both extremes of the political spectrum, allows the political candidates to not engage in competition against their opponent. This is due to the political candidate already having guaranteed those votes from because the political party through gerrymandering, has manipulated the boundaries that could concentrate certain groups (political, ethnic, religion, race, beliefs), creating a guaranteed state that will mainly vote for their political party candidate or a safe-zone. These safe-zones were divided between coasts and urban areas (Democratic states) and between the coasts, rural areas and suburbs (Republican states). Within these different boundaries, the political candidates had specific targets that they needed to make their points across. For the democrats, they targeted younger people, women, minorities, and non-religious because most likely they would support the democratic

Forgette Richard, Garner Andrew, and Winkle John. “Do redistricting principles and practices affect US state legislative electoral competition? State Politics and policy quarterly, 20(9) (2009): 151 175.