Gerrymandering is the process of altering electoral districts to favor a political party over the other by receiving more votes in that districts based on the population demographics and party affiliation. Gerrymandering was founded when Governor Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts had enacted a bill that would allow the state to the redistricted in a way that would favor the party he represented, which was the Democratic-Republican Party, over the Federalists. When the redistricting plan was brought to the press, the term was created using Governor Gerry's name and salamander after one district in Boston appeared to look like a salamander. In terms of recent elections, the United States has not gone through a redistricting process since the …show more content…
The 2016 election was very dependent on swing voters that were very divided between both Trump and Clinton and the Republicans definitely capitalized on those that swung toward Trump over Clinton. In some cases districts that are gerrymander are some oddly shaped that the boundaries wrap around another district or are drawn so narrow that candidates can receive a certain population of votes to get an advantage. It seems gerrymandering did not cause the results of the election aside from swing votes in a different way. Over the past eight years, Americans have seen the Democrats in charge of parts of Congress and the presidency and those that normally stay in the moderate swung toward Trump because of the need for change in their minds. This resulted in highly undecided districts flipping to red, increasing the Republican majority in the House of Representatives and allowing the Republicans to take control of the Senate. So those gerrymandered districts that have already been drawn in favor of one side actually …show more content…
The redistribution of districts definitely helped voters that felt underrepresented especially those in rurals and cities but this still presents problems with small pockets of voters that are either undecided or strongly in favor of one party over their districts affiliation. The new NY District 23 is a perfect example of this. District 23 is lead by Congressman Tom Reed, a Republican representing a very rural area of Southern Tier New York. The cities of Corning, Ithaca, Olean, Jamestown, and Dunkirk are scattered throughout the district with dozens of public and private universities also present. The district population is mostly isolated in the cities with sparse populations elsewhere. A majority of the population would be young, due to the universities, and mostly urban, because of the cities, so you expect the district to be blue, wrong. District 23 is in fact red, because of the lack of mobilization of young voters to go out and vote. Because of this, older more rural voters decide the party affiliation of the district resulting in representation by Reed. Some argue that Tom Reed’s district is gerrymandered in his favor which resulted in his reelection this past November. Although he was reelected, there was still a presence of more younger voters making an effort to go out and vote. John Plumb, Reed’s Democratic opponent, had great outreach in the Chautauqua
The first proposal, of changing the electoral system for the House of Representatives, would mean that each state is represented in proportion to its population. This entails that states with higher populations will receive more votes because they have more seats in the House. Less populous states may argue against this reform because they will have a disadvantage when it comes to voting on legislation. However, the reform also includes having each state serve as electoral districts. In this case, multi-member districts will be needed—proportional representation will require a larger district magnitude. Having these territorial subdivisions will help create an efficient legislative system because there would be less possibility of manipulating the votes—not as relevant to election results when seats are proportional. Having the votes distributed in this manner may help avoid a deadlock and therefore, allow for a faster process when passing legislation. In addition, minorities will have chance to be represented by possibly gaining a seat in a particular district—a highly populous
The resulting districts are normally referred to as gerrymanders and they are composed of pro-incumbents and partisans. Partisan gerrymandering involves the redrawing of political lines in order to favor a given political party. Incumbent gerrymandering involves the redrawing of boundaries in a bipartisan manner that is aimed at benefiting the incumbents on both sides of the aisle (Snider 2012).
In order to combat gerrymandering, it is important to understand how and why a district is
Without a certain degree of control over the governmental levels of power, blacks end up disproportionately dependent on white-created legislation and white administration of those laws (Pohlmann, 219). The potential dangers of gerrymandering involves the distribution of blacks into districts where they are diluted into a minority or the creation of districts where blacks are an excessive majority so that an overall district majority white can be achieved (Thornburgh v. Gingles, 31). These redistricting plans severely hindered blacks ability to vote for a representative of their choice (1). However, in order to stem the progress of racially discriminating gerrymandering, these districts are examined based on the impact and district composition
More convincing than the fact that the majority of incumbents retained their seats by overwhelming margins is the shocking statistic that a quarter of the incumbents were uncontested.13 These politicians were so successful at arranging favorable districts that it was futile to even attempt a challenge. The author continued to examine particularly egregious cases of gerrymandering in New York, including that of Senator Guy Vellela, who once selected voters for his district by individual city blocks.14 Senator Guy Vellela, as well as the other state senators of New York, are prime examples of politicians exploiting gerrymandering to manipulate the outcome of elections and improve their outcomes.
The voting process in America appears straightforward, but it is a very complex, complicated system. The Electoral College is America’s current voting system. The Electoral College still serves its intended purpose, but with increasing political activity among Americans it has caused a need to reform this process. Research suggests that the Electoral College system should be amended because it poorly illustrates democracy, is outdated and the majority of Americans are in favor of abolishing the system.
“The Republicans are going to have their hand on the computer mouse, and when you have your hand on the computer mouse, you can change a district from a D to an R.” - The New York Times Dec 24,2010. Redistricting plays a role in electing representatives and state legislators. There is this thing called gerrymandering that allows the drawing of the new districts to be in their favor.
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
Even though the Proportional Representation system sounds like it could be a good thing for the United States, I think that the system we use now works best for our country. I think we should stick to what we have been doing for all these years. No system is ever going to be perfect but since we are familiar to how our system works, we should just keep it. I feel as though adding more parties would just be too much and get a little out of hand. With the Proportional Representation system I see the votes getting split up between too many parties, therefore there will not be one candidate that is over powering the rest.
"Redrawing the Electoral Map: Reforming the Electoral College with the District-Popular Plan." Hofstra Law Review, vol. 41, no. 1, Fall2012, pp. 217-265. EBSCOhost, dcccd.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com.dcccd.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ofm&AN=86414706&site=ehost-live.
The article, “In Praise of Gerrymandering” written by Kevin D. Williamson, talks about gerrymandering, which is when politicians are cheating to be elected and shares his opinion that Republicans have become “too good” at this. He then illustrates that Democrats need to demonstrate better ways of obtaining votes.
They both claimed that due to the total population it causes some districts to have more actual voters than others. They argued that this fact violated their “one-person, one-vote”, in other words, due to the exclusion of so many non-citizens they
Gerrymandering is the use of redrawing certain districts and manipulating the boundaries allowing a political advantage to one’s party and the other a disadvantage. This process occurs every ten years as new political candidates run to be a government official ( Fan 737 ). It started in 1812 where Governor Gerry redrew the district lines of Massachusetts, giving his party an advantage. That is how Gerrymandering got its name. Usually, the person who redraws the district goes after the urban areas because of how populated they are compared to rural areas. This is not good for the United States because of many reasons; Gerrymandering create districts that are confusing to voters because of the weird shapes and sizes, claims of the party can be contradictory, and the fact that gerrymandering is around, makes the people believe that the candidates are corrupted and running the right the vote. ( RULEY 785 ).
Gerrymandering is also a major way that officials are trying to stop or complicate citizens from voting. Gerrymandering is the manipulation of boundaries of an electoral constituency so as to favor one class or party. Gerrymandering is one of the greatest threats to American democracy today. Officials can redraw county lines to accommodate to their liking. If a there are five districts in a state and three are Democratic, then the Republicans can maneuver the districts to their liking and vice-versa. Right now, with the majority GOP Congress, Senate, and House, Democratic districts are in more danger than
Single member districts support a two party system. Proportional system allows for a multi party structure. It requires a certain amount of power to become elected into office. In a plurality system two go against each other to gain the majority vote. An example of this is the United States. There are two primary parties who compete for the citizens vote to become a member in office. In a proportional representation system it is displayed as many people can run for office. In the end the percentage of the vote goes to the portion of the votes. Two party districts are essential when it comes to be represented. It allows people who wouldn't normally run for office due to biased to run for office, with the confidence that the system itself is