United States congressional districts

Roy Young Professor Goodman PSCI 4300 U.S. Congress 11 March 2013 How Political Parties Harm Democracy Political parties exist in a democracy as a way for likeminded individuals to be united over a set of shared beliefs. (Daniel) Political parties allow the members of the party to elect politicians to government positions in order to advance their beliefs. (Hargrave) The political parties offer their members strength in numbers, by uniting large numbers of individuals into a collective group; they

Tufts University in 1974. He earned his law degree at Rutgers University in 1978. Moreover he has been admitted to the bar in four states, which are New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Florida. Pallone is a Democratic member and New Jersey’s Sixth District representative for the United States House of Representatives. Before Pallone become a member of the United States House of Representatives, he began his political career in his home city of Long Branch. He was first elected as a council member

chosen by the voters in each of the 50 states to elect the president and vice president of the United States of America. • How exactly does the electoral college work? We the citizens of the U.S. vote for electors who in turn vote for the president. On election day, voters tally up their votes to the candidate of their choice. This normally happens on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November which is election day. Chosen electors meet in their state capitals on the Monday after the second

The political campaign environment in the United States changed in 2010 with the allowance of unlimited independent expenditures by outside entities in elections. The courts’ decisions in Citizens United and SpeechNow.org further increases Americans’ concerns regarding an undue influence of money in politics. This, coupled with increasing polarization and congressional gridlock in the U.S. House of Representatives, promotes skepticism of the political process. Polarization and gridlock create

campaigns, low voter turnout, and wasted votes are also characteristic of this system. New and minority parties have little or no chance of emerging. Only a few democracies in the world are still using the voting system similar to that of the United States.   Minority parties would become more viable if proportional representation was in place. In our system today, a minority party has no chance of any representation. But, using the proportional system, they would receive a percentage

(1) How does a person in my assigned role operate in the legislative process? A United States House Representative plays a major role in the legislative process. In order for laws to be made, it first requires a representative to sponsor a bill, which is just a proposed idea for a law. Any representative is able to introduce a bill. Once sponsored, the bill moves forward to be studied and reviewed by a special committee. The next step after the committee has concluded the review is for the bill

represents California’s 2nd Congressional District and has done so since his election in 2013. Regionally, the District is located on the coast of Northern California, stretching from North of San Francisco to the California border with Oregon. Furthermore, the District is made up of several counties, including Marin, Mendocino, Humboldt, Del Norte, Trinity, and parts of Sonoma. Because of the lack of large urban centers such as Los Angeles or San Francisco, the district is rather large in terms of

Texas’s 12th Congressional district is a relatively large district, located deep in the heart of Texas. From downtown Fort Worth extending about as far as 43 miles out west, and at its largest it is about 53 miles north to south. The 12th district can be considered both rural and urban because the eastern part of the district is in a very urban area, Fort Worth, and the western part is more rural with a couple of smaller cities such as Hudson Oaks or Willow Park. The district encompasses 280,567

Miller v. Johnson 1995 was a United States Supreme Court Case that decided whether racial gerrymandering was unconstitutional or not. This issue was very controversial, but before being able to understand how the case affected the use of racial gerrymandering, one has to understand what gerrymandering is. Every state is made up of different districts, and each district is entitled to their own votes when it comes to elections. Gerrymandering is the manipulation of district boundaries in a way that creates

Gerrymandering in the United States Gerrymandering is a political technique where the majority party in a district or state, set up the boundaries of each district for state and federal governing houses to benefit them. In the United States, districts in each state are redrawn when the census is taken, but the redrawing is voted on by the members of the government in each state, so often the majority party sets up each district boundaries to favor incumbent candidates or their own party. Both major