Posted on 06/27/2017 9:57:55 PM PDT by TBP
Gerrymandering has become a big problem in states like Maryland where some neighborhoods have wound up split into as many as four different congressional districts. The paint by numbers congressional map could soon get a facelift due to some important court cases.
Gerrymandering in Crofton
Jennifer Bevan-Dangel has lived in the same house in Crofton, MD for 10 years, but in 2012 local officials redrew congressional district lines and split her community in half.
"We have lived in two different congressional districts just by staying in the exact same house," Bevan-Dangel said.
That line change is called gerrymandering, and it can cause a lot of problems in places like Crofton.
What is gerrymandering?
It's the process of redrawing electoral district lines to give a political party an advantage in elections.
"The way gerrymandering works is either packing or cracking," said Aderson Francois, a professor of law at Georgetown University.
Packing is when Republican legislators, for example, draw district lines to "pack" Democratic voters into one or a few districts.
Cracking is the reverse. That's when Republican legislators redraw districts to spread Democrats out so their votes don't hold much sway in largely Republican districts.
"Either technique results in wasted votes," Francois said.
It's not just Republicans, Democratic lawmakers are guilty of gerrymandering too and Maryland is a perfect example. In that state, the district lines have been redrawn over the years so that there's really only one Republican district and none of the elections in the last cycle were competitive.
Gerrymandering is nothing new. In fact, politicians have been redrawing district lines to give themselves a political advantage since the early 1800s and it's led to some strange looking districts over the years.
Effects of gerrymandering
Those wonky district lines can cause big problems in communities that find themselves divided up among multiple congressional districts.
Bevan-Dangel said her neighbors in Anne Arundel County have had a hard time petitioning lawmakers on important issues like hospital and school funding, and in many cases the districts become so confusing that people do not know who their representatives are.
"If you're talking to your neighbors and you all have different representatives, it feeds into that sense of bewilderment, that sense of 'wait, who did you vote for, who did I vote for, what district am I even in?'" said Bevan-Dangel, who is also the executive director of watchdog group Common Cause Maryland.
The confusion can be frustrating, but Bevan-Dangel said gerrymandering also makes people feel powerless in a rigged political system.
"I have friends who are Republicans who live in this county and tell me that they don't vote." —Jennifer Bevan-Dangel, Common Cause Maryland
Gerrymandering can also lead to more partisan politics.
"If we had fifty-fifty split districts where a Republican or a Democrat can end up taking it, you would see representatives who are coming into the middle, who are hearing from people on both sides of the aisle, and then feeling like they need to represent people on both sides of the aisle," Bevan-Dangel said.
Taking gerrymandering to court
The "paint by numbers" congressional maps could be reigned in soon thanks to a slew of court cases challenging gerrymandering practices.
On lawsuit headed to the U.S. federal district court of appeals in Maryland argues the state's Democratic-leaning districts violate Republican's first amendment rights.
And the Supreme Court has agreed to hear a similar case out of Wisconsin where Democrats hope to prove gerrymandering is leading to a significant amount of wasted votes, violating their constitutional rights.
Francois says the court will have to determine if there is a point at which officials gerrymander so blatantly "to the extent that it becomes almost anti-democratic."
He added that until the court reaches a verdict on that case, other gerrymandering cases are in limbo.
Bevan-Dangel says she's hoping the new attention to the issue can turn the tide on gerrymandering and get people to organize to de-rig the system.
"The court attention to this is creating opportunities for change that we've never seen," she said.
California has already taken steps to squash gerrymandering. In 2008, California voters passed Proposition 11 to create an independent state redistricting commission. A bipartisan panel then redrew the state's congressional map in 2011.
While the balance of power did not immediately change after the redistricting, studies by the Public Policy Institute of California, the National Journal, and Ballotpedia found that California now has some of the most competitive elections in the country.
"That ultimately is the goal to have the people back in charge of the process and not elected officials looking out for themselves behind closed doors," Bevan-Dangel said.
Gov. Larry Hogan (R-MD) and former Gov. Martin O'Malley (D-MD) have both said publicly that they would like to see independent redistricting commissions formed to examine the gerrymandering in Maryland.
Hogan proposed legislation last year to create a panel, but Democrats in the state legislature have called for national or redistricting reform instead.
>>> Packing is when Republican legislators
>>> Cracking is the reverse. That’s when Republican legislators
Nice examples.
Amen! I’ve been preaching more House members for years. No one stops to ask why they stopped adding seats in the early 1900s.
‘ve lived in 3 and Ive lived in the same house for 26 years
TN-3 Zach Wamp then 2 Jimmy Duncan then back to 3 again Zack Wamp, Chuck Fleischmann and now 4 Scott Desjarlais...
My county is cut in two except for the times we have been in the 3rd...
Gerrymandering is corruption.
Regardless of who does it.
Representation at 1910 levels (when seats stopped being added) would result in over 1400 seats in the US House in DC.
Triple the size of Congress. What could go wrong?
California's system often results in two Democrats running against each other for an office. Prime example was Loretta Sanchez-D, running against Kamala Harris-D for the U.S. Senate. I realize that this was the result of a ballot initiative and not gerrymandering, but still, it is hardly competetive in a political sense.
The Democrats have an absolute majority in the Assembly and Senate. I blame the voters for that. And maybe some voter fraud. Mostly the jackassary voters though.
I would love to see the house of representatives halved in the number of seats we have...the more members there the more unmanageable it gets. if there was less members I think more would get done faster.
Utter horsecrap. The "independent" commission in California has helped reduce the number of Republican Congressional seats down to 14 out of 53 (and barely holding those 14). Not a single Republican has defeated an incumbent Democrat since 1994 or won an open Dem seat since 1998. The Democrat legislature drawing the seats weren't as biased towards eliminating Republican districts as this phony leftist "Independent" commission has been.
Same with Arizona, where the Republicans should have 7 out of the 9 seats and their leftist "Independent" Commission deliberately chose to draw a 5 Democrat to 4 Republican majority for a minority of voters. The GOP has only managed to flip 1 seat to get a bare 5-4 majority for themselves.
Do not support ANY "Independent" Redistricting Commission, period. They will draw more Democrat seats than a Democrat legislature could do, and only serve to defeat Conservative Republicans.
There is no method of determining districts of roughly equal population that would not be subject to gerrymandering. Gerrymandering by federal courts is hardly better than gerrymandering by state legislatures.
*ping to #10*
I would bet that the level of voter fraud in California was in the vicinity of 2+ million votes in the November election. The fact that the Butcheress of Benghazi carried Orange County for the Dems for the first time since 1936 should’ve been proof positive that epic level voter fraud was afoot.
With modern technology they don’t all need to meet at the capital.
No need to keep it at 435 house members.
“
Triple the size of Congress. What could go wrong?”
A lot could go right.
1 The cost of campaigns would decrease because the candidate would need to reach fewer people. Politics would become more local.
2. Gerrymandering would be less severe because for no other reason (to use the liberal logic) it would be easier to naturally draw a district that was a minority majority. Which means the Blacks or Hispanic areas would be represented as they are now but without the weird district lines.
3. The absolute power of the uni-party would diminish because in smaller districts it would be easier for third party, independent or non-uni-party candidates to overcome the establishment machine. This might also make it easier to get rid of bad members of congress because the composition of districts could change very fast and fewer new voters would have to move into a district to change the way a district leaned politically.
4. It is easier to get 218 of 435 votes than it is to get 701 of 1400. That means legislation would have to have a broader appeal and bad bills would be easier to block.
5. Representative would be more likely to represent their entire district because the voters would be a more homogenous group.
6. The number of conservative representatives would (I think) increase because they would not be as easily packed into single districts by demonrats. For example Demonrats in Michigan; would find it harder to split Detroit up into various slices if each district had to have about 250,000 people. You’d see few 55/45 splits and more 70/30 splits
7. The huge staff allowances given to members of congress cut be cut back because they wouldn’t have to deal with as many people.
Just my thoughts
Got any examples of where such ideas have worked?
Integration has dispersed the black population. There are very few areas where there would be a black majority (and you need 65% or greater Black to guarantee the election of a Black) district.
Until they address big cities drawing their boundaries to avoid conservative voters, they aren’t serious about gerrymandering... they are just playing politics because republicans control more states.
#4 A faculty committee at a university.
It was always easier to get a majority of 3 of 5 than it is to get 11 of 20. I am assuming the same would hold true in a congress.
Look at the maps of national election results and think about the number of counties, the vast areas of the US that vote overwhelmingly Republican. If you do districts by a set population that is smaller it becomes harder to Gerrymander districts. You’d get more conservatives. Also, if you get real weirdo running it would be less of an issue if they lost.
The others are just my thinking.
New Hampshire has 500 State Legislators. They're not paid very much in salaries, but very approachable. 'Course, we get bikers, hippies, and New-Jersey-ites for some districts.
But if congress had virtual sessions on the internet to conduct business, the bagmen delivering cash and other bribes would be easily identified.
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