Gerrymandering: United States House of Representatives and Election District Boundaries

Michael Effiom Prof. S. Sharifan Govt 2302-73058 March 4, 2013 Gerrymandering The main purpose of gerrymandering is to increase the number of legislative seats that can be won by the semipolitical party which is in charge of re move the district boundaries during that period of time, and to create safe seats for the partys officeholder legislators which are seats in which the incumbent will always win re-election. Gerrymandering is the redrawing of election district boundaries to give an electoral advantage to a particular candidate or party. It has been recognized as a part of the American political landscape since 1812.The term derives from a redrawing of US Representative districts in Massachusetts before the 1812 elections, when Elbridge Gerry was governor. People said the district was resonating of a salamander and thus the term Gerry-mander was coined. The Constitution requires that representation in the House of Representatives be apporti aced to states on the basis of popu lation. So, every ten geezerhood we count up the number of people living in each state and making sure that each state gets at least single House member, divide up the rest of the seats among the states equally.States with large populations get a bigger amount of house seats smaller states get secure the one. A variety of Supreme Court cases, however, have applied the 14th Amendments equal protection clause to the process of drawing legislative districts resulting in a requirement that each district have slightly the same population. So after each Census, states and localities have to redraw their district lines to ensure that the districts are roughly equal. This process redrawing of district lines has been blamed for almost every problem in American politics. The redistricting process therefore became a target for political reformers.In 2008, Californians enacted Prop. 11 and created the Citizens Redistricting focusing (CRC). State legislators would no longer be able to pick their own constituents. An independent commission would be in charge of drawing the lines for the Assembly and Senate. In 2010, the CRCs mandate was expanded to include House districts as well. The party in control of redistricting can weaken its opposition by packing or cracking. Packing is to concentrate as many electors of the opposition party into a single electoral district to reduce their influence in voting in other districts.In some cases, this may be done to obtain representation for a community of common interest thus creating i. e. a minority group (Blacks or Hispanics) what is called a majority-minority district. Cracking is the spreading out of opposition voters across numerous safe districts which will dilute their voting percentage and its do on the outcome. If representatives are required to be residents of their districts, redistricting may redraw the boundary to exclude his/her house, or draw them into a district where they will lose the next election.Gerrymand ering is a very serious problem. Effective gerrymanders can have significant policy implications. In California, for example, it makes a difference whether there are 23 or 24 Republicans in the Senate. If there are 23, Republicans cant stop Democratic efforts to raise taxes. If there are 24, Republicans can. By pre-determining election outcomes, gerrymandering makes actual voting slight consequential, and therefore it should discourage voter turnout, but because of a lack of awareness on the subject voter turnout is not significantly affected.Any variations in voter turnout mostly depend on voter age, income, education, race and ethnicity. Since ballots include many races for offices in various regions, some of which may genuinely be closely-contested, one or two foregone conclusions on the ballot will not diminish voter interest in other races. An effective way of combating gerrymandering is to honor the example of California and enact something similar to prop. 11 which will giv e the responsibility of redrawing the district line to independent non-partisan groups.This will remove partisan machinations from the drawing process and remove the unfair advantage that incumbents have over challengers to their seats. Sources Cited * Humphreys. M. 2009. Can compactness constrain the Gerrymander? http//www. columbia. edu/mh2245/papers1/gerry. pdf * Smith, Kieth. On Gerrymandering and Its Effects. Web log post. Political cognition at University of the Pacific. Pacificpoliticalscience. wordpress. com, 2 Nov. 2011. Web. 04 Mar. 2013.