Alex Tabarrok Gerrymandering The Supreme Court has said that Wesberry v Sanders 1964 that Congressional districts must be of approximately equalsized populations as nearly as practicable one mans vote in a congressional election is to be worth as much as ID: 687378
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Slide1
GerrymanderingWhen Politicians Choose Voters
Alex TabarrokSlide2
GerrymanderingThe Supreme
Court has said that (Wesberry v. Sanders 1964) that Congressional districts must be of approximately equal-sized populations.
…"as
nearly as practicable one man's vote in a congressional election is to be worth as much as
another's.”
Similar ruling for
s
tate legislatures in
Reynolds v.
Sims
(1964).
It follows that political districts must
often be redrawn to reflect changes in population.Slide3
Gerrymandering
Gerrymandering is the drawing of political boundaries for partisan or narrowly political purposes. In 1812
the governor of Massachusetts, Elbridge Gerry, rearranged election districts in order to benefit the republican party. In an editorial cartoon, one of the districts, which was said to look like a salamander, was given a monster's head, arms, and tail and renamed a "gerrymander."
Gerrymandering
in the United States has been used both to dilute and strengthen the power of
minorities.
There
are three main methods of gerrymandering, cracking, packing, and stacking.Slide4
CrackingDistrict representation tends to be proportion to minority representation but only if district and minority lines coincide.
Cracking splits districts to dilute one group’s share of the vote.
Figures from George Clark. 2004.
Stealing Our Votes
.Slide5
Packing
Packing puts as many of one group as possible into a super-district. They will win that district but at the price of losing other districts in which they are made the minority.E.g. take two districts in which group A has 55% of the vote in both districts and make it into two districts in which group A has 90% of the vote in one district and only 25% in the other.Slide6
Stacking
Stacking, as in stacking the deck, is when district lines are redrawn to make minorities win in as many districts as possible.Similar to packing but the goal of packing is to concentrate a group to reduce its power while stacking concentrates a group to increase its power.
Stacking often creates “bizarre” looking districts.Slide7
North Carolina’s 12th Congressional DistrictCirca 1996Slide8
Gerrymandering as Job Security for Politicians
Gerrymandering is not just about who is represented. Perhaps even more importantly it’s about who gets elected and reelected and reelected. Gerrymandering is used to create safe districts.
Packing has been supported by a number of prominent minority politicians because even though it may dilute minority vote it makes their seat safe.Slide9
Gerrymandering can Reduce Seats-Votes Proportionality
In 2012, Democrats won 51 percent of the popular House vote in Pennsylvania but the only won 5 out of 18 House
seats.
A deficit of 4 seats.
Pennsylvania's 7
th
district.Slide10
The Complicated Politics of Racial Gerrymandering
Under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, states must create districts in which racial minorities have the ability to elect candidates of their
choice, so-called “
majority-minority
districts”.
A
t least if the minority is
sufficiently large and geographically compact for
this to be possible and if there is proof of “racially
polarized voting,” meaning that whites and minority voters tend to vote for different candidates
.
The SC, however, has also ruled, beginning with Shaw v.
Reno (1993), that racial districting is a violation of the Equal Protection Clause
of the 14
th
amendment.!
Upshot is that racial reasons cannot be the “
predominant factor” in redistricting. Slide11
Which District is Unconstitutional?
Texas 6th
Texas 30thSlide12Slide13
Alternatives to Gerrymandering: Algorithms
Use an algorithm to maximize “compactness“ while keeping districts of similar-sized population.Slide14
US Districts by AlgorithmSlide15
Alternatives to Gerrymandering: Cumulative Voting
Create large, multi-member districts, and using a different voting system such as cumulative voting.Cumulative voting e.g. – a state has 5 representatives. Each voter gets 5 votes which they can allocate in any way that they want. 1 vote each to 5 candidates. 5 votes to 1 candidate etc.
Cumulative voting allows for self-defined minorities.