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WikiProject Political Parties
Gerrymandering is a form of redistricting in which electoral district or constituency boundaries are manipulated for electoral advantage. Redistricting, a form of redistribution, is the process of changing of political Borders in the United States A constituency is any cohesive corporate unit or body bound by shared structures goals or loyalty Gerrymandering may be used to help or hinder particular constituents, such as members of a political, racial, linguistic, religious or class group. In politics the term constituent has three separate meanings A constituent state or constituent nation is a fundamental part of a union which has come together with others to form
The term gerrymandering is derived from Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814), the governor of Massachusetts from 1810 to 1812. Elbridge Thomas Gerry (ˈgɛri (July 17 1744 November 23 1814 was an American statesman and diplomat The term first appeared in the Boston Gazette on 26 March 1812 (see image at left). The Boston Gazette was an early newspaper printed in the British North American colonies it began publication December 12, 1719 and appeared weekly In 1812, Governor Gerry signed a bill into law that redistricted his state to benefit his Republican party.
Gerrymandering is used most often in favor of ruling incumbents[1] or a specific political party. A political party is a Political organization that seeks to attain and maintain political power within Government, usually by participating in electoral Societies whose government uses a single-winner voting systems are the most likely to have political parties that gerrymander for advantage. A voting system allows voters to choose between options often in an Election where candidates are selected for public office. Most notably, gerrymandering is particularly effective in non-proportional systems that tend towards fewer parties, such as first past the post. A voting system allows voters to choose between options often in an Election where candidates are selected for public office. The plurality voting system is a Single-winner voting system often used to elect executive officers or to elect members of a legislative assembly which is based on single-member
Most democracies have partly proportional electoral systems, where several political parties are proportionally represented in the national parliaments, in proportion to the total numbers of votes of the parties in the regional or national elections. In these more or less proportional representation systems, gerrymandering has little or less significance. Proportional representation (sometimes referred to as full representation or PR is a category of electoral formula aiming at a close match between the percentage of votes
Some nations, such as the UK and Canada, authorize non-partisan organisations to set constituency boundaries to prevent gerrymandering. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page Gerrymandering is most common in countries where elected politicians are responsible for defining districts. They have obvious self interest in determining boundaries to their and their party's interest. The United States of America is an example of such a system. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the
Gerrymandering should not be confused with malapportionment, whereby the number of eligible voters per elected representative can vary widely. Apportionment is the process of allocating political power among a set of principles (or defined constituencies Nevertheless the ~mander suffix has been applied to particular malapportionments, such as the "Playmander" in South Australia and the "Bjelkemander" in Queensland. The Playmander was a form of electoral malapportionment in the Australian state of South Australia, in place from 1936 to 1968 South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country The Bjelkemander was the term given to a system of Malapportionment in the Australian State of Queensland in the 1970s and 1980s Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern corner of the mainland continent Sometimes political representatives use both gerrymandering and malapportionment to try to maintain power.
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Etymology
The word "gerrymander" is named for the Governor of Massachusetts Elbridge Gerry (July 17, 1744 – November 23, 1814),[2] and is a blend of his name with the word "salamander," used to describe the shape of a tortuous electoral district pressed through the Massachusetts legislature in 1812. A governor is a governing official usually the executive (at least nominally to different degrees also politically and administratively of a non-sovereign level of government The Commonwealth of Massachusetts ( is a state located in the New England region of the northeastern United States. Elbridge Thomas Gerry (ˈgɛri (July 17 1744 November 23 1814 was an American statesman and diplomat Events 180 - Twelve inhabitants of Scillium in North Africa are executed for being Christians Year 1744 ( MDCCXLIV) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Events 800 - Charlemagne arrives at Rome to investigate the alleged crimes of Year 1814 ( MDCCCXIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common This article is about the legendary creature for the amphibian see Salamander. Jeffersonian democrats devised the boundaries —and Gerry reluctantly signed the district into law — to reduce competition by their electoral opponents in the upcoming senatorial election. Jeffersonian Democracy is the set of political goals that were named after Thomas Jefferson [3] "Gerrymander" is used both as a verb, meaning "to divide into political units to give special advantages to one group", as well as a noun to describe the resulting electoral geography. For English usage of verbs see the wiki article English verbs. Although Elbridge Gerry's name was pronounced with an initial /g/ (a hard G), the "jerry" pronunciation has become most common. [4] President Ronald Reagan always used the hard G and some older professors in the US still pronounce gerrymandering with the "hard g. "[5]
"Packing and cracking"
The two aims of gerrymandering are to maximize the effect of supporters’ votes and to minimize the effect of those of their opponents. To this end, one strategy, packing, is to concentrate as many voters of one type into a single electoral district to reduce their influence in other districts. A second strategy, cracking, involves spreading out voters of a particular type among many districts in order to reduce their representation by denying them a sufficiently large voting bloc to win any particular district. The strategies are typically combined, creating a few "forfeit" seats for packed voters of one type in order to secure even greater representation for voters of another type.
Gerrymandering is effective because of the wasted vote effect. In the study of Electoral systems a wasted vote may be defined in 2 different ways any Vote which is not for an elected candidate By packing opposition voters into districts they will already win (increasing excess votes for winners) and by cracking the remainder among districts where they are moved into the minority (increasing votes for eventual losers), the number of wasted votes among the opposition can be maximized. Similarly, with supporters holding narrow margins in the unpacked districts, the number of wasted votes among supporters is minimized.
Effects of gerrymandering
Reduction in electoral competition and voter turnout
The most immediate and obvious effect of gerrymandering is that elections become less competitive in all districts, particularly packed ones. As electoral margins of victory become significantly greater and politicians have safe seats, the incentive for meaningful campaigning is reduced. A safe seat is a seat in a legislative body (eg Congress Parliament City Council which is regarded as fully secured either by a certain Political party, the In 2000, for example, only 57 of the 435 seats (13 percent) of the United States House of Representatives were competitive, that is, decided by margins of 10 percent or less. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The United States House of Representatives is one of the two chambers of the United States Congress; the other is the Senate. [6]
As the chance of influencing electoral results by voting is reduced, voter turnout is likely to decrease. Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a Ballot in an Election. Correspondingly, political campaigns are less likely to expend resources to encourage turnout. With a reduction in competition, a candidate puts more effort into securing party nomination for a given district rather than gaining approval of the general electorate. Nomination is part of the process of selecting a Candidate for either Election to an Office, or the bestowing of an honor or Award. In a gerrymandered district, the candidate is virtually assured of a win once nominated. In 2004, for example, when California's 3rd Congressional District became an open seat after Republican Congressman Doug Ose ran for higher office, the state's three strongest Republican congressional candidates campaigned vigorously against one another for nomination in the district's primary election. A congressional district is an electoral Constituency that elects a single member of a Congress. Douglas Arlo "Doug" Ose (born June 27, 1955 in Sacramento California) is a California congressman who served in the U A primary election ( nominating primary) also referred to simply as a primary, is an election in which voters in a Jurisdiction select candidates Several other districts were uncontested with no Republican nominees making even a token campaign effort.
Increased incumbent advantage and campaign costs
The effect of gerrymandering for incumbents is particularly advantageous, as incumbents are far more likely to be reelected under conditions of gerrymandering. For example, in 2002, according to political scientists Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann, only four challengers were able to defeat incumbent members of the US Congress, the lowest number in modern American history. Norman J Ornstein is a Political scientist and a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI a Conservative -leaning Washington D Thomas E Mann (born September 10, 1944) is a Political scientist, Author, and pundit who works at the Brookings Institution [7] Incumbents are likely to be of the majority party orchestrating a gerrymander, and incumbents are usually easily renominated in subsequent elections, including incumbents among the minority.
This demonstrates that gerrymandering can have a deleterious effect on the principle of democratic accountability. With uncompetitive seats/districts reducing the fear that incumbent politicians may lose office, they have less incentive to represent the interests of their constituents, even when those interests conform to majority support for an issue across the electorate as a whole. Incumbent politicians may look out more for their party's interests than for those of their constituents.
Gerrymandering can have an impact on campaign costs for district elections. If districts become increasingly stretched out, candidates must pay increased costs for transportation and trying to develop and present campaign advertising across a district. In Politics, campaign advertising is the use of paid media (newspapers radio television etc The incumbent's advantage in securing campaign funds is another benefit of his or her having a gerrymandered secure seat.
Less descriptive representation
Gerrymandering also has significant effects on the representation received by voters in gerrymandered districts. In Politics, representation describes how political power is alienated from most of the members of a group and vested for a certain time period in the hands of a small subset Because gerrymandering is designed to increase the number of wasted votes among the electorate, the relative representation of particular groups can be drastically altered from their actual share of the voting population. This effect can significantly prevent a gerrymandered system from achieving proportional and descriptive representation, as the winners of elections are increasingly determined by who is drawing the districts rather than the preferences of the voters. Proportional representation (sometimes referred to as full representation or PR is a category of electoral formula aiming at a close match between the percentage of votes In Politics, representation describes how political power is alienated from most of the members of a group and vested for a certain time period in the hands of a small subset
Gerrymandering may be advocated to improve representation within the legislature among otherwise underrepresented minority groups by packing them into a single district. This can be controversial, as it may lead to those groups' remaining marginalized in the government as they become confined to a single district. Candidates outside that district no longer need to represent them to win election.
As an example, much of the redistricting conducted in the United States in the early 1990s involved the intentional creation of additional "majority-minority" districts where racial minorities such as African Americans were packed into the majority. African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa This "maximization policy" drew support by both the Republican Party (who had limited support among African Americans and could concentrate their power elsewhere) and by minority representatives elected as Democrats from these constituencies, who then had "safe seats". The Democratic Party is one of two major Political parties in the United States, the other being the Republican Party. A safe seat is a seat in a legislative body (eg Congress Parliament City Council which is regarded as fully secured either by a certain Political party, the
Incumbent gerrymandering
Gerrymandering can also be done to help incumbents as a whole, effectively turning every district into a packed one and greatly reducing the potential for competitive elections. This is particularly likely to occur when the minority party has significant obstruction power — unable to enact a partisan gerrymander, the legislature instead agrees on ensuring their own mutual reelection.
In an unusual occurrence in 2000, for example, the two dominant parties in the state of California cooperatively redrew both state and Federal legislative districts to preserve the status quo, ensuring the electoral safety of the politicians from unpredictable voting by the electorate. California ( is a US state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. The recent and current politics of the US state of California are complex and involve a number of entrenched interests This move proved completely effective, as no State or Federal legislative office changed party in the 2004 election, although 53 congressional, 20 state senate, and 80 state assembly seats were potentially at risk. Elections to the United States House of Representatives for the 109th Congress were held on November 2, 2004.
In 2006, the term "70/30 District" came to signify the equitable split of two evenly split (i. e. 50/50) districts. The resulting districts gave each party a guaranteed seat and retained their respective power base.
Reforms to achieve competitive elections
Due to myriad issues associated with gerrymandering and the subsequent impact it has on competitive elections and democratic accountability, numerous countries have enacted reforms making the practice either more difficult or less effective. Countries such as the UK, Australia, Canada and most those in Europe have transferred responsibility of defining constituency boundaries to neutral or cross-party bodies.
In the United States, however, such reforms are controversial and frequently meet particularly strong opposition from groups that receive benefit from gerrymandering. In a more neutral system, they might lose considerable influence.
Redistricting by neutral or cross-party agency
The most commonly advocated electoral reform proposal targeted at gerrymandering is to change the redistricting process. Under these proposals, an independent, and presumably objective, commission is created and charged with redistricting, rather than having the legislature do it. This is essentially the system used in the United Kingdom, where the independent Boundary Commission determines the boundaries for constituencies for the House of Commons, Scottish Parliament, Northern Ireland Assembly, National Assembly for Wales, and the London Assembly, subject to ratification by the legislature in question (almost always granted without debate). The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located In the United Kingdom (UK, each of the electoral areas or divisions called constituencies elects one or more members to a parliament or assembly The House of Commons' is the Lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords The Scottish Parliament ( Scottish Gaelic: Pàrlamaid na h-Alba; Scots: Scottish Pairlament) is the devlolved national unicameral The Northern Ireland Assembly ( Irish: Tionól Thuaisceart Éireann, Ulster Scots: Norlin Airlann Semmlie) is the devolved The National Assembly for Wales (Cynulliad Cenedlaethol Cymru is a devolved assembly with power to make legislation in Wales. The London Assembly is an elected body part of the Greater London Authority, that scrutinises the activities of the Mayor of London and has the power with a two-thirds
To help ensure neutrality, members of the board may be appointed from relatively apolitical sources such as retired state judges or longstanding members of the civil service, possibly with requirements for adequate representation among competing political parties. See also Bureaucrat The term civil service has two distinct meanings Branch of governmental service in which individuals are hired on the basis Additionally, members of the board can be denied access to information that might aid in gerrymandering, such as the demographic makeup or voting patterns of the population. As a further constraint, consensus requirements can be imposed to ensure that the resulting district map reflects a wider perception of fairness, such as a requirement for a supermajority approval of the commission for any district proposal. Consensus has two common meanings One is a general agreement among the members of a given group or Community, each of which exercises some discretion in A supermajority or a qualified majority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level or type of support which exceeds a simple Majority in order to have However, in the US in some states, such as Missouri following 2000 census, the requirement for consensus has led to deadlock. Missouri ( or) is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee The equally numbered partisan appointees were unable to reach consensus in a reasonable timeframe, and the courts had to determine district lines.
In the US state of Iowa, the nonpartisan Legislative Services Bureau (LSB) (akin to the US Congressional Research Service) determines boundaries of electoral districts. The State of Iowa ( is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States of America. The Congressional Research Service (CRS is the Public policy research arm of the United States Congress. Aside from satisfying federally mandated contiguity and population equality criteria, the LSB mandates unity of counties and cities. Consideration of political factors such as location of incumbents, previous boundary locations, and political party proportions are specifically forbidden. Since Iowa's counties are chiefly regularly shaped polygons, the LSB process has led to districts that follow county lines. In Geometry a polygon (ˈpɒlɨɡɒn ˈpɒliɡɒn is traditionally a plane figure that is bounded by a closed path or circuit [7]
In 2005, the US state of Ohio had a ballot measure to create an independent commission whose first priority was competitive districts, a sort of "reverse gerrymander". Ohio ( is a Midwestern state of the United States. As part of the Great Lakes region, Ohio has long been a cultural and geographical crossroads A complex mathematical formula was to be used to determine the competitiveness of a district. The measure failed voter approval chiefly due to voter concerns that communities of interest would be broken up. [8]
Shortest splitline algorithm
The Center for Range Voting has proposed a way to draw districts by a simple algorithm. The Center for Range Voting was founded in 2005 by Warren D Smith and Jan Kok In Mathematics, Computing, Linguistics and related subjects an algorithm is a sequence of finite instructions often used for Calculation [9] Because the algorithm uses only the shape of the state, the number N of districts wanted, and the population distribution as inputs — and does not know the party loyalties of those people — the result cannot be biased. The algorithm (slightly simplified) is:
- Start with the boundary outline of the state.
- Let N=A+B where A and B are as nearly equal whole numbers as possible. (For example, 7=4+3. )
- Among all possible dividing lines that split the state into two parts with population ratio A:B, choose the shortest.
- We now have two hemi-states, each to contain a specified number (namely A and B) of districts. Handle them recursively via the same splitting procedure.
This district-drawing algorithm has the advantage of simplicity, ultra-low cost, clear unbiasedness, and it produces simple boundaries that do not meander needlessly. It has the disadvantage of ignoring geographic features such as rivers, cliffs, and highways. This landscape oversight causes it to produce districts differently than those an unbiased human would produce. These features can produce very complicated boundaries (such as Arizona's 2nd congressional district, which contains a fine filament winding for 200 miles along the river inside the Grand Canyon). Arizona's 2nd congressional district contains the northwestern corner of the state and some of the western suburbs of Phoenix. The Grand Canyon
Also, splitline districts sometimes do not work well when one of the first few splitlines cuts through a large metropolitan area. This is most evident in the splitline allocation of Colorado [4]. The State of Colorado ( or chiefly by nonresidents) is a state located in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States of America.
![[4]](http://www.rangevoting.org/SSHR/co_final.png){kind=link}
As of July 2007, shortest-splitline redistricting pictures are now available for all 50 states.
Changing the voting system
Because gerrymandering relies on the wasted vote effect to be effective, the use of a different voting system with fewer wasted votes can help reduce gerrymandering. A voting system allows voters to choose between options often in an Election where candidates are selected for public office. In particular, the use of multimember districts alongside voting systems establishing proportional representation can greatly reduce the proportion of wasted votes, and therefore the potential for gerrymandering. Proportional representation (sometimes referred to as full representation or PR is a category of electoral formula aiming at a close match between the percentage of votes Similarly, the use of semi-proportional voting systems such as cumulative voting or the single non-transferable vote can also help achieve a large reduction in the number of wasted votes, and due to their relative simplicity and similarity to first past the post they are often advocated as a replacement system by advocates of electoral reform. Cumulative voting (also accumulation voting or weighted voting) is a multiple-winner Voting system intended to promote Proportional representation The single non-transferable vote or SNTV is an Electoral system used in multi-member constituency elections The plurality voting system is a Single-winner voting system often used to elect executive officers or to elect members of a legislative assembly which is based on single-member
Electoral systems with different forms of proportional representation are now found in nearly all European countries. In this way, they have multi party systems (with many parties represented in the parliaments) with higher voter attendance in the elections, fewer wasted votes, and more variety of political opinions represented.
Electoral systems with just election of one candidate in each district, and no proportional distribution of extra mandates to smaller parties tend to create two-party-systems (Duverger's Law). In Political science, Duverger's law is a principle which asserts that a plurality rule election system tends to favor a Two-party system. In these, just two parties compete in the national elections and thus the national political discussions are forced into a narrow two-party frame, where loyalty and forced statements inside the two parties trouble the political debate.
Changing the size of districts and the elected body
If a proportional or semi-proportional voting system alongside multimember districts is used, then increasing the number of winners in any given district will reduce the number of wasted votes. This can be accomplished both by merging separate districts together and by increasing the total size of the body to be elected. Since gerrymandering relies on exploiting the wasted vote effect to secure electoral advantage, reducing the number of wasted votes by increasing the number of winners in a district can greatly reduce the potential for gerrymandering. Unless all districts are merged, however, this method cannot eliminate gerrymandering entirely.
In contrast to proportional methods, if a nonproportional voting system with multiple winners (such as a form of bloc voting) is used, then increasing the size of the elected body while keeping the number of districts constant will not reduce the amount of wasted votes, leaving the potential for gerrymandering the same. Merging districts together under such a system, however, can reduce the potential for gerrymandering, but doing so also amplifies the effect of bloc voting's tendency to produce landslide victories, which has a similar effect in concentrating wasted votes among the opposition and denying them representation. In Politics, a landslide victory (or landslide) is the victory of a candidate or Political party by an overwhelming margin in an Election
If a system of single-winner elections is used, then increasing the size of the elected body will implicitly increase the number of districts to be created. This change can actually make gerrymandering easier when raising the number of single-winner elections, as opposition groups can be more efficiently packed into smaller districts without accidentally including supporters, further increasing the number of wasted votes amongst the opposition.
Using fixed districts
Another way to avoid gerrymandering is simply to stop redistricting altogether and use existing political boundaries such as state, county, or provincial lines. Any existing advantage may become deeply ingrained. The United States Senate, for instance, has more competitive elections than the House of Representatives due to the use of existing state borders rather than gerrymandered districts — Senators are elected by their entire state, while Representatives are elected by only a single district. The United States Senate is the Upper house of the bicameral United States Congress, the Lower house being the House of Representatives
The use of fixed districts creates an additional problem, however, in that fixed districts do not take into account changes in population. Individual voters can come to have very different degrees of influence on the legislative process. This malapportionment can greatly affect representation after long periods of time or large population movements. Apportionment is the process of allocating political power among a set of principles (or defined constituencies In the United Kingdom during the industrial revolution, several constituencies which had been fixed since the formation of the British Parliament became so small that they could be won with only a handful of voters (rotten boroughs). The Industrial Revolution was a period in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when major changes in agriculture manufacturing and transportation had a profound effect on the The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories The term "rotten" or "decayed" borough referred to a parliamentary borough or Constituency in Great Britain and Ireland Similarly, in the US the state legislature of Alabama refused to redistrict for more than 60 years, despite major changes in population patterns. By 1960 less than a quarter of the state's population (from rural areas) controlled the majority of seats in the legislature. [10] By contrast, Switzerland and Spain have bicameral national legislatures like the United States, but both of its houses use fixed districts. Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
Objective rules to create districts
Another means to reduce gerrymandering is to create objective, precise criteria to which any district map must comply. Courts in the United States, for instance, have ruled that congressional districts must be contiguous in order to be constitutional. This, however, is not a particularly binding constraint, as very narrow strips of land with few or no voters in them may be used to connect separate regions for inclusion in one district. Another objective criterion is maximized compactness, subject to other constraints such as geographic features and boundaries of local governments. The compactness measure of a Shape, sometimes called the Shape factor, is a numerical quantity representing the degree to which a shape is compact
One idea is to define within the constitution a specific minimum isoperimetric quotient [11], or minimum ratio, between the area and perimeter of any given congressional voting district. Computer algorithms could ensure that population districts were drawn in such a way so as to minimize Isoperimetric inequality[12] and effectively eliminate gerrymandering. The isoperimetric inequality is a geometric Inequality involving the square of the Circumference of a Closed curve in the plane and the Although technologies presently exist to define districts in this manner, there are no rules in place mandating their use, and no national movement to implement such a policy. Such rules would prevent incorporation of jagged natural boundaries, such as rivers or mountains. When such boundaries are required (such as at the edge of a state), certain districts may not be able to meet the required minimums.
Another method is to define a minimum district to convex polygon ratio. To use this method, every proposed district is circumscribed by the smallest possible convex polygon (similar to the concept of a convex hull). In Mathematics, the convex hull or convex envelope for a set of points X in a Real Vector space V is the minimal Convex Then, the area of the district is divided by the area of the polygon; or, if at the edge of the state, by the portion of the area of the polygon within state boundaries. The advantages of this method are that it allows a certain amount of human intervention to take place (thus solving the Colorado problem of splitline districting); it allows the borders of the district to follow existing jagged subdivisions, such as neighborhoods or voting districts (something isoperimetric would discourage); and it allows concave coastline districts, such as the Florida gulf coast area. It would mostly eliminate "bent" districts, but still permit long, straight ones. However, since human intervention is still allowed, the gerrymandering issues of packing and cracking would still occur, just to a lesser extent.
Use of databases and computer technology
The introduction of modern computers and the development of elaborate voter databases alongside special districting software has made gerrymandering a far more precise science. A computer is a Machine that manipulates data according to a list of instructions. A voter database is a Database containing information on voters for the purpose of assisting a Political party or an individual Politician, in their Using such databases, political parties can obtain detailed information about every household, including political party registration, previous campaign donations, and the number of times residents voted in previous elections. Using this data together with other predictors of voting behavior, such as age, income, race, or education level, creators of newly defined electoral districts can predict the voting behavior of each potential district with an astonishing degree of precision. They greatly increase the efficiency of gerrymandering and reduce the chance of accidentally making a district competitive.
- See also: Geographic information system
National examples of gerrymandering
Among western democracies, Israel and the Netherlands employ electoral systems with only one (nationwide) voting district for election of national representatives. This precludes gerrymandering.
Canada
Early in Canadian history, both the federal and provincial levels used gerrymandering to try to maximize partisan power. Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page Since responsibility for drawing electoral boundaries was handed over to independent agencies, this problem has essentially been eliminated. Manitoba was the first province to authorize a non-partisan group to define constituency boundaries in the 1950s. In 1964, the federal government delegated the drawing of boundaries for national seats to the "arm's length" Elections Canada. Elections Canada is an independent non-partisan agency reporting directly to the Parliament of Canada. As a result, gerrymandering is not a major issue in Canada.
In 2006, a controversy arose on Prince Edward Island over the provincial government's decision to throw out an electoral map drawn by an independent commission. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Prince Edward Island (ˌprɪns ˌɛdwɚd ˈaɪlɨnd ( PEI or P Instead they created two new maps. The government adopted the second of these, designed by the caucus of the governing party. Opposition parties and the media attacked Premier Binns for what they saw as gerrymandering of districts. Patrick George Binns (born October 8, 1948 in Weyburn, Saskatchewan) is a Canadian Diplomat who was named Ambassador to Among other things, the government adopted a map that ensured that every current Member of the Legislative Assembly from the premier's party had a district to run in for re-election, whereas in the original map, several had been redistricted. A Member of the Legislative Assembly, or MLA, is a representative elected by the voters of an Electoral district to the Legislature or Legislative Despite this, in the 2007 Provincial Election only 7 of 20 incumbent Members of the Legislative Assembly were re-elected (7 did not run for re-election). The 63rd Prince Edward Island general election was held on May 28 2007.
Chile
After Chileans voted General Augusto Pinochet out of power in a 1988 plebiscite, the military government began working on a law to define the new electoral system for the 1989 elections. Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (November The 60 electoral districts for the Chamber of Deputies (lower house) were designed so that — if the results of the 1988 plebiscite were extrapolated to the coming parliamentary elections — in no district would the NO option duplicate the YES option. Electoral division of Chile. To elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and of the Senate, Chile is divided into electoral districts and senatorial constituencies The Chamber of Deputies of the Republic of Chile (Cámara de Diputados is the lower house of Chile 's bicameral Congress. (The NO option was for removing Pinochet from power and to trigger democratic elections. ) The rationale for this — in a system in which only two candidates are elected per district and where a coalition needed to duplicate the vote of the opponent to gain both district seats — was that the voters who favoured the NO option would vote for the Centre-Left coalition, which opposed the Pinochet dictatorship, and the ones that favoured the YES option would be inclined to vote for the candidates of the right, which supported the military government. The Concert of Parties for Democracy (Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia more often known as the Concertación, is a coalition of Center-left The Alliance for Chile ( Spanish "Alianza por Chile" also known as La Alianza (The Alliance is a coalition of Center-right Chilean
In the Senate —where a whole administrative region consists of one or two constituencies— gerrymandering of districts had a limited effect. The Senate of the Republic of Chile is the upper house of Chile 's bicameral National Congress, as established in the current Constitution of Chile ||-||} Chile is divided into 15 Regions (in Spanish, regiones; singular región) each of which is headed by an Intendant ( intendente Therefore, the government, to ensure that the winning majority (the Center-Left coalition, as it was expected) would be unable to reach the quorum necessary to change the Constitution by itself, allocated a number of seats to appointed senators. In Law, a quorum is the minimum number of members of a Deliberative body necessary to conduct the business of that group The current Political Constitution of the Republic of Chile, approved by Chilean voters in a tightly controlled Plebiscite on September 11 1980 [13] These unelected senators were eliminated in the 2005 constitutional reforms, but the electoral map remains untouched.
Germany
When the electoral districts in Germany were redrawn in 2000, the ruling Social Democratic Party (SPD) was accused of gerrymandering to marginalize the socialist PDS party. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. The Left (Die Linke is a German political party that came into being on 16 June 2007 as a merger of The Left Party/PDS the former The SPD combined traditional PDS strongholds in eastern Berlin with new districts made up of more populous areas of western Berlin, where the PDS had very limited following. Berlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany.
After having won four seats in Berlin in the 1998 national election, the PDS was able to retain only two seats altogether in the 2002 elections. Under German electoral law, a political party has to win either more than five percent of the votes, or at least three seats, to "move into" or have an official place in the Bundestag. A political party is a Political organization that seeks to attain and maintain political power within Government, usually by participating in electoral The PDS thus did not have a sufficient number of representatives elected to have an official position in the Bundestag, the German federal parliament. The Bundestag ("Federal Diet " or "Lower House of German Parliament" is the Parliament of Germany. TalkParliament#Screen-size. -->A parliament is a Legislature, especially in those But the elected representatives held their seats as individuals. In the election of 2005, the PDS (renamed the "Left Party") gained 8. 7% of the votes and thus earned an official place in the Bundestag.
However, the number of Bundestag seats of parties which traditionally get over 5% of the votes cannot be affected very much by gerrymandering, because seats are awarded to these parties on a proportional basis. Only when a party wins so many districts in any one of the 16 federal states that those seats alone count for more than its proportional share of the vote in that same state does the districting have some influence on larger parties — those extra seats, called "Überhangmandate", remain. Overhang seats can arise in elections under the traditional (i
Ireland, "Tullymandering"
In Ireland, in the mid-1970s, the Minister for Local Government, James Tully, attempted to arrange constituencies to ensure that the governing Fine Gael/Labour National Coalition would win a parliamentary majority. Ireland ( Irish: Éire, ˈeːrʲə is a country in north-western Europe. James ( Jim) Tully (18 September 1915&mdash20 May 1992 was a prominent Irish Trade unionist politician and Deputy Leader of the Irish Labour Fine Gael – The United Ireland Party, shortened to Fine Gael (ˌfina gail meaning Family of the Irish or Tribe of the Irish, is the second largest The Labour Party (Páirtí an Lucht Oibre is a Democratic socialist and Social democratic Political party in the Republic of Ireland. 14th Government of Ireland The 14th Government of Ireland (14 March 1973 &ndash 5 July 1977 - or more commonly the National Coalition - was the name given to the The Electoral (Amendment) Act 1974 was planned as a major reversal of previous gerrymandering by the Fianna Fáil party (then in opposition). The Electoral (Amendment Act 1974 was a review of parliamentary constituencies passed in the Republic of Ireland by the governing Fine Gael / Labour Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party (Fianna Fáil – An Páirtí Poblachtánach shortened to Fianna Fáil ( is currently the largest Political party in the Tully ensured that there were as many as possible three-seat constituencies where the governing parties were strong, in the expectation that the governing parties would each win a seat in many constituencies, relegating the Fianna Fáil party to one out of three. Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party (Fianna Fáil – An Páirtí Poblachtánach shortened to Fianna Fáil ( is currently the largest Political party in the In areas where the governing parties were weak, four-seat constituencies were used so that the governing parties had a strong chance of still winning two. The election results created substantial change, as there was a larger than expected collapse in the vote, with Fianna Fáil winning a landslide victory, two out of three seats in many cases, relegating the National Coalition parties to fight for the last seat. Consequently, the term Tullymandering was used to describe the phenomenon of a failed attempt at gerrymandering. The Electoral (Amendment Act 1974 was a review of parliamentary constituencies passed in the Republic of Ireland by the governing Fine Gael / Labour
Latvia
In 1989 and 1990 elections, some accused the Popular Front of Latvia (PFL) of gerrymandering in favor of ethnic Latvians. The Popular Front of Latvia ( Latvijas Tautas Fronte in Latvian) was a political organization in Latvia in late 1980s and early 1990s which led Latvia to For example, in 1990 the nearly pure Latvian-ethnic Ventspils district (with about 0. The Ventspils District (Ventspils rajons is an administrative division of Latvia, located in the Courland region in the country's west 6% of population) was awarded 3 constituencies out of 201 (1. 5%), with 2 of PFL candidates running unopposed. [14]. In 1991, most native Russians were denied citizenship and therefore had no voting rights. Non-citizens or aliens (nepilsoņi in Latvian law are individuals who are not citizens of Latvia or any other country but who in accordance with the Latvian Naturalization of native Russians began in 1995. In 1993 the country returned to proportional representation.
Northern Ireland
In the 1920s and 1930s, the Ulster Unionist Party created electoral boundaries for the Londonderry County Borough Council to ensure election of a Unionist council in a city where Nationalists had a marginal majority. The 1920s is sometimes referred to as the " Jazz Age " or the " Roaring Twenties " when speaking about the United States and Canada The 1930s were described as an abrupt shift to more radical and conservative lifestyles as countries were struggling to find a solution to the Great Depression. The Ulster Unionist Party ( UUP, sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or OUP or in a historic sense simply the Unionist Party Derry City Council (Comhairle Cathrach Dhoire is a district council in County Londonderry in Northern Ireland. Unionism in Ireland, is a belief in the desirability of a full constitutional and institutional relationship between Ireland and Great Britain based on the terms and Irish nationalism (Náisiúnachas Éireannach refers to political and sociological movements and sentiment that embodies a love for Irish ancestry, culture and language and Initially local parties drew the boundaries, but in the 1930s the province-wide government redrew them to reinforce the gerrymander. The Parliament of Northern Ireland was the home rule Legislature of Northern Ireland, created under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association was formed in part in reaction to the injustice of the gerrymander. The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association ( Cumann Chearta Sibhialta Thuaisceart Éireann) was an organisation which campaigned for Civil rights in Northern
In 1929 the Parliament of Northern Ireland passed a bill shifting the Parliament's electoral system from the relatively proportional single transferable vote (STV) to the less proportional first past the post or block voting system. The Parliament of Northern Ireland was the home rule Legislature of Northern Ireland, created under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, Single transferable vote (STV is a preferential Voting system designed to minimize Wasted votes and provide Proportional representation The plurality voting system is a Single-winner voting system often used to elect executive officers or to elect members of a legislative assembly which is based on single-member The only exception was for the election of four Stormont MPs to represent the Queen's University of Belfast. Queen's University Belfast is a university in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Regarding the change as abolition of electoral safeguards provided in the Government of Ireland Act of 1920, the British Government advised the Governor of Northern Ireland, the King's representative in Northern Ireland, to withhold Royal Assent from the legislation. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The Governor of Northern Ireland was the principal officer and representative in Northern Ireland of the British monarch. The granting of Royal Assent is the formal method by which a constitutional monarch completes the legislative process of Lawmaking by formally assenting to an After a major row, the British government backed down and advised the Governor to sign the Bill into law.
Many scholars believe that the boundaries were gerrymandered to underrepresent Nationalists. Some geographers and historians, for instance Professor John H. Whyte, disagree. [15][16]) They have argued that the electoral boundaries for the Parliament of Northern Ireland were not gerrymandered to a greater level than that produced by any single-winner election system, and that the actual number of Nationalist MPs barely changed under the revised system. The Parliament of Northern Ireland was the home rule Legislature of Northern Ireland, created under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, Most observers have acknowledged that the change to a single-winner system was a key factor, however, in stifling the growth of smaller political parties, such as the Northern Ireland Labour Party and Independent Unionists. See also Labour Party of Northern Ireland The Northern Ireland Labour Party was a political party which operated from 1924 until 1987
The United Kingdom suspended the Parliament of Northern Ireland and its government in 1972. It restored the single transferable vote (STV) for elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly in the following year, using the same definitions of constituencies as for the Westminster Parliament. Currently in Northern Ireland, all elections use the STV except those for positions in the Westminster Parliament, which follow the pattern in the rest of the United Kingdom by using "first past the post. The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories "
Singapore
In recent decades, critics have accused the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) of unfair electoral practices to maintain significant majorities in the Parliament of Singapore. The People's Action Party ( abbrev: PAP; Chinese: 人民行动党 Pinyin: Rénmín Xíngdòngdǎng Malay: Parti Tindakan Rakyat The unicameral Parliament of Singapore is the Legislature of Singapore with the President as its head Among the complaints are that the government uses gerrymandering. [17]
The Elections Department was established as part of the executive branch under the Prime Minister of Singapore, rather than as an independent body. The Elections Department is a department of the Government of Singapore that oversees the procedure for Elections in Singapore, including parliamentary Critics have accused it of giving the ruling party the power to decide polling districts and polling sites through electoral engineering, based on poll results in previous election. Opposition parties have alleged that the Elections Department decisions have given unfair advantage to the ruling party and have affected the outcome of some electoral battles.
The most notable examples of such alleged gerrymandering are the dissolution of the Group Representation Constituencies (GRC) of Cheng San GRC and Eunos GRC. Cheng San Group Representation Constituency ( Simplified Chinese: 静山集选区 is a now defunct Group Representation Constituency in the north-eastern Eunos Group Representation Constituency (Simplified Chinese 友诺士选区 was a group representation constituency (GRC in the north-eastern region of Singapore Each was dissolved by the Elections Department with population redistributed to other constituencies after opposition parties gained ground in elections. Such action was controversial. Critics have speculated about the possibility of the Elections Department's dissolving next the Aljunied GRC in the next General Elections, likely in 2010 or 2011. Aljunied Group Representation Constituency ( Traditional Chinese: 阿裕尼集選區 Simplified Chinese: 阿裕尼集选区 is a five-member Group The opposition Workers' Party gained ground there in the General Elections in 2006, when it earned approximately 44% of the votes.
PAP strongholds, such as Tanjong Pagar GRC and Ang Mo Kio GRC, where Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong respectively contest, have not been dissolved by the Elections Department. Tanjong Pagar Group Representation Constituency ( Traditional Chinese: 丹戎巴葛集選區 Simplified Chinese: 丹戎巴葛集选区 is a six-member Group Ang Mo Kio Group Representation Constituency ( Traditional Chinese: 宏茂橋集選區 Simplified Chinese: 宏茂桥集选区 is a six-member Group Representation Since the introduction of the Group Representation Constituency (GRC) system, these areas have seldom been contested by the opposition. When contested, the PAP has won by a big margin of 65% of the votes.
United States
The United States has a long tradition of gerrymandering which precedes the 1789 election of the First U.S. Congress. The First United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government consisting of the United States Senate and the In 1788, Patrick Henry and his Anti-Federalist allies were in control of the Virginia House of Delegates. Patrick Henry ( May 29, 1736 June 6, 1799) was a prominent figure in the American Revolution, known and remembered for his " The Commonwealth of Virginia ( is an American state Virginia House of Delegates is the Lower house of the Virginia General Assembly. They drew the boundaries of Virginia's 5th congressional district in an attempt to keep James Madison out of the U.S. House of Representatives. Virginia's fifth congressional district is a United States congressional district in the commonwealth of Virginia. James Madison Jr (March 16 1751 – June 28 1836 was an American Politician, the fourth President of the United States (1809–1817 and one of the Founding The United States House of Representatives is one of the two chambers of the United States Congress; the other is the Senate. [18]
Historically, each state legislature has used gerrymandering to try to control the political makeup of its United State House delegation. Partisan legislators typically try to maximize the number of congressional delegation seats under the control of the legislature's majority party.
Congress struggled over partisan issues as it formed and admitted new states from federally administered territories. Prior to the American Civil War, slavery was the basis of much controversy. Causes of the war See also Origins of the American Civil War, Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War The coexistence of a slave-owning South Slavery in the United States began soon after English colonists first settled Virginia in 1607 and lasted until the passage of the Thirteenth The Senate was equally split between free- and slave-states. The United States Senate is the Upper house of the bicameral United States Congress, the Lower house being the House of Representatives Because each side wanted to gain a majority, they nearly prevented the state of Maine from seceding from Massachusetts. The State of Maine ( is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean The Commonwealth of Massachusetts ( is a state located in the New England region of the northeastern United States. The impasse ended when the Senate brokered the Missouri Compromise. The Missouri Compromise was an agreement passed in 1820 between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States Congress, involving Afterward Congress admitted new states only by the informal agreement of "one new free state for each new slave state" to maintain its delicate balance. Later, Congress decided to admit Texas and California as single, but large, states, slave and free, respectively. Texas ( is a state geographically located in the South Central United States and is also known as the Lone Star State. California ( is a US state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean.
The practice of gerrymandering the borders of new states continued past the Civil War and into the late 19th century. Congress split territories in the Rocky Mountains area into separate, relatively low-population states rather than fewer, larger ones to help the Republican Party maintain control of the Presidency. Mountain peaks of the Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, often called the Rockies, are a Mountain range in western North America. By the rules for representation in the Electoral College, each new state carried at least three electoral votes regardless of its population. The Electoral College consists of 538 popularly elected representatives who formally select the President and Vice President of the United States. [19]
All redistricting in the United States has been contentious because it has been controlled by political parties vying for power. Under the constitution, districts for members of the House of Representatives are to be redrawn every ten years following each census. The Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme Law of the United States. The United States House of Representatives is one of the two chambers of the United States Congress; the other is the Senate. A census is the procedure of acquiring information about every member of a given population In many states, state legislatures have redrawn boundaries for state legislative districts at the same time.
When faced with losing power, however, members of some legislatures simply refused to redistrict. Early struggles for power were between rural and urban interests, as well as between political parties. The state legislature of Alabama, for instance, refused to redistrict from 1901 to the 1960s, despite changing conditions in a state that was industrializing and where population was rapidly moving to cities. Rural interests became prevalent in state politics, hampering the state's progress for most of the 20th century. In 1960, approximately a quarter of the state's population controlled the state legislature. When the state legislature could not agree on boundaries, a federal court worked with a new non-partisan body to conclude defining new districts in 1972. [20]
Intense political battles over contentious redistricting typically take place within state legislatures responsible for creating the electoral maps. Since passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, federal courts may be involved to ensure that historical patterns of discrimination are not perpetuated.
This process can create strange bedfellows interested in securing reelection; in some states, Republicans have cut deals with opposing black Democratic state legislators to create majority-black districts. By packing black Democratic voters into a single district, they can essentially ensure the election of a black Congressman or reelection of a black state legislator. Due to the packed concentration of Democratic voters; however, the surrounding districts are more safely Republican in areas like the South, where white conservatives have increasingly shifted from the Democratic to the Republican Party in national elections in the last four decades.
In Pennsylvania, the Republican-dominated state legislature used gerrymandering to eliminate Democratic representative Frank Mascara. Mascara was elected to Congress in 1994. In 2002 the Republican Party altered the boundaries of his original district so much that he was pitted against fellow Democratic candidate John Murtha in the election. The shape of Mascara’s newly drawn district formed a finger that stopped at his street, encompassing his house though not the spot where he parked his car. Murtha won the election in the newly formed district. [21]
State legislatures have used gerrymandering along racial or ethnic lines both to decrease and increase minority representation in state governments and congressional delegations. In the state of Ohio, a conversation between Republican officials was recorded that demonstrated that redistricting was being done to aid their political candidates. Furthermore, the discussions assessed race of voters as a factor in redistricting, because African-Americans had backed Democratic candidates. Republicans removed approximately 13,000 African American voters from the district of Jim Raussen, a Republican candidate for the House of Representatives, in an attempt to tip the scales in what was once a competitive district for Democratic candidates. [22]
International election observers from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, who were invited to observe and report on the 2004 national elections, expressed criticism of the U. The United States presidential election of 2004 was held on Tuesday November 2, 2004, to elect the President of the United States. S. congressional redistricting process and made a recommendation that the procedures be reviewed to ensure genuine competitiveness of Congressional election contests. [23]
Voting Rights Act of 1965
After Reconstruction and the granting of citizenship and suffrage to freedmen, state legislatures developed new constitutions with provisions to make voter registration and elections more complicated, such as poll taxes, residency requirements, literacy tests and grandfather clauses. A poll tax, head tax, or capitation is a Tax of a uniform fixed amount per individual (as opposed to a percentage of income Literacy Test refers to the government practice of testing the literacy of potential citizens at the federal level and potential voters at the state level A grandfather clause is a term used in US English for an exception that allows an old rule to continue to apply to some existing situations when a new rule will apply to all future situations These were designed to, and effectively succeeded in disfranchising most African Americans and many poor whites in southern states. In areas where African American and other minorities succeeded in registering, some states created districts that were gerrymandered to reduce the voting impact of minorities.
With the Civil Rights Movement and passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, additional federal enforcement and protections of suffrage for all citizens were enacted. Gerrymandering for the purpose of reducing the political influence of a racial or ethnic minority group was prohibited. Poll taxes for federal elections were prohibited by ratification of the Twenty-fourth Amendment in 1964, and a later Supreme Court case struck down poll taxes as a prerequisite for any election. Amendment XXIV (the Twenty-fourth Amendment) of the United States Constitution prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in Gerrymandering for political gain has remained possible under the Constitution.
After the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed, some states created "majority-minority" districts. This practice, also called "affirmative gerrymandering", was supposed to redress historic discrimination and ensure that ethnic minorities would gain some seats in government. Since the 1990s, however, gerrymandering based solely on racial data has been ruled unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court under the Fourteenth Amendment, first in Shaw v. Reno (1993) and subsequently in Miller v. Johnson (1995). The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States and leads the federal judiciary. The Fourteenth Amendment ( Amendment XIV) to the United States Constitution is one of the post- Civil War Reconstruction Amendments, first Shaw v Reno, 509 US 630 ( 1993) was a United States Supreme Court case argued on April 20, 1993. Miller v Johnson, 515 US 900 ( 1995) was a United States Supreme Court case concerning "affirmative Gerrymandering /racial
The constitutionality of using racial considerations to create districts remains difficult to assess, despite past injustices. In Hunt v. Cromartie (1999), the Supreme Court approved a racially focused gerrymandering of a congressional district on the grounds that the definition was not pure racial gerrymandering but instead partisan gerrymandering, which is constitutionally permissible. Hunt v Cromartie, 526 US 541 ( 1999) was a United States Supreme Court case regarding the contentious 12th district of North Carolina With the increasing racial polarization of parties in the South in the US as conservative whites move from the Democratic to the Republican Party, gerrymandering may become partisan and also achieve goals for ethnic representation.
In a few circumstances, the use of goal-driven district boundaries may be used for positive social goals (at least considered so from less partisan viewpoints). When the state legislature considered representation for Arizona's Native American reservations, they thought each needed their own House member, because of historic conflicts between the Hopi and Navajo nations. The State of Arizona ( is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. The Hopi are Native American people who primarily live on the 12635 km² (2531 The Navajo Nation ( Diné in the Navajo language) is a semi- autonomous Native American homeland covering about 26000 square miles (67339 square Since the Hopi reservation is completely surrounded by the Navajo reservation, the legislature created an unusual district configuration which features a fine filament along a river course several hundred miles in length to attach two Navajo regions.
In another case (frequently cited as an outrageous example of gerrymandering), the California state legislature created a congressional district that extends over a narrow coastal strip for several hundred miles. It ensures that a common community of interest will be represented, rather than the coastal areas' being dominated by inland concerns. These are illustrative of factoring in communities of common interest in drawing district boundaries.
Recent steps
In a decision on June 28, 2006, the United States Supreme Court upheld most of a Texas congressional map engineered in 2003 by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. League of United Latin American Citizens v Perry, 548 U S 399 (2006 is a Supreme Court of the United States case in which the Court ruled that only The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States and leads the federal judiciary. Party leaders of the United States House of Representatives are elected by their respective parties in a closed-door (private Caucus. Thomas Dale DeLay (born April 8 1947 is a former member of the United States House of Representatives from Sugar Land, Texas. [24] The 7-2 decision allows state legislatures to redraw and gerrymander districts as often as they like (not just after the decennial census. Thus they may work to protect their political parties' standing and number of seats, so long as they do not harm racial and ethnic minority groups. A 5-4 majority declared one Congressional district unconstitutional in the case because of harm to an ethnic minority.
Rather than allowing more political influence, some states' citizens are considering shifting redistricting authority from politicians and giving it to non-partisan commissions. For instance, Washington state created the standing Washington State Redistricting Commission [25] and Arizona the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission. [26] The Rhode Island Reapportionment Commission[27] and New Jersey Redistricting Commission are ad hoc but developed the past two decennial reapportionments tied to new census data. The New Jersey Redistricting Commission is a constitutional body of the Government of New Jersey Ad hoc is a Latin phrase which means "for this [ Purpose ]"
According to its municipal charter, the city of San Diego uses a third party commission to define district boundaries. A city charter or town charter (generically municipal charter) is a legal Document establishing a Municipality such as a City or
Justification
United States
Inherent political right
Many politicians argue that because constituencies were to be made by politicians (such as the case in the United States and elsewhere), they have the right to manipulate it so that it gives them an advantage. The voters will still be represented, and an unpopular incumbent may still be unseated.
Better representation of minority groups
Gerrymandering can be used to create districts that better represent certain minorities. Such districts have been created to ensure representation for African American, Hispanic, and Asian American ethnic communities in the USA, particularly in California, Texas, and other states in the South. Asian Americans are Americans of Asian ancestry. They include sub-ethnic groups such as Chinese Americans Filipino Americans Indian California ( is a US state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. Texas ( is a state geographically located in the South Central United States and is also known as the Lone Star State. South is one of Cardinal directions and is opposite to the North.
See also
References
- ^ Michel Balinski, "Fair Majority Voting (or How to Eliminate Gerrymandering)" Amer. The Redistricting of United States Congressional districts is made by the Legislatures of the states every 10 years immediately following the official announcement In Politics, representation describes how political power is alienated from most of the members of a group and vested for a certain time period in the hands of a small subset Electoral fraud is illegal interference with the process of an Election. Math. Monthly 115 2 (2008): 97. "Incumbent candidates, in tailored districts, are almost certain of reelection (over 98% in 2002, over 94% in 2006).
- ^ Gerry pronounced his name IPA: /ˈgɛri/ (with a hard G)
- ^ The Gerrymander.
- ^ [1]
- ^ Bob Inama
- ^ Public Interest Guide to Redistricting
- ^ a b Centrists.Org - Iowa's Redistricting Process: An Example of the Right Way to Draw Legislative
- ^ Issue 4: Independent Redistricting Process - Ohio State Government
- ^ RangeVoting.org - Center for Range Voting - front page
- ^ Dr. Michael McDonald, US Elections Project: Alabama Redistricting Summary [http://elections.gmu.edu/Redistricting/AL.htm Dept. of Public and International Affairs George Mason University], accessed 6 Apr 2008
- ^ Isoperimetric Quotient - from Wolfram MathWorld
- ^ Isoperimetric Inequality - from Wolfram MathWorld
- ^ The Chilean Electoral System.
- ^ Constituencies in 1990 elections — see Ugāles, Tārgales, Ziru constituencies, # 199—201
- ^ CAIN: Issues - Discrimination: John Whyte, 'How much discrimination was there under the Unionist regime, 1921-1968?'
- ^ Northern Ireland House of Commons, 1921-1972
- ^ Yawning Bread, "Electoral boundary changes: as opaque as ever", March 2006. Alex Au Waipang, also known by his Internet nom de plume as Yawning Bread, is thought by many to be the founding father of the Singapore gay equality http://www.yawningbread.org/arch_2006/yax-553.htm
- '^ Labunski, Richard. James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights, New York: Oxford University Press, 2006
- ^ Compare a map of the United States in 1860 [2] with a map from 1870 [3].
- ^ Dr. Michael McDonald, US Elections Project: Alabama Redistricting Summary George Mason University, Dept. of Public and International Affairs, accessed 6 Apr 2008
- ^ Rachel Morris. "The Race to Gerrymander", The Washington Monthly, November 2006. The Washington Monthly is a monthly Magazine of United States Politics and Government that is based in Washington D
- ^ AP. "Republican Party Politics (Part II)", WCPO, 29 April 2002. WCPO-TV, channel 9 is a broadcast television station in Cincinnati Ohio, USA, affiliated with the ABC network
- ^ XI
- ^ AP. "High court upholds most of Texas redistricting map", CNN, 28 June 2006. Cable News Network, usually referred to by its Initialism CNN, is a major English language Television network founded in 1980 by Ted Turner
- ^ Washington State Redistricting Commission
- ^ Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission
- ^ Temporarily Disabled
![[2]](http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/united_states/us_terr_1860.jpg){kind=link}
![[3]](http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/united_states/us_terr_1870.jpg){kind=link}
External links
- Ending the Gerrymander in Chile: the constitutional reforms of 1988 — a case study from the ACE Project
- Alleged Gerrymandering in Malaysia: Over-representation of rural districts — an article from the ACE Project
- Alleged Gerrymandering in Singapore — an article from the ACE Project
- A handbook of electoral system Design from International IDEA
- Gerrymandering in the US
- Reapportionment and Redistricting in the US an article from the ACE Project
- Anti-Gerrymandering policy in Australia
- A collection of bizarre and unconstitutional districts from recent history, dedicated to Governor Eldridge Gerry.
- Beyond gerrymandering and Texas posses: US electoral reform
- Gerrymandering pages at the Center for Range Voting
- The CommonCensus Map Project — Draws internal US boundaries based on cultural affinities, not politics
- Egregious Cases an article from Mother Jones Magazine
- Crossed Lines a new film about gerrymandering.
- Gerryminder — An online redistricting simulation.
- A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns 1787-1825
- The Redistricting Game — An online game designed to teach about Gerrymandering
Dictionary
gerrymandering
-noun
- (politics) The practice of redrawing electoral districts to gain an electoral advantage for a political party.
-verb
- Present participle of gerrymander.
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