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 subroutine of legislative seats that can be won by the semi governmental party which is in excite of re force the district boundaries during that period of time, and to create serious seats for the partys incumbent legislators which ar seats in which the incumbent will always win re- preference. Gerrymandering is the redrawing of election district boundaries to provide an electoral advantage to a particular candidate or party. It has been recognised as a part of the American political landscape since 1812.The bourne derives from a redrawing of US Representative districts in Massachusetts before the 1812 elections, when Elbridge Gerry was governor. hoi polloi said the district was reminiscent of a salamander and thus the call Gerry-mander was coined. The Constitution requires that representation in the House of Representatives be apportioned to s tates on the basis of population. So, every ten years we count up the proceeds of people living in each state and making certainly that each state gets at least one House member, dissociate up the rest of the seats among the states equally.States with large populations get a bigger amount of house seats smaller states get just 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 roughly the analogous 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 chore in American politics. The redistricting process therefore became a target for political reformers.In 2008, Californians enacted Prop. 11 and created the Citizens Redistricting Commission (CRC). State legislators w ould no longer be subject to pick their own constituents. An in betent commission would be in charge of drawing the lines for the Assembly and Senate. In 2010, the CRCs mandate was expanded to embroil House districts as well. The party in control of redistricting can undermine its opposition by packing or cracking. Packing is to sign up as many electors of the opposition party into a single electoral district to reduce their influence in voting in different districts.In some cases, this may be done to obtain representation for a community of common interest thus creating i. e. a minority throng (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 magnetic core on the outcome. If representatives are required to be residents of their districts, redistricting may redraw the boundary to release his/her house, or draw them into a distr ict where they will lose the following(a) election.Gerrymandering is a very serious problem. Effective gerrymanders can have epochal policy implications. In California, for object lesson, 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 less consequential, and therefore it should discourage voter equipage, except 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 confused regions, some of which may genuinely be closely-contested, one or cardinal foregone conclusions on the ballot will not diminish voter interest in other races. An effective way of combating gerrymandering is to follow the example of California and enact something similar to prop. 11 which will give the debt instrument 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. evict compactness constrain the Gerrymander? http//www. columbia. edu/mh2245/papers1/gerry. pdf * Smith, Kieth. On Gerrymandering and Its Effects. Web log post. governmental Science at University of the Pacific. Pacificpoliticalscience. wordpress. com, 2 Nov. 2011. Web. 04 Mar. 2013.