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Gerrymandering, redistricting

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Gerrymandering Armed with census data, Republican lawmakers [in Wisconsin in 2011] drew districts to maximise their political advantage. In the 2012 elections, Republicans won 48.6% of the vote but took 60 of the state assembly's 99 seats., In 2014 and 2016, their 52% of the vote got them 63 and 64 seats. The Economist, October 7, 2017 [2012: 60/99 = 60.6% = 1.25 × 48.6%] [2014: 63/99 = 63.6% = 1.22 × 52%] [2016: 64/99 = 64.6% = 1.24 × 52%]  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Gerrymandering [T]he best-laid gerrymandering plans can be spoiled by voters behaving in unpredictable ways. Stephen K. Medvic, Gerrymandering  © 2021 Kwiple.com
Gerrymandering But just because soemthing is unjust and incompatible with democratic principles and fiendishly effective, Justice Roberts writes [in Rucha v. Common Cause], doesn't mean it's within the purview of the court to find a constitutional violation. Gerrymandering stinks, but not so badly that the Constitution can smell it. Jordan Ellenberg, Shape © 2022 Kwiple.com
Gerrymandering The gerrymander overcometh all. What demographics give, legislators can take away  in the dead of night. Tom Hofeller, Republican gerrymanderer © 2021 Kwiple.com
Gerrymandering Gerrymandering has a long and unpopular history in the United States. It is the main reason that the country ranked 55th of 158 nations — last among Western democracies — in a 2017 index of voting fairness run by the Electoral Integrity Project, an academic collaboration between the University of Sydney, Australia, and Harvard University's John F. Kennedy  School of Government, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Nature, Vol. 546, 8 June 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Gerrymandering If your job is to get and hold a majority of the legislature, and the law allows you to play as dirty as you like,  then dirty is your duty.   … If you don't want kids to shoplift, maybe don't leave so many candy bars so close to the front door. Jordan Ellenberg, Shape © 2022 Kwiple.com
Gerrymandering In many states, the partisan composition  of the US Congress is effectively determined by state legislative elections that occur once a decade, before redistricting. This arrangement means that state governments have expanded their reach  into national affairs in ways that undermine  the design of the House of Representatives to be responsive to public opinion and unsettle the balance of power between state and federal government that has been settled for many decades. Alex Keena, Michael Latner, Anthony J. McGann, Charles Anthony Smith, Gerrymandering the States   © 2021 Kwiple.com
Gerrymandering In Pennsylvania five years ago, Republicans won 13 of 18 House seats with just 49% of the statewide vote. North Carolina's map gives Republicans ten seats and Democrats three, despite close statewide votes. When asked why, a Republican lawmaker who headed the redistricting process said, “Because I do not believe it's possible to draw a map with 11 Republicans and two Democrats.” The Economist, October 7, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Gerrymandering In this book, we investigated redistricting in the states to understand what happened in the state legislatures after 2011 redistricting and to understand why. We have found that several dozen legislative bodies were drawn with severe bias, and that this bias overwhelmingly favors the Republican Party. The Republicans' advantage in state government is so extreme that the average state legislative plan gives Republicans about 9 percent more seats than Democrats for a similar share of the vote. In many cases, Democrats have to win by a 10 percent vote margin in order to get a majority in the legislature. Alex Keena, Michael Latner, Anthony J. McGann, Charles Anthony Smith, Gerrymandering the States   © 2021 Kwiple.com
Gerrymandering In this chapter we've attempted to identify the consequences of redistricting and gerrymandering. Unfortunately, we're left with an unclear picture. There is evidence that redistricting both enhances and hinders competitive elections; that it gives the party con- trolling the process an advantage and that it doesn't; that it hurts incumbents' re-elections efforts and that it either has no effect or helps incumbents; that it depresses turnout and that it has no effect; and that it contributes to polarization and that it doesn't. Stephen K. Medvic, Gerrymandering,  ch. 5 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Gerrymandering Jonathan Mattingly swings his legs up onto his desk, presses a key on his laptop and changes the results of the 2012 elections in North Carolina. On the screen, flickering lines and dots outline a map of the state's 13 congres- sional districts, each of which chooses one person to the US House of Representatives. By tweaking the borders of those election districts, but not changing a single vote, Mattingly's maps show candidates from the Democratic Party winning six, seven or even eight seats in the race. In reality, they won only four – despite earning a majority of votes overall. “The mathematicians who want to save democracy,” Nature, Vol. 546, 8 June 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
 
Gerrymandering [O]ur main point is that “natural” one-party districts, even more than gerrymandered districts, contribute to noncompetitivemess and party polarization. Gerrymandering should be easy to fix, by entrusting the drawing of district boundaries to independent commissions rather than partisan state legislatures — as several states have begun doing. … however, the probem of “natural” one-party districts is much knottier and harder to solve. Benjamin Page and Martin Gilens, Democracy in America? © 2019 Kwiple.com