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Negative effects of gerrymandering
Negative effects of gerrymandering
Negative effects of gerrymandering
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Negative effects of gerrymandering
Negative effects of gerrymandering
Negative effects of gerrymandering
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Gerrymandering is the process of redrawing boundaries to benefit the political party in power. An example is Nevada, in which the four districts show the three forms. Gerrymandering was made after Elbridge Gerry, who was the governor of Massachusetts and Vice President of the U.S., signed a bill that redistricted the state to benefit his party, which was later called Partisan Gerrymandering. An individual observed the oddly shaped district as a "gerrymander" causing a newspaper reporter to print a cartoon of a monster based on it.
In advising the Chief Justice, it is obvious that the voting districts should be redrawn for a multitude of reasons. As the system of drawing districts stands, it is highly vulnerable to corruption for the party in power, as they are the ones deciding the districts. Concurrently, those in power are incentivized to maintain their power through any means necessary; which, in a democracy, is obtaining the most votes. Because it is extremely difficult determining whether or not the drawing of a district is preferential to one party over another is, the risk to those in power is minimal while the potential payout is high. Thus, short of any moral reasoning to stop them, the likelihood of someone gaming the design of voting districts is high.
But, if you were in the same district and opposed the current political party, you might say that gerrymandering is unfair because they give the current party in power an advantage. It gives them an advantage because they are the ones that author the redrawing of districts.
Gerrymandering is when district lines are drawn in such a way to give a party higher chance of getting there representatives in control of the state. Gerrymandering is a way that the government can control who has power and who does not. There is a lot of controversy behind this though some people think that politicians should not be in charge of drawing the districts that a group of un bias people should draw the boundaries. People that want to keep the process we have now that allows for gerrymandering argue that non bias people do not exist and to give the task to someone different would just lead to more gerrymandering. Gerrymandering is not new in fact its named after the first to do it in the united states Elbridge Gerry
Given the legal nature of the gerrymandering issue, there is an extensive legal background on the issue since the ninetieth century. This literature review gives the more relevant legal background regarding Pennsylvania’s current situation, as well as background information on the novel ways that policy-makers and researchers measure political gerrymandering. Keeping the legal background and measurement procedures in context, there are also legislative reforms and commission procedures that states have taken in order to ameliorate the problems that arise from gerrymandering. A. Constitutionality & Legal Background The Pennsylvania State Constitution contains relevant clauses that must be applied to any redistricting plan.
Appointing the judges on the other hand would only benefit that particular party affiliation. The outcome of judges being appointed would ultimately bring more harm than good. The plus for appointments would
It is important to note that each district only gets one representative regardless of the district’s population size. Therefore, gerrymandering creates a very unequal Congressional representation because it can give seats to a party even when the majority of the people in that district do not want them there. This paper will aim to discuss the flaws as well as benefits of gerrymandering, the situation today with recent news of gerrymandering in America, and potential compromises and solutions regarding gerrymandering for the future. II.
But recently gerrymandering has become more controversial because people feel that it has taken away their rights as a voter and it swings the votes to one side by a big percentage. Current cases are before the courts to decide if gerrymandering is legal. Some states have been discussing whether it should still be allowed during elections. “Many efforts are underway to remedy this political
Gerrymandering Gerrymandering is the redrawing of political boundaries, otherwise known as district lines, in a state to give one party a numeric advantage over the opposing party. This is done by dividing districts up into highly irregular sections to achieve the goal of having voters from a particular party highly concentrated in some areas and thinly scattered in other areas (Donnelly, Fortune). Gerrymandering has been criticized because it violates the two basic principles in electoral designation; compactness and equality of size of constituencies in electoral designation (The Editors, Britannica). There is currently no law against the process of Gerrymandering. However, the current Supreme Court case Gill v. Whitford could change that.
The Dark Side of Gerrymandering Gerrymandering has been around ever since the forefathers of America first started the nations democratic voting system. Gerrymandering is the redistribution of electoral district lines in order to give the redistributors an unfair political advantage (Elliot). While it is technically a legal practice, it allows the political parties in office to find a way to gain political advantages by separating minorities and voters of opposing political parties. The social inequalities and federal dishonesty associated with gerrymandering must be addressed and regulated as it poses a real problem for Americans as their votes are having less and less of an impact on elections. There are two common types of gerrymandering
Unfortunately, this standard is not the precedent established by the Supreme Court. The current argument headed to the Supreme Court in 2017 is that partisan gerrymandering is quietly producing a greater effect on the nation than ever before and needs to be addressed by the highest level of judiciary for its
Political Parties serve a crucial role in congressional campaigns, especially for candidate recruitment. One significant role political parties serve is the state law of redistricting, “Because the composition of House districts can make the difference between winning and losing, the two major parties and individual politicians, particularly incumbents, often fight fierce battles in state legislatures over the alignment of districts.” (Smith, et al., 2007). Similar to my previous discussion, the congressional district map is crucial to the success of political parties and gerrymandering is just apart of the nature of political parties. In order for political parties to completely reap the benefits of their constituents, they must draw a map that serves their best interest.
According to the Texas Secretary of State website, “Article III, Section 28, of the Texas Constitution requires the Texas Legislature to redistrict both houses (the Texas House of Representatives and Texas State Senate) at its first regular session after publication of the federal decennial census.” (https://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/voter/faqcensus.shtml) The Texas Tribune describes the purpose of redistricting as equalizing the population in state and congressional districts after the census is published, and ensuring that minority populations are represented. (7) Gerrymandering is re-drawing these geographical boundaries to give a particular political party a numeric advantage over an opposing party. Texas history is rich with examples
Race and ethnicity are two terms which are used interchangeably in every day conversation, however, there is a distinction between the two. Race is a categorization of people who have been singled out as inferior or superior, often on the basis of phenotype – observable physical characteristics such as skin color, hair texture, eye shape, or other selective attributes. Race is a social construct and has been known to change with historical and political events. Contrarily, ethnicity does not necessarily provide visual clues, instead, ethnicity is categorized on the basis of a shared common culture and includes elements such as language, norms, customs, religion, music, art, literature. Ethnic Groups are developed by their unique history
Race is defined as the categorization of individuals based on their physical characteristics, i.e. skin color, facial structure, etcetera. Ethnicity is defined as the categorization of individuals based on their respective social or cultural groups, and is not based upon race. Both race and ethnicity are similar systems of categorization, yet, although race is on the basis on physical features while ethnicity is based on one’s social or cultural background. The concept of race was created by European imperialists and colonialists during the early 17th century, when the slave trade began. The white imperialists needed a system of categorization in order to justify the sharp uptick in the use of the African body as slaves.