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Gerrymandering In Presidential Elections

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For the sake of expediency, the topics of gerrymandering and faithless electors will be touched upon lightly and will be followed by the conclusion. Gerrymandering, only if it was silly as as it sounded. Unfortunately it only makes our democratic system look silly. Gerrymandering is manipulating the the borders of congressional districts to favor a particular party or candidate. Although it has been used particularly for local and state elections, it can have a devastating effect on the presidential election. Currently, the electoral vote goes to the candidate who wins the popular vote. There being a push to change that to award the vote to who wins the congressional district like mentioned above(Fitz-Gerald, 2013) at first it seems like …show more content…

In Ohio, for instance, Republicans won 12 out of 16 House races "despite voters casting only 52 percent of their vote for Republican congressional candidates." The situation was even more egregious to the north. "Michiganders cast over 240,000 more votes for Democratic congressional candidates than Republicans, but still elected a 9-5 Republican delegation to Congress."”. This manipulation of the system is certainly not what the framers of the constitution had in mind and makes the electoral college system less and less reliable. This along with faithless electors, the men and women who truly vote for president, in 21 states do not have to vote for the popular candidate and usually the electors side with their party but is it right that on their whim, they can undo the will of thoughts of people. Even once "In 2004, a Minnesota elector voted for "John Ewards", which was almost the name of John Kerry's running mate." This was stated by Adam Conover and truly represents the electoral college as an elector from Minnesota, it was a good try on their part but a miss over all and along with him there were 157 other “faithless

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Gerrymandering Position Paper Gerrymandering is the irregular redrawing of district lines to give one political party an advantage. Gerrymandering usually starts with a census. Every ten years, it is necessary to recount the people to redistribute the seats for the members of the House of Representatives. If a state gains or loses states it is necessary to reapportion the state.

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The party that is in office might say no, gerrymandering is not cheating because it isn’t always a safe bet that the party majority in that district will win. On the opposing side, they say that it would seem to take advantage and abuse the use of voter’s census information to manipulate districts. Are voters being manipulated into voting for one party over another to change districts? “The conditions under which election ballots are cast and counted—from registration to voting equipment, ballot design, polling locations, voter ID requirements, absentee ballots and early voting—are set in a very decentralized fashion and prey to political manipulation to advantage one party over the other.” Parties that are winning elections by gerrymandering think It isn’t feasible to draw district lines perfectly, they are sometimes misshaped because of varying populations.

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The electoral college is a process the founding fathers established in the constitution with the intent to create a safeguard between the population and the selection of a president, and to give extra power to smaller states. However, based on the information presented in the articles the electoral college should be abolished as it violates our right of political equality, and fails to represent a third, independent, party in any election. Although there are many reasons to abolish the electoral college, the principal reason to take action would be the result of an obvious violation of our right to be politically equal. As shown in the chart provided (Doc D) 12 of the lowest populated states and the District of Columbia have almost the

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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

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What is “Gerrymandering”? which until now was something that never crossed my mind until I attended my Political Science class. Interestingly, Gerrymandering is a tradition vested for a political advantage by a political party to manipulate the district boundaries. Gerrymandering can also be used to utilize from a race, ethnicity, class groups or religion point of prospect, simply to benefit a political party. “The word “gerrymander” was coined at a Boston dinner party hosted by a prominent Federalist in March 1812, according to an 1892 article by historian John Ward Dean.

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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.

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Gerrymandering is a term most often known for its use in politics. Many people have heard of the term but do not know what it is, or they know what it and how it works. Just to clarify, Gerrymandering is when the leading political group obtains then right to redraw district lines after reapportionment to gain advantages in an election. Gerrymandering is rapidly growing in popularity across the continental United States. It is allowing politicians to cheat their way into an office with little to no effort.

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Legislative redistricting in nature is a simple concept. However, the implication of legislative redistricting arises complications. Redistricting is a powerful tool used by our government. It influences how a state will be represented and in turn how the people will be represented. The misuse of this power can lead to catastrophic consequences.

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Electoral college has been with us since the birth of the constitution, and to this day we are still using this type of system to this day. The Electoral College is a system that the United States uses to elect our upcoming presidents and vice presidents. Each state has electors equal to their senate member and house of representatives, however who ever gets the highest popular vote in the state gets the electoral vote. The issue is the Electoral College do not give votes to the people, but to the states. Which has some unfair consequences.

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In 1787, years after the founding of the United States, the Constitutional Convention met to decide how the new nation would govern itself. The delegates understood that the need for a leader was necessary but still bitterly remembered how Britain abused of its power. The delegates agreed that the President and Vice President should be chosen informally and not based on the direct popular vote, thus gave birth to the Electoral College. The Electoral College is defined as “a body of people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president.” Since 1787 the Electoral College has been the system for voting in the United States, but with our nation ever more changing and growing it

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All through the history of the United States of America, many people have discussed the abolishment of the Electoral College. For many reasons, some believe it is what makes our country have the type of government we have, some believe that it's what limits the power of the government, and many people such as Mitch McConnell believes it is what gives us our freedom and prosperity. While these are valid arguments there is a multitude of reasons to why the electoral college should be abolished. Such as there is only a need for twelve states in order to become the president, popular vote of the people for president can still lose, and the Swing states are given too much power and attention compared to that of the other states. This is why I believe in the abolishment of the Electoral College.

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The number of electors in each state is equaled two plus one for each member of the House of Representatives, and Washington DC has three votes, bringing the total number of electors to 538 (“What is the Electoral College?”). It’s a well-known fact that when the public goes to vote for a candidate they also vote for the corresponding vice president. A much less well-known fact is that they are actually voting for the electors as well; by voting democratic or republican the corresponding electors for the party are elected as well (“Electoral College” 2010). Then on the Monday after the second Wednesday of December the electors assemble in a central location in each state and cast their votes for president. In forty-eight states, there is a “winner-take-all-system” where the highest vote getter in the state gets all the electoral votes, however in two states, Maine and Nebraska, there is a proportionality system in place; where if one third of the votes are for one party and two thirds are for another, the electors will split and one third of the state electoral votes will go to one party and the rest will go to another (“What is the Electoral College?”).

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