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Gerrymandering In The United States Essay

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The United States of America has long stood as the greatest nation in the world, and life within it has been more pleasant than life within most other countries. Life in America is not perfect however; the United States is no utopia. There are many potential inhibitions which stand in the way of the United States ever becoming a utopia. Whilst there may be a multitude of potential causes, there are some in particular which are more dire than others. Two key obstacles which inhibit the United States from becoming a utopia are special interest groups and gerrymandering. Special interest groups serve only to corrupt American politics; with interest groups, it is the will of whichever sponsor spends the most money that is done, not the will …show more content…

Drutman argues in his work that gerrymandering is not the issue, but it is instead single-member districts: “But the real problem here is not that districts have funny shapes. The real problem is that voters are sorted by partisanship and geography in ways that makes it hard to draw competitive single-member districts” (2017, para. 27). This argument is incorrect due to the false belief that gerrymandering and single-member districts are mutually exclusive issues. Single-member’s winner take all structure is arguably detrimental in many circumstances, and its flaws do compound with politicians redrawing electoral maps as they see fit. However, even in a proposed multi-member district structure, politicians could still redraw the districts to favor their party; corrupt action on the part of politicians would be less harmful in a multi-member district system, but they could still draw a district to favor their party and net them more representation. This all leads backs to gerrymandering itself being the main issue, with the single-party district certainly remaining as a sub-issue. Gerrymandering cannot be ignored, even if its harmful effects are lessened in a different system; as long a gerrymandering remains, politicians can satisfy their corrupt desires for power. They will inhibit any form of American Utopia as long as they serve their party’s goals rather than that of the

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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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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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Gerrymandering is a practice that stopped redistricting and goes to establish a political advantage for a specific party or group by manipulating district limits to create biased advantage districts. The process for making a congressional district map in Texas has grown more complex and significant over the years. Districts are usually drawn by politicians that typically have a vested interest in the effect of the new lines; according to laws and regulations they're subject to judicial review. This gives the state the power to control and maintain their districts. The disadvantage is that it allows representatives who could not otherwise get elected, to be elected.

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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.

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Hello Erik, I really like how you explain gerrymandering. I also agree with you that racial gerrymandering is worse than partisan gerrymandering. Gerrymandering altogether is bad and create a lot of problem and it mess with the result of the election. I really like it when you said “Racial gerrymandering is aimed towards a specific racial group and leads to the unfair and unequal treatment based upon race while partisan gerrymandering is not based upon race.” That pretty much sum it up

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Is Gerrymandering a Controversial Topic? Gerrymandering is a process where the ruling political party uses the map of their state to draw lines that create voting districts in favor of their party. The result of this is that it doesn’t reflect the voters political views. For about 200 years the government has used gerrymandering during political elections and it continues to be used today (King, Elizabeth) .

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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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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

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What is a constituency, and why do constituencies differ for representatives and senators? A constituency is a group of individual voters in a specific area who elect a representative to a legislative body. Constituencies differ for representatives and senators: • Representatives – represent a district or area of a state and sometimes a whole state • Senators – represent the whole state Explain briefly how reapportionment and redistricting work? Why is gerrymandering frowned upon?

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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.

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