Gerrymandering Pros And Cons

During political elections, or the presidential election per say, the election process can be hectic. Political parties strenuously work to convince people to favor their candidates. They perform this in order to receive political control and to rise in the governmental system. Two infamous political parties that are always competing are the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. The lure of gerrymandering is enticing because they take control of a state legislature by advancement of redistricting. It is an opportunity for the controlling party to fortify its power, by instance of district-to-district. However, for a minority party, this can be the opposite because it could be seen as an unfair abuse of power. Therefore, gerrymandering

Because there are two practices for effective gerrymandering, there can be political advantages for the parties. The two successful practices are the “Packing a district” and “cracking a district” (Greer 1). The packing a district means to gain more and more districts in favor (Greer 1). This will cause less packing or votes to go to the opposed party. It is simple. If more districts means more votes, the fewer the districts there are, and the fewer votes the opposition will have. Thus, packing then decreases the opponents’ voter strength and influence. Therefore, packing a district helps the party more likely to win an election because they are gaining majority of the districts. The cracking a district is quite the opposite. It is only used when the opponent of a district has many supporters, and the party has to figure out how to “crack” a district, so they can win more votes (Greer 1). Gerrymandering does provide a political advantage because the political parties then will be able to get huge groups of people to be in favor of their party. For example, the Republican Party can get most of the Texas districts to be in favor and that means that they have more votes, and they would be winning the Democratic

It depends on the way people are informed on gerrymandering, and what gerrymandering is affecting. For instance, if it effects the “one person, one vote” rule that people care mostly about. According to a discussion during an Aspen Community Program, Attorney Parker Maddox stated that redistricting becomes a problem when the popular votes are not reflected in Congress (Margo 1). Thus, individual rights must still be respected and protected. Gerrymandering does have some democratic principles, since people are still being allowed to vote and there is not really must unfairness going on. As mentioned earlier, minority parties can view it as abusing power, but there are benefits to gerrymandering. The political parties are competing, voters within a state are grouping up based on common interest, minorities are being represented, and states are becoming more accountable (Margo 1). Issues are being solved with gerrymandering and there are the electoral election and the majority vote. Therefore, even though one political party can receive more voters in favor, it cannot win very easily. Democratic principles deals with competing to win districts and getting people to think more carefully for whom they should vote for. Gerrymandering also is observed whether it does not oppose the Equal Protection Claude of the Fourteenth Amendment (Margo 1). The parties can turn to that but they must show proof that the