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The Effect Of Gerrymandering On Democracy

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The act of gerrymandering does threaten democracy because it aids a specific political party,it is unfair to the voters, and it allows politicians to have control over the voters. Within the gerrymandering game, the political party that was supported was commonly content and fully supported the plan while the opposition was almost always completely against the decision making it difficult to compromise. The point of a democracy is to represent everyone who has the power to vote. The two main parties in the United States are Republican and Democratic and yield the highest chance of having an official be elected for state governments, or local district governments compared to third parties. When one party gerrymanders, they weaken the other party 's chances of gaining power. If the chances …show more content…

This is undemocratic because it allows political leaders or people of high power to choose which party will govern that district and it may make it harder for the majority of the people and voters in a specific area to get what they want. Two districts may be mainly democratic and 2 districts may be mainly republican but politicians may choose to change the districts as 3 districts to be republican and 1 district to be democratic. The general public does not have a say in this therefore it is undemocratic. The act of gerrymandering has been proven to severely change the outcome of democracy by allowing politicians to choose what they want rather than let the voters who represent democracy choose. It is unfair to the party to the party that is trying to compete against the party which gerrymanders. The act of redistricting can also isolate voters of a specific party. All these acts are undoubtedly undemocratic and will continue to have a drastic impact on U.S. politics unless it is

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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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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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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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Although this seems a reasonable approach this causes more of an issue of fragmentation than congressional district ting. Lastly, there is the Electoral College with super electors. This idea was introduced by Arthur Schlesinger Jr. in 2000. he proposed that “... candidates would continue to compete for electors on a state-by-state, winner-take-all basis, but the winner of the national popular vote would be awarded a set of bonus

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The Electoral College requires a presidential candidate to have trans-regional appeal. Trans-regional appeal is when a presidential candidate tries to appeal to all or more than one region. No region has enough electoral votes to elect a president. For example, “So a solid regional favorite, such as Romney was in the South, has no incentive to campaign heavily in those states, for he gains no electoral votes by increasing his popularity in states that he knows he will.” The Electoral College makes it so that presidential candidates have to campaign in more than one region to get more support.

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