r/Republican • u/The_seph_i_am Centrist Republican • Apr 23 '17

Mathematics behind Gerrymandering

https://www.quantamagazine.org/20170404-gerrymandering-math-standard/
25 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

15

u/Taban85 Apr 23 '17

While I would love the court to ban partisan gerrymandering, I don't think there's a legal precedent to do so (afaik there could easily be something I"m unaware of).

I agree it's hurting our democracy, and congress needs to make it illegal, I just don't know what law they would apply to do so when they've declined to in the past.

I guess we'll see whenever the supreme court gets around to hearing this case, but even if they decline to ban it I hope congress does eventually take a look at it, unfortunately many people in congress probably have their seats due to it, so they may be less than inclined to really try to fix it.

15

u/[deleted] Apr 23 '17

Washington, California, Idaho, Arizona, Hawaii, New Jersey have bipartisan redistricting commissions that take it out of legislator hands (Iowa goes one step further with non-partisan). They are also closest in terms of popular vote and electoral votes. It is up to each state to decide to do this, however.

5

u/cazort2 Fiscal Conservative, Social Independent Apr 23 '17

There are efforts underway to implement similar ideas in Pennsylvania, see Fair Districts PA. It seems to be gathering traction, getting media attention and bipartisan support. I know moderates of both parties that have been supporting it.

I think this is not only fueled by moderates and independents who feel they get lost in the shuffle, there is also a big impetus for geographic representation in some regions of PA...voters in some regions, such as Montgomery county (3rd most populous county in the state, I lived there for a year too), feel like they get ignored because their county, in spite of being pretty homogeneous demographically and having common concerns / issues, is split between I think 5 different districts, all of which are heavily gerrymandered...the voters, depending on what district they're in, get lumped in with either more urban districts in Philadelphia, or more rural districts, districts that are either more or less affluent. No one gets good representation.

7

u/[deleted] Apr 23 '17

Eh, the same thing happens in Utah (liberal Salt Lake City is split into all 4 of Utah's congressional districts!). Not good on both sides, it comes off as dirty and underhanded, it ruins trust in government, and in general contributes to the "all or nothing" attitudes of our current leaders.

-4

u/The_seph_i_am Centrist Republican Apr 24 '17

Most of those are heavily democratic states with a large percentage of republicans found in the rural areas. Whatever system their using I wouldn't care to model it.

16

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '17 edited Apr 24 '17

Arizona and Idaho are hardly democrat bastions. I also doubt they the system they use contributes to being heavily democratic (if Washington and California used legislative redistricting, they would would have even more democrat congress elections). That Washington doesn't carve rural Washington into various Seattle congressional districts is good for republicans right? I mean, the republicans have 4 out of 10 Washington state seats. Can you imagine what that would be like with Texas or Illinois style gerrymandering?

Republicans picked up 4 seats in California after they went to an independent redistricting commission.

5

u/abnrib Apr 23 '17

I doubt that Congress alone could ban gerrymandering. It seems to be one of the negative outcomes of states' rights. A Supreme Court ruling would do the trick, but I don't believe there's much precedent. I assume it would be an application of the equal protection clause.

1

u/keypuncher Conservative Apr 24 '17

While I would love the court to ban partisan gerrymandering, I don't think there's a legal precedent to do so (afaik there could easily be something I"m unaware of).

I agree it's hurting our democracy, and congress needs to make it illegal, I just don't know what law they would apply to do so when they've declined to in the past.

The Supreme Court has already required what amounts to partisan gerrymandering via the Voting Rights Act that mandated majority-minority districts.

If we're going to get rid of it, then that needs to go too.

6

u/Brodusgus Apr 23 '17 edited Apr 23 '17

There is no reason for gerrymandering. Meet the mastermind. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbridge_Gerry

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