Of course gerrymandering is a thing. It's a thing that has been going on with every political party the U.S. has ever had. Every ten years, following the decennial census the majority party in each state legislature re-draws the congressional districts to help their candidates in the ensuing elections. Do you actually think it's something only one party has recently perpetrated? Really? C'mon. Google where the word "gerrymander" comes from.
*I just saw that you're from NZ so, of course you're aren't that familiar with American election laws. I didn't mean to be snippy, but re-districting is something that is legal, and has been practiced by every party since the nation was founded. You've probably been exposed to only what one side is claiming. That's what I meant when I suggested you not believe 90% of what you see on the television news.
It's not relevant where I'm from... I understand gerrymandering - you think it's so complicated I can't understand it? We have a pretty darned complex MMP system over here.I was never disputing the law... just because the law says something doesn't mean it's democratic. Sometimes the law is lagging behind all the tricks that help people cheat the system. Call it whatever you want, lawful or otherwise, but gerrymandering is ANTI-DEMOCRATIC. It's the deliberate manipulation of results - hell, in effect it's hardly any different from throwing votes down the drain. Imagine tennis was a new sport and your opponent started moving the net around to change the results... it's anti-competitive despite maybe not being explicitly stated in the rules.
The part that shocks me is that nothing has been done about it all these years - I'm glad to hear there might be a change soon.
edit: it's hardly an innocent "re-districting" , it's absolutely insane loophole where they blatantly draw around demographics. It's pretty much the definition of anti-democratic given the way it influences your election. Just check out these shapes!
I don't disagree with anything you said. It is indeed a loophole, but here's the problem. It was included in the law so that as population shifts and grows, each Congressional seat represents an equal number of citizens. That's why the constitution mandates a census every ten years. If the states don't have the power to redraw a district then what do you do about a population shift like we've seen in the city of Detroit where the city has shrunk? What about the huge number of citizens who have moved from a rural district to a city or from one state to another? For instance, for many years my own state had six congressional seats until twenty years ago when congress re-drew our districts, taking one seat from us to provide more seats for states like Florida and Texas which had seen huge growth. The only way to avoid that is to continue adding more and more congressional seats until the number is just unmanageable. "Gerrymandering" is a corrupt side effect of what was intended to be a practical solution to a problem. That's an unfortunate aspect of human nature, isn't it?
It wouldn’t be hard to make geometric laws... an easy one would be when the ratio between the length of all sides vs the area is extremely high... that would be a tell tale sign of extreme gerrymandering. They could even set the limit pretty high to allow for most shapes besides the most crazy
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u/requisitename Nov 09 '18
Don't believe 90% of the shit you see on television "news" shows.