Gerrymandering

[JimFoxvog]

I thought this comic was a good explanation of gerrymandering.

https://www.gocomics.com/aj-and-magnus/2023/09/11

(If someone can figure out how to put the image here, I'd appreciate it.)[/

[Josh]

I thought this comic was a good explanation of gerrymandering.

https://www.gocomics.com/aj-and-magnus/2023/09/11

(If someone can figure out how to put the image here, I'd appreciate it.)[/

A rather poor explanation.

Most gerrymandering is due to trying to create majority-black districts. That means rather bizarre maps have to be drawn to find a way to make 13% of the population magically become 51%.

Then - surprise surprise - the rest of the districts contain the other 87% of the population.

[temporal1]

[Praxis+Theodicy]

Really short and sweet explanation!

I like CGP Grey's explanation video. Not as humorous as this comic, but the silly "animal kingdom" theme is fun enough.

https://youtu.be/Mky11UJb9AY?feature=shared

[JimFoxvog]

A rather poor explanation.

Most gerrymandering is due to trying to create majority-black districts. That means rather bizarre maps have to be drawn to find a way to make 13% of the population magically become 51%.

Then - surprise surprise - the rest of the districts contain the other 87% of the population.

Why is it poor explanation? It shows the map being crated to make minorities into the majority in more districts.

Interesting thought that it is primarily due to trying to make majority-black districts. Usually the opposite. In many states, the percentage of the Representatives by party is quite different than the percentage of the vote. Here in Illinois, the Democrats are overrepresented as they control the statehouse. More states have the Republicans overrepresented. I remember, when my brother was living in Austin, Texas, which is a liberal enclave. The Republican legislature redistricted, splitting Austin into about 5 congressional districts, each containing mostly rural areas snaking off in every direction. This ended up ending the liberal representation of Austin in Congress.

[Josh]

Jim,

Gerrymandering is required by the Voting Rights Act. A “safe” district is supposed to be created for people by race (specifically the black race; so far this hasn’t applied to any other race, so despite there being about the same number of Hispanics as black people, they don’t carve out districts for them on purpose.)

Placing all black people in one district means the rest of the districts are overwhelmingly not black, instead of being integrated. So my district for example is overwhelmingly a white district even though plenty of black people live within a 30 minute drive.

The comic failed to mention this at all, and acted like gerrymandering is some Republican conspiracy.

[ohio jones]

The comic failed to mention this at all, and acted like gerrymandering is some Republican conspiracy.

The comic shows blue winning. Looks to me like a conspiracy in favor of the Democrats, if one is compelled to read partisanship into it at all.

[Praxis+Theodicy]

Jim,

Gerrymandering is required by the Voting Rights Act. A “safe” district is supposed to be created for people by race (specifically the black race; so far this hasn’t applied to any other race, so despite there being about the same number of Hispanics as black people, they don’t carve out districts for them on purpose.)

Placing all black people in one district means the rest of the districts are overwhelmingly not black, instead of being integrated. So my district for example is overwhelmingly a white district even though plenty of black people live within a 30 minute drive.

The comic failed to mention this at all, and acted like gerrymandering is some Republican conspiracy.

This is wildly inaccurate. The Voting Roghts Act provided measures to fight corrupt polling practices, and it contains measures to enact oversight in districts where this was likely to be a problem, like majority-black districts (where the whites in power were implementing extea-legal measures to gatekeepy voters, like literacy tests). It does NOT require the "creation" of majority-black districts at all.

The creation of majority-black districts is done because it advantages conservatives, who know that the black population tends to vote more progressive. When liberals are in charge of redistricting, they gerrymander in the opposite direction: district a lot of known-conservative population into one district and spread out the liberals in all the other districts to win that majority.

The comic does a pretty good job of showing that gerrymandering is just a tool that advantages the side already in power (and thus in charge or redistricting) to maintain their power, even when the democratic process is actually set to transfer that power to their opponent.

[Ken]

Jim,

Gerrymandering is required by the Voting Rights Act. A “safe” district is supposed to be created for people by race (specifically the black race; so far this hasn’t applied to any other race, so despite there being about the same number of Hispanics as black people, they don’t carve out districts for them on purpose.)

Placing all black people in one district means the rest of the districts are overwhelmingly not black, instead of being integrated. So my district for example is overwhelmingly a white district even though plenty of black people live within a 30 minute drive.

The comic failed to mention this at all, and acted like gerrymandering is some Republican conspiracy.

This is wildly inaccurate. The Voting Roghts Act provided measures to fight corrupt polling practices, and it contains measures to enact oversight in districts where this was likely to be a problem, like majority-black districts (where the whites in power were implementing extea-legal measures to gatekeepy voters, like literacy tests). It does NOT require the "creation" of majority-black districts at all.

The creation of majority-black districts is done because it advantages conservatives, who know that the black population tends to vote more progressive. When liberals are in charge of redistricting, they gerrymander in the opposite direction: district a lot of known-conservative population into one district and spread out the liberals in all the other districts to win that majority.

The comic does a pretty good job of showing that gerrymandering is just a tool that advantages the side already in power (and thus in charge or redistricting) to maintain their power, even when the democratic process is actually set to transfer that power to their opponent.

Black populations tend to be more concentrated so in most states, forming compact logical non-gerrymandered districts will increase Black representation.

We wind up with wildly and bizarrely shaped districts when legislators try to chop up Black population centers and parse them out into multiple suburban districts where they can be diluted. Texas is a perfect example of this phenomenon. One only has to explore the districts around Houston and Dallas to see it.

[Josh]

The consent decrees southern states agreed to (as part of the federal government suing them under the VRA) required creating and maintaining majority black districts, often at a microcosm level - so for example a small city might have to create multiple wards and have majority black wards, instead of councilmen chosen via at large voting.