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OfflineRedstorm
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Gerrymandering
    #9088070 - 10/16/08 06:51 PM (15 years, 4 months ago)

Gerrymandering: to gerrymander

To divide (a geographic area) into voting districts so as to give unfair advantage to one party in elections.

n. 

  1. The act, process, or an instance of gerrymandering.
  2. A district or configuration of districts differing widely in size or population because of gerrymandering.


Quote:

Word History: "An official statement of the returns of voters for senators give[s] twenty nine friends of peace, and eleven gerrymanders." So reported the May 12, 1813, edition of the Massachusetts Spy. A gerrymander sounds like a strange political beast, which it is, considered from a historical perspective. This beast was named by combining the word salamander, "a small lizardlike amphibian," with the last name of Elbridge Gerry, a former governor of Massachusetts—a state noted for its varied, often colorful political fauna. Gerry (whose name, incidentally, was pronounced with a hard g, though gerrymander is now commonly pronounced with a soft g) was immortalized in this word because an election district created by members of his party in 1812 looked like a salamander. According to one version of gerrymander's coining, the shape of the district attracted the eye of the painter Gilbert Stuart, who noticed it on a map in a newspaper editor's office. Stuart decorated the outline of the district with a head, wings, and claws and then said to the editor, "That will do for a salamander!" "Gerrymander!" came the reply. The word is first recorded in April 1812 in reference to the creature or its caricature, but it soon came to mean not only "the action of shaping a district to gain political advantage" but also "any representative elected from such a district by that method." Within the same year gerrymander was also recorded as a verb.




An example:



Quote:

U.S. congressional districts covering Travis County, Texas (outlined in red) in 2002, left, and 2004, right. In 2003, the majority of Republicans in the Texas legislature redistricted the state, diluting the voting power of the heavily Democratic county by parceling its residents out to more Republican districts.




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering

Disclaimer: The above is not merely a condemnation of Republicans. Both parties are equally dirty when it comes to gerrymandering.

I figured this was a particularly relevant topic with elections right around the corner.

I believe this is one of the most important issues in present electoral politics that is widely ignored. It is one of the few nonpartisan issues, as both parties are disgustingly guilty of it.

Do you guys support the practice of sectoring voting districts based on anything other than geographic location? If so, please explain yourself because I can find no legitimate reason as to why this practice exists.

I'll add my thoughts in more detail later, but I would like to hear what you all think.


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InvisibleFerris
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Re: Gerrymandering [Re: Redstorm]
    #9088155 - 10/16/08 07:09 PM (15 years, 4 months ago)

There are some pretty funny one's in CA, but I've never seen one quite that long.

Gerrymandering could have the benefit of giving the congressman a clear mandate from his district, if it's gerrymandered to be 90% of one party.

The math involved of course is that it's preferable to win as many elections as possible by about 55% and have your opposing party have a few 90% districts.  That way, even if you're behind in the popular vote, you could win the majority of seats.

Questions, class?
Post some good pics from your state.


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