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How does gerrymandering impact elections research paper
How does gerrymandering impact elections research paper
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Gerrymandering is very essential in our society because it entitles equal representation of seats that represents each district. No state will have too many seats nor too little depending on the census, which is conducted every ten years. Gerrymandering is a method that filters too little representation or too much representation. This term brings a balance of representation to not just the districts, but to the House of Representatives. It is important that each states district has an equal representation because one state can dominant another when it comes to passing, voting, or creating new laws. Our society since the days of our founding fathers spoke about equal representation. However, from reading this issue our society is still struggling with the issue of equal representation.
Our founding father created a system of the checks and balance system where each branch has the same amount of power. Each branch has a specific task in which they are in charge of carrying out. In the issue of equal representation, it is the court's role to interpret the law of the land. However, regarding equal representation in
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states representatives, the courts have strayed away from their responsibility. The legislative branch is constantly getting away with having a misrepresentation of representative. Massachusetts is a very historical state that exists amongst the other 50 states making up the United States.Before the elections of 1812 ,the state of Massachusetts adopted a system in which redraws US representative districts, when Elbridge Gerry was governor. Ever since then the terminology of this redrawing of US representative seats was called gerrymandering. Two reporters linked this idea to the northern district looking like a salamander. Since then they merged gerry and mandering together, now our society knows this system as gerrymandering. The United States constitution has a segment discussing representatives seats needing to be apportioned based on the decennial census.
However, it does not speak about states needing to draw districts boundaries based on their representatives.Not only is it very controversial, state legislatures and politicians are taking advantage of the broken system. Based on what district an individual lives in sometimes their vote would not count or one county's vote counts more than another. This system of apportionment is a complicated system that your average American citizen doesn’t get nor understands. Throughout apportionment which turns into malapportionment on many occasions, there is an underlying or hidden reason as to why state legislatures use this approach. Whether it’s to keep their party in power or to not grant certain group's voting
rights. However, gerrymandering is a concept that’s used to solve the dilemmas and issues of representation in the House of Representatives.
The branches can approve or disapprove each other. In the constitution it says that depending on your population you can get so many representatives(Doc D).
For weeks convention delegates have been argued over representation in congress, Large States want it based on population. Small states want each states to have the same number of votes. representative s shall be apportioned according to population. The number of shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each state shall have at least one representatives. This piece of evidence relates to the argument because they said that big states has more power than small states that is why big states only need one representative.
Voters should care about redistricting because it cherry-picks voters, can be used to eliminate an incumbent, eliminate an opponent, skews state-wide representation, dilutes minority voting, and splits up communities. The lines are tailored to fit the representatives and not the voters. The negative effect of political redistricting is there is no compromise left when one party draws the lines so that they will win and the other will lose. Competition is critical when voters want or need something passed, but when one group has more control, then there is no need for compromise. It dilutes minority voting because the maps can be redrawn for a certain incumbent if the incumbent is losing that minority vote.
The United States of America is one of the most powerful nation-states in the world today. The framers of the American Constitution spent a great deal of time and effort into making sure this power wasn’t too centralized in one aspect of the government. They created three branches of government to help maintain a checks and balance system. In this paper I will discuss these three branches, the legislative, the executive, and the judicial, for both the state and federal level.
This case starts with the Civil Rights Act of 1965 which was the response to decades of voting discrimination, in specific, racial discrimination. However, in this Act, it required parts of the country to deliver tests as a perquisite to voting, this was known as Section 4 of the act. These locations had lower voter turnouts. Districts are prohibited from changing their election laws without gaining authorization in court, this is stated in Section 5 of the act.
Representation: the effort of elected officials to look out for the interests of those who elect them
...on of 2008, in Montana half of million people voted, on the other hand in Wyoming nearly two hundred thousand popular votes were recorded. Even though there was a difference of quarter million popular votes, same numbers of votes were provided. Thus, this system discriminates people who live in states with high turnout. Rather than having statewide electoral vote distribution, vote distribution in congressional district could be little more effective in way to represent people’s will.
Every ten years after a census, politicians redraw the district boundaries that determine the house and state legislature. The problem with this system is that the same politicians who redraw the district boundaries are the ones who are being elected by the
When gerrymandering occurs, a political party draws the boundaries of an electoral district in a way that helps their party win elections over the other parties. For example, if a Republican controls a state, and it appears like the party will lose a seat in the future, the Republicans will draw the district in a way to exclude as many Democratic voters as possible. Perhaps they will do this by removing a democratic stronghold from one district and adding it to another district that will either easily go Republican or will have a Democratic representative no matter what happens. Before 1964, the majority party could draw districts in any way they wanted to, and chaos ensued. Consequently, in 1964, the U.S Supreme Court legislated that the districts “had to contain equal population, and be as compact as possible” (“Gerrymandering”). Every ten years the U.S. issues a census to determine the population of each state. After this, each state receives their share of the 435 seats, and then the state gets to break the population into the corresponding number of districts. This whole process, known as reapportionment, takes weeks to determine, and in many cases, courts must determine the shape and area of each district. Even though the districts must contain equal population, gerry...
In a democratic government, functions of representation can sometimes become skewed or misunderstood. I will examine the different institutions of government including the legislature, the executive, the bureaucracy, and the courts pointing to their differences in trustee vs. delegate functions of representation.
In election times gerrymandering is a common occurrence. Gerrymandering is the process of giving one political party the advantage over another political party. Gerrymandering has two successful practices, which is packing a district and cracking a district. The process of packing a district is that where the lines of districts are expanded to pack the opposing party voters into fewer districts. The process of cracking a district is where district lines are broken up so the opposition party gains fewer district votes. Both of these are consider the most effective practices in the process of gerrymandering.
On January 22, 2018, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court stated that the gerrymandering system violates the Pennsylvania Constitution. A gerrymandering system is a tool that both political parties use to “rig the system”, right now the Republicans are using the gerrymandering system to get extra republicans into the political battle between the two majority parties. The gerrymandering system was the reason that Pennsylvania went Republican in the previous election, and the Democrats are putting their foot down because the majority vote in Pennsylvania is democratic. If the gerrymandering system is revoked then, the new plan that they have does not set awkward boundaries but rather boundaries based on population, which I agree with. As you can see
Judiciary as the Most Powerful Branch of Government In answering this question I will first paint a picture of the power that the court holds, and decide whether this is governmental power. Then I will outline the balances that the court must maintain in its decision making and therefore the checks on its actions as an institution that governs America. "Scarcely any political question arises that is not resolved sooner or later into a judicial question." (Alexis de Tocqueville Democracy in America) If we take Tocqueville on his word then the American Judiciary truly is in a powerful position.
Gerrymandering according to the text, (Barbour & Wright, 2015, p.195) is the process of drawing district lines to benefit one group or another. Just reading the meaning alone, you can see it not fair. By benefiting one group, you are leaving out or short changing other groups. According to the article (“Gerrymandering – Proving All Politics Is Local│Politics & Policy,” n.d.) gerrymandering works by shaping legislative districts in various ways. Officeholders are able to affect which voters they will be responsible to on election day. The opportunity for this arises out of the once-a-decade district re-apportionment required by a set of 1960s Supreme Court cases. As voters move into different congressional districts, the population in each of
The United States government braces its power among three powerful branches, legislative, executive and judicial. These branches interact with one another to establish authority that is strong, yet equal to have power over the country. Each branch pursues certain responsibilities and duties to operate in an efficient and effective manner in which society upholds. The executive, legislative and judicial branches all interact amid each other to validate accuracy of the nation’s most powerful law of the land, the Constitution. It is important to know how these branches interact with each other to learn how a bill becomes a law. Reflecting on how the three branches promote a balance of power that is constructive to include the agendas and electoral roles that also plays a vast part in the government’s operation.