Gerrymandering is the process of drawing boundaries for legislative districts so as to maximize the number of safe seats for a particular (or, in some cases, both parties), while minimizing the number of seats which may be subject to a competitive race. By eliminating competition, the world is made safe for incumbents. Further, it tends to reduce the number of moderates in the legislature, since there is no need to attempt to attract crossover voters from the other party in the general election.
The word derives from a long-ago Thomas Nast editorial cartoon where a particular district resembled a salamander and was blamed on then-Governor Gerry -- hence, a "Gerrymander".
Here's a site that appears to be Republican-slanted, but which also appears to cover the subject pretty well, based on a brief skim of the contents.
I'd say "you've got to be kidding" but I know you aren't. I'm not sure but as far as I know this doesn't happen here. We just (before last Federal election) redrew all the electoral districts. This get done every so often, but it's based on poulation not who voted for what. (at least as far as I know, hold on a momwent while I check something) I just checked with Wayne, he'd not heard of the term, but he says don't bet on it not happening. I tend to agree, it's not something I've heard of up here, but if it did exsist it would be bad. I hope that the governer can do something about it.
A prime example of gerrymandering is FL Congressional district 8. At it's widest it's 20 miles wide, but on average more like 5-7 miles wide, but it stretches on for 120 miles, through 4 different counties, and completely avoids the one "major" city in the area, Orlando.
Texas just did a redistricting which apparently is a horrendous example of gerrymandering. Districts can be seen to exactly follow lines between wealthy and poor neighborhoods, blue collar and white collar, etc.
I sometimes wonder if it's possible to make hard and fast rules to prevent this; something like "districts must be polygons with a maximum of 8 angles, except where they follow physical boundaries such as rivers, or political boundaries such as township borders."
There are things that can be done, but as Bruce observes, getting them past the parties (literally) involved is the problem.
(Just for the record, Texas was gerrymandered by the Democrats before the redistricting and gerrymandered by the Republicans after the redistricting. Neither is particularly desirable...)
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gerrymandering
Re: gerrymandering
The word derives from a long-ago Thomas Nast editorial cartoon where a particular district resembled a salamander and was blamed on then-Governor Gerry -- hence, a "Gerrymander".
Here's a site that appears to be Republican-slanted, but which also appears to cover the subject pretty well, based on a brief skim of the contents.
Re: gerrymandering
Re: gerrymandering
Re: gerrymandering
I sometimes wonder if it's possible to make hard and fast rules to prevent this; something like "districts must be polygons with a maximum of 8 angles, except where they follow physical boundaries such as rivers, or political boundaries such as township borders."
Re: gerrymandering
(Just for the record, Texas was gerrymandered by the Democrats before the redistricting and gerrymandered by the Republicans after the redistricting. Neither is particularly desirable...)