The governor at the time, elbridge gerry, signed a map into law that included a district shaped like a salamander. With cracking, you dilute an areas voting power by slicing up its congressional representation. In redistricting, the notion of compactness is difficult to evaluate because the line drawer rarely begins with a perfectly compact shape to place districts in. House members plus two senatorsthere are 538 electors in. Psci 2 study guide by ats63 includes 61 questions covering vocabulary, terms and more. Redistricting is a legally required process that occurs every 10 years in which districts for the u. That is, many states and localities already have irregularly shaped borders and boundaries.
Urban residents in austin certainly share some common concerns in austin, but they are cracked between 5 different members of congress. Reapportionment and redistricting in the united states of. Some states have chosen to delegate this authority either entirely or partially, usually by allowing elected or appointed commissions to establish district boundaries. But others think this unwise and seek to lessen the current burden on the courts. Gerrymandering,packing, cracking, reapportionment, and redistricting. The go getter district history of redistricting redistricting is the process of drawing new electoral district boundaries in order to equalize the vote of district populations. Opinion the great gerrymander of 2012 the new york times. California took a radical step to fix gerrymandering. These district lines can strengthen or diminish you and your communities voice in washington, sacramento, or downtown. Question 46 2 pts an important function of the county sheriff, particularly in an urban county in texas, is to provide primary law enforcement services for all the citizens of the county both in rural and cities superceding city police departments in even large urban cities. Redistricting is the period redrawing of legislative district boundaries. The governor at the time, elbridge gerry, signed a map into law that included a district shaped like a. Packing is where district lines are drawn to include large swaths of the opposition party voters to essentially limit their influence in other districts.
The classic in mission two you experience the classic abuse of the redistricting system. Republicans now control the redrawing of about four times as many congressional districts as democrats do, and the u. A fair division solution to the problem of redistricting. This table is a copy of a table that appears as table 5 in redistricting law 2000, a publication of the national conference of state legislatures, denver, colorado, 1999. Redistricting is a complex process, so we simplify this process as much as possible by providing tools and visual cues to help a novice draw a legal redistricting plan. Dividing up an opposing parties voters into as many districts as possible, to dilute their vote. Redistricting and gerrymandering additional videos what is redistricting. One persons vote should be qual to another within the state. What are the 2 different types of gerrymandering answers. Popular equality, federal voting rights act, contiguity, geographic integrity incl. Software user guide we have written a user guide which describes all the software features and functions. There are two major strategies involved in gerrymandering. Glossary of redistricting terms v2 city of albuquerque.
Indeed, some states have enacted laws 5 plans with a total population deviation the sum of the largest. The process of gerrymandering is accomplished primarily through two methods. House of representatives, state legislatures, and many local offices are elected from districts. The redistricting game due october 18, 2012 watch my really short youtube playlist about the redistricting game. The computational complexity of automated redistricting 224 function. Will republicans use this advantage to expand their house majority to untold new heights.
Yershov abstract redistricting is the political practice of dividing states into electoral districts of equal population in response to decennial census results to ensure equal representation in the. The great gerrymander of 2012 came 200 years after the first use of this curious word, which comes from the salamandershaped districts signed into law by governor elbridge gerry of massachusetts. The manipulations employed standard gerrymandering techniques, known as packing and cracking. While you are at the game site, make sure you read the sections learn more and quotes. And incumbents are disinclined to change the districts from which they were elected. If you live in the united states, you live in a district. Quizlet flashcards, activities and games help you improve your grades.
The practice of packing likeminded constituents into one district or cracking the population into an ineffectual minority over many has existed since at least 1812, when the. Whether employed by back room dealers or conceived of as an algorithmic panacea. House seats are allocated among the states based on censu. Redistricting is the process of drawing electoral district boundaries in the united states.
The fix why the gops redistricting advantage is overstated. A fair division solution to the problem of redistricting z. Divide the class into three groups to jigsaw the explainer on the lowdown post and the information in the above the noise episode. They include requiring that districts be composed of contiguous territory, making districts geographically compact, respecting the boundaries of political subdivisions. Redistricting to get better fairer districts is less drastic than a giving up having individual congressional districts, and b voting for parties instead of individual representatives. Factors traditionally used by a state or local jurisdiction to perform redistricting. Statebystate redistricting laws from the brennan center for justice. Population and race data from the 2016 american community survey. Study 47 terms political science flashcards quizlet. Packing redistricting in which partisan voters are concentrated in a single district to minimize the number of elections they can influence in other districts wesberry v. Dispersing voters of one party into two or more districts dilutes that partys power. Constitution requires each representative in congress represent an equal number of citizens and mandates a census to determine the number of citizens and apportion seats to each state.
Census on tuesday moved six districts from blue states to red states. In this strategy, congressional districts are drawn in order to put as. Check below for a more indepth discussion of legislative and citizen redistricting commissions. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools.
Every 10 years, california redraws the lines of our political landscape. Packing opposing parties voters into one district, so opposing will win, but other districts will be safe. At its heart, automated redistricting is an attempt to push all decision making to the beginning of the redistricting process. By packing pockets of republican voters as thoroughly as possible into just a few districts, democrats could give themselves a better chance in the districts next door. Redistricting is the process of drawing boundaries for electoral and political districts in the u. A congressional act passed in 1967 requires that representatives be elected from singlemember districts, except when a state has a single representative, in which case one statewide atlarge election be held. In 1992, republicans and democrats each won about 49% of texas statewide vote. Here are the colorful, and telling, terms used by insiders.
The purpose of legislative redistricting is to ensure that each person is equally represented in our democracy by the creation of districts that are as equal in population as practicable, consistent with other state constitutional parameters, so as. Citizen advocacy center congressional redistricting. Examples of traditional redistricting principles include. John engler former gov, rmi you cant take politics out of politics, and there is nothing more political than redistricting. When partisanship is obvious in the redistricting process, a manipulative process known as gerrymandering often comes into play. Redistricting is the process of redrawing legislative districts. Redistricting is a hardknuckled game, in which voters often lose.
There are two main strategies behind gerrymandering, packing and cracking. Rankordered criteria of the ca citizens redistricting commission for creating districts. The redistricting team created those districts, plaintiffs allege, by pulling black voters out of their prior districts and concentrating them in new ones, a redistricting concept known as packingor bleaching when groups are moved based on racemaking the outside districts in this case majority white and arguably more. Redistricting generally happens after the decennial census. Vickrey 1961 asserted that automated redistricting provides a simple and straightforward way to eliminate gerrymandering. There are generally no more accurate data available than the preexisting federal census. What is the timeline for the redistricting process as of today. Gerrymandering is a topic you will need to know in order to.
Gerrymandering is a practice that stemmed from redistricting and attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating district boundaries to create partisan advantaged districts. The word gerrymander comes from a famous case of redistricting in massachusetts in 1812. Redistricting is one of the purest actions a legislative body can take. Redrawing the map on redistricting 2010 a national study.
Techniques used to redraw electoral boundaries to favor one political party over another. In particular, a new generation of legal scholars is more skeptical of the. Legal and constitutional issues congressional research service 3 v. Moreover, the principle of compactness must compete with other important principles which are. By definition, gerrymandering is the division of an area into political units so as to give special advantages to one group over others.