Tag: Gerrymandering

Mississippi–The Old Switch-A-Roo

WE all know the game the GOP is playing with gerrymandering….they are making it so that any minority vote is diluted given them a win.  My state did so recently in the Northwestern part of the state to try and nullify the minority vote because it is a bastion of liberal voters.

There attempt went to Federal Court and it did not turn out well for them…

A federal court has ordered Mississippi to redraw its 2022 state legislative maps in several areas after concluding those maps unlawfully dilute the voting strength of Black Mississippians.

Civil rights advocates challenged the maps and showed at trial that the maps violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Plaintiffs presented extensive expert testimony and testimony from Black Mississippians from across the state to show that the political process in the challenged legislative districts was not equally open to Black voters.

The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Mississippi, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, Mississippi Center for Justice, and civil rights attorney Carroll Rhodes filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP and voters from across the state.

The court ruled that multiple new Black-majority districts should have been created — at least two in the state Senate and one in the state House. In the absence of Black-majority districts, stark racial polarization, combined with the history of racial discrimination in the state and other factors, deprives Black voters in the state of the right to participate equally in the political process, in violation of Section 2.

The ruling, issued last night, requires the creation of new Black-majority Senate districts in the areas around DeSoto County in Northern Mississippi and in and around the city of Hattiesburg, and a new Black-majority House district in Chickasaw and Monroe counties.

Federal Court Orders Mississippi’s State Legislative Maps to Be Redrawn

Now the state GOP is asking what to do, what to do?

One state senator thinks he has a ‘good old boys’ alternate plan….

State Senator Michael McLendon has introduced new legislation that would offer state grants to encourage state and local law enforcement agencies to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Senate Bill 2329, known as the Mississippi Glacier (ICE) Act, creates a first-of-its-kind state grant program to support Mississippi law enforcement agencies that partner with ICE through the federal 287(g) program. The bill establishes a dedicated fund to reimburse local agencies for costs tied directly to enforcing federal immigration law, including detention bed space, equipment, training, travel, and lodging.
“Mississippi is not going to pretend illegal immigration is someone else’s problem,” said Senator McLendon. “If you are here illegally, we are going to work with ICE to detain you and send you back to the country you came from, which more often than not is a far greater punishment than jail.”
Under the legislation, only agencies that formally partner with ICE through a signed 287(g) agreement are eligible for funding. Grants will be awarded by the Mississippi Department of Public Safety on a first-come, first-served basis, ensuring fast and efficient support for agencies that are willing to help enforce federal immigration law.
The Mississippi Glacier (ICE) Act creates a special fund within the State Treasury to ensure long-term, stable support for participating agencies.
McLendon said SB 2329 is also a direct response and solution to the burdens illegal immigration places on taxpayers and already crowded local jails throughout Mississippi.
“Housing illegal immigrants is costly,” said McLendon. “This bill will help alleviate that burden on sheriffs and county governments so that money can be used to hire more deputies, buy more equipment or improve infrastructure.”
Currently, the federal 287(g) program allows state and local agencies to assist ICE through task force, jail, and warrant service models. SB 2329 is designed to dramatically expand Mississippi’s participation in all three, effectively creating a statewide force multiplier for ICE.
The Mississippi Glacier (ICE) Act would take effect July 1, 2026, if passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor.
(desototimes.com)
Now I look for the lies to start to make it out like that area of the state is a haven for ‘illegals’ and crime riddled….that will be the excuse to bring in ICE to intimidate the citizens of these liberal bastions within a deep red state.
If this is successful look for other red states to implement some form of this tactical lie….
Crafty old farts, huh?
I Read, I Write, You Know
“Lego ergo scribo”

Put An End To Gerrymandering

The hot topic for about a month now has been the off-season gerrymandering by Texas and others are planning this technique to guarantee wins at the ballot box.

The state of Louisiana and their plan is before the Supreme Court as I type….so gerrymandering is back on the news table (for now)….

Can this silliness be stopped?

That is a question that was asked of some leading politicos  (please read the whole article and let us know your thoughts)….

Across the democracy reform movement, a growing debate has emerged over how, if at all, reformers should respond to the escalating gerrymandering battles unfolding in states like Texas, California, and beyond.

Last week, Fix.us convened a provocative discussion thread featuring academics and practitioners, surfacing a wide spectrum of views on this contentious issue.

Given the profound implications for democratic integrity in the United States, The Fulcrum is hosting a curated roundtable to explore the strategic, moral, and civic dimensions of partisan redistricting. We invited leading voices in the reform space to share brief reflections (250 words or fewer) in response to one or more of the following questions:

  • What principles should guide reformers when one party engages in aggressive gerrymandering?
  • Is retaliatory redistricting ever justified in defense of democratic norms?
  • What national reforms could meaningfully end the gerrymandering arms race?
  • And finally, what concluding insight might help illuminate the tensions and possibilities of this moment?

Below are the initial responses we received. Some in direct answer format, others as narrative reflections.

Response from: Joe Leadem, founder of www.thesaveamericaproject.org

Question: What national reforms would meaningfully end the gerrymandering arms race?

Answer: In this country, we are told that we are a “representative” democracy. We are not.

Our elected officials do not really represent voters: they represent themselves, their big funders, and their political parties. This is at the heart of all our problems, including gerrymandering, which has become a go-to strategy for keeping power.

If you agree with this line of thinking, then the solution is to elect real representatives who will do their best to represent citizens. Is that even possible? How might we do it?

(please read on there some interesting thoughts)

https://thefulcrum.us/democracy/gerrymandering-in-the-us-2673957832

My thoughts are more radical and I will present them soon here on IST.

Please if you read the article/interview let us have your thoughts on the political game…..a game that does more damage than it corrects.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo

The Gerrymandering Saga

The battle for redistricting has arisen yet again many years before it should Texas and now California are playing the game using gerrymandering as the weapon in a the ideological battle.

This whole system is so screwed up….it allows a party to pick its voters not the voters to pick the party….time to flush this crap down the toilet where it belongs.

But how do we fix this cancerous practice?

Partisan gerrymandering makes it harder for voters to hold their representatives accountable. Congressional district elections become uncompetitive. With reelection in the general assured, candidates are focused on catering to their own party base, which tends to be a more extreme subset of their constituents. Through this process, partisan gerrymandering often reduces effective representation in Congress and can play a role in crowding out moderate and independent voters.

But here’s a twist: President Trump’s new wave of extreme gerrymandering may actually backfire, paving the way for electoral reform. Partisan gerrymandering is unpopular with voters, as we’ve seen repeatedly in recent years. Voters in states such as Michigan, Arizona, Colorado, and New Jersey, have supported nonpartisan redistricting commissions.

In 2021, Democrats tried and failed to pass the For the People Act, a bill that would have limited partisan gerrymandering nationwide and implemented non-partisan redistricting commissions in every state. But Republican senators blocked the bill.

…

One proposed solution is bipartisan redistricting commissions. These can fail when the parties cannot agree on a map. For instance, the Virginia commission deadlocked in 2022, leaving the courts to draw the maps. Then there are more radical solutions that effectively blow up the current electoral system as we know it, such as multi-member districts or aproportional representation. But we think it is unrealistic to get rid of a system that has been in place for two hundred and fifty years.

…

Our approach, which we call the “Define-Combine Procedure,” splits the map drawing process into two simple stages. First, one party divides the state into twice the number of needed districts—for example, 20 sub-districts for a state that needs 10 congressional seats. Then, the second party pairs those sub-districts into the final 10 districts. The result is a fairer map than either party would have drawn on its own. Instead of mutually assured gerrymandering, this approach leads to mutually assured representation.

https://time.com/7309565/americas-gerrymandering-problem-fix/

I disagree.

The only way to fix this problem is to get rid of it altogether…..and one way would be to do away with political parties (will cover this at a later post) then there is no need to go in search of party loyalists.

I think their solution will just morph into more problems if enacted.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

More SCOTUS Thoughts

Our political hacks that we call SCOTUS are rolling our country down the road to ruin because of a political agenda not what is right.

A few thoughts for you to consider.

We now know what the courts think about the right to choice…..but there is more than just abortions that could be the problem…..

More than 73,000 babies were born in the U.S. by means of in vitro fertilization (IVF) techniques in 2020, slightly more than 2 percent of all births that year. About 85 percent of children born as a result of IVF procedures in this country are born from thawed embryos. Since 1987, more than 1 million Americans started their lives as embryos created outside of their mother’s bodies. By one estimate, as many as 1.4 million embryos remain frozen at U.S. fertility clinics.

It is not clear what effect the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization will have on would-be parents seeking to use IVF as a way to have children. The majority opinion states that abortion destroys “potential life” and what the Mississippi statute at issue in the case calls an “unborn human being.” It does not, however, mention IVF or other assisted reproduction techniques.

Infertility advocates and practitioners of fertility medicine are, nevertheless, concerned about the long-term implications of the Dobbs decision. In an article in Contemporary OB/GYN, Jared Robins and Sean Tipton, respectively the executive director and the chief policy and advocacy officer of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, argue that the Dobbs decision puts fertility care at “significant risk.” Under current practice, patients of IVF clinics generally choose to create numerous embryos for possible implantation. As fertility treatments proceed, embryos are often discarded when pre-implantation genetic diagnosis indicates significant inheritable maladies or after patients have completed their families.

The Supreme Court’s Dobbs Decision Threatens Assisted Reproduction

Another ruling that could change everything and for a long time…..gerrymandering.

The Supreme Court handed down a brief order Tuesday evening that effectively reinstates racially gerrymandered congressional maps in the state of Louisiana, at least for the 2022 election.

Under these maps, Black voters will control just one of Louisiana’s six congressional seats, despite the fact that African Americans make up nearly a third of the state’s population. Thus, the Court’s decision in Ardoin v. Robinson means that Black people will have half as much congressional representation as they would enjoy under maps where Black voters have as much opportunity to elect their own preferred candidate as white people in Louisiana.

A federal trial court, applying longstanding Supreme Court precedents holding that the Voting Rights Act does not permit such racial gerrymanders, issued a preliminary injunction temporarily striking down the Louisiana maps and ordering the state legislature to draw new ones that include two Black-majority districts. Notably, a very conservative panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit denied the state’s request to stay the trial court’s decision — a sign that Louisiana’s maps were such a clear violation of the Voting Rights Act that even one of the most conservative appeals courts in the country could not find a good reason to disturb the trial court’s decision.

https://www.vox.com/23187117/supreme-court-louisiana-racial-gerrymander-ardoin-robinson-congressional-maps

Gerrymandering is not good for the country….at least with competitive districts makes our nation stronger….we are losing that capability…..

Competitive congressional districts have been steadily disappearing for decades. In the current redistricting cycle, six highly competitive districts in the House of Representatives were drawn out of existence. The Cook Political Report estimates that less than 8 percent of congressional districts will be competitive come November.

This is a problem. It’s not because competitive districts are a powerfully moderating force on our democracy — instead, the decline of competitive districts is a problem that reflects deeper causes of partisan polarization and leaves the overwhelming majority of Americans in places where their votes don’t matter, and where parties and candidates don’t need to work for anybody’s votes.

Governing in America requires compromise. But when over 90 percent of congressional districts lean toward one of the two major parties, that means most representatives have little incentive to compromise. In fact, representatives increasingly face strong pressures to be very partisan, which has made governing very difficult.

But perhaps more importantly, when there isn’t competition, citizens and parties have little reason to show up and vote. Instead it becomes the highly organized donors and activists who are engaged, while the rest of the district is ignored. It’s true that competitive districts might not produce especially moderate candidates, but they are important when it comes to engaging and informing citizens. And this participation has valuable spillover effects for communities, well beyond our elections. 

What We Lose When We Lose Competitive Congressional Districts

Gerrymandering is just politicians choosing their voters not the other way around.

Any opinions?

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Gerrymandering–The Big Bug-A-Boo

The new data from the census is out and the rush by the GOP to redraw voting districts has begun…it is called gerrymandering.

For those that do not understand the term……

Gerrymandering is the act of politicians manipulating the redrawing of legislative district lines in order to help their friends and hurt their enemies. They may seek to help one party win extra seats (a partisan gerrymander), make incumbents of both parties safer (an incumbent-protection gerrymander) or target particular incumbents who have fallen out of favor.

Those engaged in gerrymandering rely heavily on winner-take-all voting rules. That is, when 51% of voters earn 100% of representation, those drawing districts can pack, stack and crack the population in order to make some votes count to their full potential and waste other votes. Gerrymandering has become easier today due to a combination of new technology to precisely draw districts and greater voter partisan rigidity that makes it easier to project the outcome of new districts.

Basically and simply….it is how politicians pick their votes instead of the voter picking their candidates….

The 2020 census has set up a political battle….

… the stage is set for rampant partisan gerrymandering to skew many of those maps in favor of politicians’ preferences over the public’s. 

This undemocratic process has a real impact on the balance of power in Congress and many state legislatures. We saw it at the federal level in the 2010s, when extreme partisan bias in congressional maps gave Republicans a net advantage of some 16 seats in the House. The same has happened on the state level. For example, in 2018 Wisconsin Democrats won the majority of the statewide vote but only 36 of 99 state assembly seats.

Although partisan gerrymandering hurts everyone, often communities of color bear the brunt. Racially polarized voting patterns and residential segregation mean that targeting communities of color can be an effective tool for creating advantages for the party that controls redistricting— whether that party is the Democrats or Republicans.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/08/11/gerrymandering-upcoming-redistricting-battle

Texas (go figure) was the first to slither its policies into law……

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, while much of the country slept, the Republican-dominated Texas House approved a heavily gerrymandered district map that critics have denounced as part of an anti-democratic and racist GOP power grab—one that right-wing lawmakers could try to replicate across the United States.

At around 3:30 am local time, Texas lawmakers passed the GOP’s state House redistricting proposal in a largely party-line vote after roughly 14 hours of debate. The bill, authored by state Rep. Todd Hunter (R-32) and designed to set boundaries for the 150 Texas House districts, now heads to state’s Republican-controlled Senate.

On top of a slew of other right-wing priorities, the Texas legislature is racing to approve state House, state Senate, and congressional district maps before its third special session of the year expires on October 19.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/10/13/dead-night-texas-house-approves-gops-gerrymandered-map

Gerrymandering hurts ALL voters….

  • Fewer competitive U.S. House districts and safe incumbents after redistricting: In 2010, 70 of 435 U.S. House districts had a competitive partisan balance of 47% to 53%. That was small, but after redistricting in 2011, the number of competitive districts declined to only 53. That number dropped again to 47 seats (only 11% of all seats) after the 2012 election due to shifts in voting behavior. Of 31 vulnerable incumbents (those who won by less than 10% in 2010) affected by redistricting (with a new district drawn with partisanship changing by more than 3%), 26 had their district made safer and only five less safe.
  • Partisan distortions in politically drawn plans: In 2011, Republican lawmakers drew new district lines in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. In 2012, Democratic U.S. House candidates won more than Republican candidates in both states, but won only 9 of 31 seats.
  • Partisan distortions in commission drawn plans: In 2011, an independent redistricting commission drew lines in California and a bipartisan commission with a public interest “swing vote” drew lines in New Jersey. In 2013, Republican candidates for the New Jersey assembly won 51% of the vote, but only 32 (40%) of 80 seats. In 2014, Democratic U.S. House candidates won 57% of votes in California’s 53 U.S. House races, but 74% of seats.

Changing this election fixing has only one sure solution….

The only sure way to eliminate gerrymandering – both intentional and unintentional – from American elections is to abandon single-member plurality arrangements and adopt proportional representation. Indeed, the whole purpose of PR is to minimize wasted votes and ensure that the parties are represented in proportion to the votes they receive. This eliminates the possibilities of unfair representation produced by gerrymandering. The key to eliminating partisan gerrymandering is the large multimember districts used in PR systems. As numerous studies have shown, as long as a PR system has at least five seats in every district, it is effectively immune from gerrymandering. These districts largely eliminate the wasted votes that make gerrymandering possible. In such districts, even small political minorities do not waste their votes and are able to elect their fair share of representatives. Thus, under PR arrangements, where voters live or how district lines are drawn makes no difference – fair representation will result.

This political tool will be with us for a very long time for one party has learned just how valuable it is…..

For further info read this…..https://www.fairvote.org/how_proportional_representation_would_finally

More to explain this situation…..https://www.vox.com/22632427/redistricting-gerrymandering-house-republicans

Any ideas how to solve this problem to our elections?

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Closing Thought–30Jan17

The Electoral College

I wrote a whole series about the college after the last election….most in opposition of keeping it….I believe that the country would be better off without it.

I read recently where our new lord and master thought about getting rid of the EC also……

President Trump told congressional leaders he was considering getting rid of the Electoral College, only to be talked out of it by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

During a meeting with congressional leadership this week, Trump said he was interested in using a national popular vote to determine the presidency, sources who attended the meting told the Journal.

McConnell urged Trump not to do so, pointing out the lengthy recount in Florida in the 2000 presidential election and noting that a national recount would take even longer.

Source: Trump brought up ending Electoral College, but McConnell talked him down: report | TheHill

McConnell’s argument was Bullshit…..he is worried about gerrymandering that is how Trump got elected and in 2020 the GOP can do even more harm to the electoral system…..that is the real reason he talked Trump out of the move…..any other excuse is just plain disingenuous…..

This is it for me today…..today’s one dimensional news is tiring…..I shall be off like a dirty shirt….back in the ‘morrow for more stuff.  TTFN

There’s a simple way to end gerrymandering. Too bad Congress made it illegal. – Vox

I have been saying for a long time that the American voter use to pick its politicians but thanx to gerymandering it is that politicians get to pick their voters……

This one situation is killing the American democratic experiment that we have fought for for over 200 years…..and it is getting worse and more out of hand…..

 

There’s a simple way to end gerrymandering. Too bad Congress made it illegal. – Vox.

Florida Replaces Gerrymandered Congressional Maps With Nearly Identical Gerrymandered Maps | ThinkProgress

Ever have one of those days where the chaos around you keeps you from focusing?  That is my day!

Today I am pressing articles that I have found and well I am too lazy to turn them into a post (honesty)…..there has been a wealth of accusations of the different GOP organizations that are trying to pick their voters and gerrymandering has been one of the tools used to gain unfair advantage at the polls……

Florida was recently told to redraw their maps….and this is what they came up with in their attempt….

 

Florida Replaces Gerrymandered Congressional Maps With Nearly Identical Gerrymandered Maps | ThinkProgress.

 

And the courts in Florida accepted the re-draw…….go figure.

It’s Voter Fraud! Or Is it?

How long have we heard the GOP talking point about voter fraud?  And where they are in charge they have done deals to curb the non-existent fraud…….but about the only fraud I know of is the fraud committed by GOP operatives….like the guy that registered people and threw away the ones that registered as Dems…..or the massive amount of gerrymandering where the candidates get to pick their voters not voice versa……speaking of gerrymandering……..

Republicans “made a mockery” of recent Florida constitutional amendments requiring lawmakers to draw fair political districts, a state judge ruled yesterday, ordering that two particularly egregious districts be redrawn—and with them, probably all districts that touch them. “Republican political consultants or operatives did, in fact, conspire to manipulate and influence the redistricting process,” Judge Terry P. Lewis wrote in a scathing 41-page ruling. He noted that lawmakers had destroyed a suspicious number of documents related to the redistricting process, and even quoted George Washington’s admonition to beware “cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men,” the New York Times reports.

Florida voted in 2010 in favor of two amendments requiring districts to be drawn in an impartial, non-partisan fashion. The judge ruled that the GOP-controlled legislature failed to do that. Republicans currently hold 17 of Florida’s House seats to the Democrats’ 10, even though Democrats have an edge in overall voter registration. The judge didn’t specify if the districts have to be redrawn by this year’s midterms, Politico points out, and the state is likely to appeal. “Everyone in Florida is holding their breath,” one redistricting consultant said, predicting that the changes would ultimately wait until 2016.

What are the chances that the GOP will not mention this form of voter fraud?

Gerrymandering

College of Political Knowledge

Subject:  Voting

Today’s focus is on politics in general in the US.  One of our fundamental rights is the right to vote and it appears to be under attack.  These days there is a lot of debate about voting and voting rights.  Even if you deny the attack on voter rights you have to be aware of the game played to insure a certain outcome to an election…..that game/tactic is the one we call gerrymandering.

For those not sure what the term actually means…….

…….a practice that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating district boundaries to create partisan advantaged districts. The resulting district is known as a gerrymander.

In addition to its use achieving desired electoral results for a particular party, gerrymandering may be used to help or hinder a particular demographic, such as a political, ethnic, racial, linguistic, religious, or class group, such as in U.S. federal voting district boundaries that produce a majority of constituents representative of African-American or other racial minorities, known as “majority-minority districts”.

There are two techniques for the act of gerrymandering……these are packing….this is when a minority is in a few districts so that they can elect only a small number of representatives…..and then there is stacking…..minorities are spread thin across many districts so that they can elect NO one……

If you understand the definition then you can understand what is being done…..it is an attempt to create a foolproof win for a particular party.  Do not get me wrong…..I am not blaming one party over another…..this is a process that is done after each census…..about every ten years or so.  And both parties are guilty.

But when did this process begin……was it an original part of the government from the beginning?

To answer the question simply……

The word gerrymander (originally written Gerry-mander) was used for the first time in the Boston Gazette on 26 March 1812. The word was created in reaction to a redrawing of Massachusetts state senate election districts under the then-governor Elbridge Gerry. In 1812, Governor Gerry signed a bill that redistricted Massachusetts to benefit his Democratic-Republican Party.

It was said the the re-drawn districts had the shape of a salamander….ergo Gerry after the gov and mander from the salamander and it has ever since been known as Gerry-Mander.

This is nothing, serves NO purpose other than making a loss proof district for politicians…..and in today’s country used to make it harder for some voters to elect a desired representative……it has NO socially redeeming qualities….it has out lived its usefulness, at least in my mind…..but then I am not a bottom feeding politician……time for it to GO!  As a matter of fact it is time for the whole electoral college con to go (that is a post for another day)……..

Let me close with one simple statement……..Remember when the voter pick its candidates….well gerrymandering has made it possible for the candidate to pick his/her voter!