Politicians Play Map Games

GERRYMANDER-STRANGE TWIST: POLITICIANS CHOOSE THE PEOPLE THEY REPRESENT

Example of a gerrymandered election district (Stretching all the way from Jacksonville to Orlando)

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Many politicians now get to choose the people they represent. In a democracy, we always thought it was the other way: People choose the politicians. So what happened? The strange twist in democratic practice can be traced to gerrymander.

Gerrymander is drawing election districts in a state to favor a group or a political party. In most of the fifty states, the political party in control of the state legislature gets to redraw the election map. Both Democrats and Republicans draw the map in their favor in an attempt to dilute the strength of the opposition by putting their opponent’s voters in as few districts as possible which results in strange looking election districts.

The House of Representatives is now controlled by the Republican party with many of its members the beneficiaries of gerrymander. Democrats won more votes in the last national election; however, they have fewer elected members in the House. Could this be the reason for so much discord in Congress? Whatever happened to one man, one vote?

Are you looking for a research or speech topic?  How about gerrymander?

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