One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again … while expecting a different result.
By that measure, there are many things wrong with our electoral system. Let’s look at just one: political gerrymandering. It helps explain why last week most voters cast Democratic ballots in the races for the U.S. House of Representatives but a majority of the seats went to Republican candidates.
We have 435 voting members in the U.S. House of Representatives (the same as in 1911), and those seats get divvied up among the 50 states. Every 10 years, the U.S. Census counts noses and declares which states gain and lose seats in the House. Afterwards, the states engage in a redistricting, a process “intended by the Framers solely to keep democracy’s electoral scales balanced.”
In most states, the party in power holds all the cards, so to speak, as the new legislative blocks get drawn. That’s why we have a word for illogically or disproportionately-drawn districts: gerrymandering.
The origin of the word “gerrymander” was a combination of “salamander” and the last name of Elbridge Gerry, who as governor of Massachusetts in 1812 signed into law a redistricting plan designed to benefit his political party. The term was put into print for the first time by the Federalist-leaning Boston Gazette on March 26, 1812. Printed alongside this cartoon, it described a newly formed district in Essex County, said to resemble the shape of a salamander. The portmanteau stuck.
But drawing boundaries to consolidate power, curry favor or wreak revenge is a practice as old as the hills.
Slate has two illustrations that demonstrate the degree of gerrrymandering in Ohio and Pennsylvania. The Atlantic shares illustrations from North Carolina and Maryland.
In 1778, former Virginia “Governor Patrick Henry persuaded the state legislature to remake the 5th Congressional District, forcing Henry’s political enemy James Madison to run against the formidable James Monroe.”
The state of Texas made headlines in 2003 when legislators decided to revisit the just-redrawn 2001 Congressional district map. Democratic legislators rebelled but, being the minority party, they did not prevail. As a result, 10 districts with Democratic congressmen were seriously redrawn; five of the 10 lost in the 2004 election. Moreover, the revised boundaries helped Republicans significantly boost their numbers: they won 21 of the state’s 32 seats in 2004, up from 15 seats in 2002. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2006 that District 23 had been gerrymandered, the equal protection clause.
It was not the first time that Texas had been the center of a court battle around district lines. Back in the Democratic era, House Speaker Sam Rayburn represented about 200,000 voters; the guy next door, Rep. Bruce Alger, represented about 900,000. In 1962, the Supreme Court said maps like these violated the 14th Amendment.
In 2010, New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg conducted a study of competitiveness and determined that nonpartisan redistricting would increase competition (make the races more competitive).
How do we get past this behavior, behavior that has been as rampant as legally possible since the early days of the Republic? With non-partisan commissions running the show. Voters in California established a 14-member commission. And in Florida, voters passed a Constitutional amendment prohibiting the state legislature from considering partisanship when redrawing districts. (I guess they didn’t trust that Supreme Court decision.)
Other states with nonpartisan systems include Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Montana, New Jersey and Washington.
Since 1992, there have been only two elections where incumbents were re-elected at less than a 90% rate. Three years the reelection rate was 98%.
How do to this? Voters have to unite and demand it.
Otherwise, this craziness will simply continue.
Known for gnawing at complex questions like a terrier with a bone. Digital evangelist, writer, teacher. Transplanted Southerner; teach newbies to ride motorcycles. @kegill (Twitter and Mastodon.social); wiredpen.com