When the majority of Californians get together to attack democratic safeguards in the name of preserving a balance, we aren’t really getting a compromise. Instead, it’s a loud, blatant signal that the system is eating itself. Proposition 50’s passage signifies that political polarization has gotten to the point that people on both sides of the […]
Tag: gerrymandering
Is Los Angeles the Future of Redistricting?
Do two wrongs make a right? That’s the question California voters must answer following Governor Gavin Newsom’s announcement of the Election Rigging Response Act. If passed by voters in a special election this November, the Act would redraw the state congressional district map and add five Democratic congressional districts in California. The Act aims to […]
Judicial Volatility on Section 2 Endangers Minority Representation
In what has taken over the national conversation surrounding next year’s midterm elections, Republicans are redistricting mid-decade to bolster the party’s chances of keeping congressional control. With explicit encouragement from the White House, state lawmakers in Texas and Missouri muscled through new gerrymandered maps that reconfigure Democratic-held districts for presumptive Republican pickups. In the past, […]
Splitting the (Electoral) Vote
Less than two months before the presidential election, Nebraska lawmakers sprang into the national limelight as Republicans sought to change how the state awards its electoral votes. Unlike 48 other states, Nebraska does not award all of its electoral votes in the Electoral College—the body that ultimately elects the president—to the winner of the statewide […]
The Fight for Fair Maps Continues in California
The 2022 midterm elections have proven once more how much the California Citizens Redistricting Commission has failed to live up to its mission: drawing fair maps. In 2022, Democratic House candidates in California won 63% of the state’s popular vote but 77% of California’s House seats. The California Citizens Redistricting Commission, approved by voters in […]
Ten Years Post-Reform, How Are California’s Congressional Maps Still Unfair?
What a success story for California! After decades of Democrats and Republicans in the state legislature rigging Congressional maps through gerrymandering, citizens finally came together in 2008 to pass Prop 11, and in 2010 to pass Prop 20, putting redistricting in the hands of a bipartisan citizen commission. Once and for all, California had fair […]
Minority Voters Save Democrats. Now, Democrats Must Save Minority Voters.
Fish live in water, humans breathe air, and minorities vote for Democrats. Right? I am a person of color and have aligned myself with the values of the Democratic Party, so it must be natural in American politics that voters of color will consistently turn out to elect Democrats. This seems to be the view […]
Should Democrats Gerrymander in Blue States?
Kevin McCarthy holding the Speaker’s Gavel on January 20, 2023, would be an unprecedented threat to American democracy. If Republicans reclaim control of the House next January, the investigation into the insurrection attempt on the United States Capitol will end and nonsense impeachment proceedings of President Biden could begin. Often, elections can be won and […]
Redrawing Maps, Power, and the Voting Rights Act
What is happening? In the wake of the 2020 census, electoral maps are being redrawn across the country. With this comes a slew of legal challenges, as people on both sides of the aisle run to court to challenge maps they claim favor the other party. It’s not just a fight over where a few […]
Gill v. Whitford: A Case That Will Literally Map American Politics
Partisan gerrymandering has to be one of the least discussed but politically important topics in our generation. The notion that states can reapportion their districts with lines that can give the incumbent party a clear advantage in upcoming elections is what furthers the political divide and de-legitimizes the bedrock of our democratic republic. Several court […]