Thursday, November 13, 2014

11/8- Gerrymandering

"This speaks to the notion that the point of gerrymandering isn't to draw yourself a safe seat but to put your opponents in safe seats by cramming all of their supporters into a small number of districts. This lets you spread your own supporters over a larger number of districts. And the way to do this is to draw outlandishly-shaped districts that bring far-flung geographic areas together."

What this excerpt is trying to explain is how the practice of gerrymandering is a somewhat shifty tactic to get the majority on the side of the political party. What Gerrymandering accomplishes is manipulating boundaries, in which a range containing a majority of the voters are compacted in an area, while the rest of the voters are spread out, meaning the latter party will gain the most votes for the election. It's a dirty tactic, yet it remained effective somehow.

The reason as to why I chose this part of the passage is because in society today during elections, people have to go through bribes, and even lies. It's very surprising that a method like this can be used to win and gain an advantage in elections, spreading out and giving seats to a minority amount, while only waiting to still lose by a landslide against a majority, and this is caused by manipulating boundaries. Gerrymandering is a powerful method that can be used in today's society. 

From:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/05/15/americas-most-gerrymandered-congressional-districts/

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