by Curt_Anderson on November 10, 2022 10:16 pm
Above I suggested despite the conniving that goes into drawing the district maps and all the hand wringing about gerrymandering it's probably not as effective as people think. When the maps are drawn it may be known how people have voted in the past but it's an educated guess as to how they will vote in the future. Also there are unknowable variables such as people moving, dying, turning 18, etc.
Because Texas is considered to be the worst example of gerrymandering in America (first link), I decided it would be a good case to examine. It's also a large state with a lot of districts to manipulate.
In the second link you can see how Texans voted. There are 38 congressional districts in Texas. Four of the districts currently have 0% of the vote reported. Ignoring the non-reporting districts, I did the math. Statewide Texans voted for Republicans 64.5% of the time. Of those 34 districts that reported results 59% of them are represented in Congress by Republicans. It would seem that the Republicans cheated themselves. When the other four districts report their vote, it might be that Democrats were shorted a couple districts. Perhaps.
Of course if all Texans were evenly distributed so that every district was 64.5% Republican and 35.5% Democrats, probably EVERY district would have a Republican representing it.
fivethirtyeight.com
google.com
by oldedude on November 11, 2022 5:40 am
And where there are "illegal" actions on either side, you can take it to court. The reality is that BOTH side press the limit. That's the beauty of checks and balances (which conservatives believe in), if it violates the state's laws, the courts get to reign it in.
