CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

Somersaulting Voters: Stopping Rabid Gerrymandering

Image by Ernie Journeys.

“Gerrymandering” is the historic term for politicians picking their voters by manipulating Congressional and state electoral districts. Redistricting usually happens every ten years. It is fair to say that most voters don’t want politicians rigging the system to help one party win elections.

Both the Republican and Democratic parties have played this partisan gerrymandering game for years. Recently, the Republicans have become more ruthlessly partisan and have outpaced the Democrats. That is why, for example, in Pennsylvania, Democrats substantially outvote the Republicans but have fewer seats in the House of Representatives.

In the past year, the gerrymandering race has run amok. It was ignited by Tyrant Trump, who told his buddy Texas Governor Greg Abbott to break with the decennial tradition and get the GOP legislature this year to redistrict Texas to knock out four or five Democrats who are now in Congress.

Then came the tit for tat race. California Governor Gavin Newsom led a voter referendum that authorized a redistricting that could gain the ruling Democrats an extra four or five seats now held by Republicans. Then more “red states” jumped in along with more “blue states.” The latter mostly did it by voter referendum, such as in Virginia, while the Republicans preferred to do it through GOP-dominated legislatures. Florida’s GOP even disregarded a 2010 state referendum that would have prohibited their recent actions.

In Virginia, the state Supreme Court ruled 4 to 3 that the recent redistricting referendum was unconstitutional. The biggest blow came from the six gerrymandering Injustices of the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Louisiana v. Callais, further gutting the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Their ruling, in effect, outlawed districts drawn to give minority voters a chance to have Black representatives in Congress and in state legislatures. Political pundits are predicting a dramatic decline, as soon as this November’s midterm elections, in the number of Black Representatives in the House, presently 59, and........

© CounterPunch