The Joys of Gerrymanding
Ever wonder who charts congressional district maps and how the process gets done? I know it keeps you up at night. Yes, that is sarcasm my intrepid readers.
The process probably should cause you at least a little insomnia. The process is highly political like most governing activities these days although it always contained the nasty stench of partisan battles supplemented by dank backrooms. Good old day syndrome need not apply here.
The official process sounds innocent enough. The Census Bureau releases its results every ten years which provides state legislative chambers or committees badly needed data to determine whether the statewide population has increased yielding new districts or do net population losses mean contractions? Texas perhaps best exemplifies the winners while rust belt or rural states face contraction.
This all sounds so scientific and mathy but the process is truly political as both major parties engage in a literal turf war for congressional seats. This is gerrymandering where the representation map defies reason and logic. The conflict should remains front and center in the public awareness scope and occupy you attention and sleep patterns.
Before reading this a knew a little bit about Gerrymandering but this quick blog gave me a little more insight. I learned when, where and how the districts change. also I learned how much it can affect the vote based on how the districts are separated.
I’d say the take on this blog is more that politics shouldn’t be involved in every aspect of government. The info that I gained from this blog would be that perhaps the congressional district maps aren’t too terribly accurate if they really are updated every 10 years. It personally does not keep me up at night, but I do find that interesting how this info could be very important and people do not pay too much attention to make it as accurate as possible. If one can’t get out information that they’re sure is 100% accurate, they shouldn’t be putting it out there.
The process of gerrymandering at the beginning exhibits a more complicated process than I really thought it was. I have learned about redistricting and the process of gerrymandering, and as you said, the process requires “statewide population” at an attempt to gerrymander the possibly new districts if the population has grown a significant amount.