[ad_1]
Ten years ago, Republicans pulled off what would later be described as “the most daring political heist of modern times.”
It wasn’t particularly complicated. Every 10 years, the US constitution requires states to redraw the maps of legislative seats in Congress and states. The constitution gives state legislators the power to design these districts. Looking at the political map in 2010, Republicans realized that by winning just a few state legislative seats in places like Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina, they could draw maps that would in place for the next decade, twisting them to ensure Republicans control for years to come.
Subscribe to the Guardian’s Fight to Vote newsletter
The Republicans executed the plan, called Project Redmap, almost perfectly and took control of 20 legislative branches, including those in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Then the Republicans got to work drawing maps that cemented their control over power for the next decade. Working behind closed doors, they were brazen in their efforts.
In Wisconsin, lawmakers signed confidentiality agreements and then drew cards so rigged that Republicans could almost retain a qualified majority of seats with a minority of the votes. In Michigan, a Republican agent bragged about piling up “Democratic trash” in some districts as they drew a congressional map that favored Republicans 9-5. In Ohio, GOP agents secretly worked from a hotel room called “the bunker,” as they tweaked a congressional card that gave Republicans a 12-4 advantage. In North Carolina, a state lawmaker said publicly that he was proposing a map that would elect 10 Republicans to Congress because he didn’t think it was possible to draw one that would elect 11.
This manipulation, called gerrymandering, “debased and dishonored our democracy,” wrote Judge Elena Kagan years later. He allowed Republicans to carefully to choose their voters, to isolate them from the responsibility which is at the base of the American democratic system. Now the 10-year process is expected to start again in a few weeks and Republicans are set to dominate it again. And this time around, things could be even worse than ten years ago.
The redistribution cycle comes at a time when American democracy is already in jeopardy. Republican state lawmakers across the country, some of whom are in office because of gerrymandering, have adopted sweeping measures making voting more difficult. Republicans blocked federal legislation that would ban partisan gerrymandering and strip state lawmakers of their power to draw districts.
Advances in mapping technology have also made it easier to produce highly detailed maps very quickly, giving lawmakers a greater menu of possibilities to choose from when carving out a state. This makes it easier to adjust the lines and test the cards to ensure that their projected results will hold up throughout the decade.
“I am very concerned that we have several states, large states, with some of the worst gerrymanders in American history,” said Nicholas Stephanopoulos, a professor of law at Harvard, who studies redistribution closely. “It’s not good for democracy in these states.
In 2019, the Supreme Court first ruled that federal courts could do nothing to stop even the most excessive partisan gerrymandering, giving lawmakers the green light to be even more aggressive. And due to the 2013 Supreme Court ruling in the landmark Shelby County v Holder case, places with a history of electoral discrimination will no longer have to have their cards approved by the federal government for the first time since 1965. It’s a lack of oversight that could encourage lawmakers to attempt to draw ridings that could dilute the influence of minority voters.
The gerrymandering clock is ticking. There is consensus that Republicans could use the redistribution process to draw maps that will allow them to take over the House of Representatives in 2022. In state capitals where Republicans are in control, there are already discussions. on the aggressiveness of lawmakers in carving out districts for the next decade.
Texas, Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina are all states where Republicans have full control over the redistribution process and pundits are on high alert for GOP efforts in Gerrymander Districts. And while Democrats are disadvantaged overall by the redistribution, there are a handful of states – Illinois, New York, and Maryland – where Democrats control the state government and can use that control to draw maps. their advantage.
Although gerrymandering poses a particularly dangerous threat to democracy, for decades the process has largely gone under the radar. The mapping process is a complex, technical process that is difficult for the average person to understand. While some of the more glaring neighborhoods are conspicuously distorted, it can be difficult to spot a gerrymander with the naked eye. And while it was easy, lawmakers have largely conducted the process behind closed doors, blocking the public from what they see.
That should also change this year.
Democrats and grassroots groups have spent the past few years educating citizens on the process and building an army of volunteers across the country to closely monitor the mapping. Part of that effort has been to teach people how to use publicly available technology to draw their own electoral maps.
“It’s a whole new world than 10 years ago in terms of public mapping software. The ability of the general public to draw their own maps and identify their own communities, ”said Moon Duchin, a mathematician who heads the MGGG Redistribution Lab at Tufts University, which has built publicly accessible mapping tools.
With these maps, members of the public can better challenge lawmakers on their justification for drawing odd-looking maps, said William Desmond, a clipping expert who advised the Arizona clipping commission in 2010 and works with California this year.
“Members of the public and interested parties, there will be many more possibilities open to them if they want to try their hand at designing their own neighborhoods,” he said. “If they want to test the assertions, like, ‘OK, you said you can only do that if you divide these counties, let’s see if I can give it a shot. There are a lot more ways to do it this time around, and a much higher level of quality.
Tech aside, there’s also some hope that 2021 won’t be a repeat of 2011, when Republicans dominated the redistribution. While Republicans have a huge advantage in drawing districts, it’s not as bad as it was in 2011. In Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, two of the most gerrymandered states a decade ago, Republicans still control the legislatures of the States but now have Democratic governors who can veto extremely extreme cards.
Adam Kincaid, the director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, a GOP group focused on redistribution, played down the effects of Project Redmap.
“Redmap kind of adopted this myth about what it was and what it wasn’t. The reality was that Redmap was a campaign to raise funds to fund state legislative races around redistribution, ”he said. “The best safeguards for gerrymandering have always been the American electorate. Changing electorates are breaking gerrymandering.
But critics argue that harsh partisan gerrymandering prevents shifting voters from being heard. In Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, Republicans maintained a majority in state legislature seats throughout the decade, even though Democrats won the gubernatorial election and d other statewide elections.
Kincaid agreed there would be a lot more public interest in the process this year than there has been in the past.
“Ten years ago… the number of press calls I received could be counted on one hand. Really on a finger, ”he said.
Some states also choose to deprive lawmakers of their ability to completely draw districts. In Michigan, a group of novice organizers successfully passed a constitutional amendment in 2018 to put redistribution in the hands of an independent commission made up of four Democrats, four Republicans and five independents. The commission has strict partisan fairness requirements that it must adhere to when drawing cards. Colorado and Virginia will also use commissions to draw districts this year, after voters approve the voting initiatives.
“The gerrymandering of the last decade was so extreme that I think it created this backlash. You see it in the reforms that have been adopted in a number of states. And you also see it in greater public awareness of gerrymandering, ”said Michael Li, a redistribution expert at the Brennan Center for Justice.
At the same time, he added, “I think for Republicans they have also learned that it actually works. In fact, they can do it with micro-precision.
[ad_2]
Source link