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Congress: Filibuster, Redistricting
10/10/07
Electing Representatives
• Reapportionment
• Redistricting
Reapportionment
• The process of re-dividing the 435 seats of the United States House of Representatives, based upon each state's proportion of the national population.
• The preceding census is the baseline for determining how many House seats are allotted to each state.
Redistricting
• The process by which the boundaries of state legislative districts and United States House districts are drawn to reflect population shifts.
• Each state has a different method for redistricting.
Issues in Redistricting
• Gerrymandering
• Geopolitical concerns
• Minority voting strength
• Equal Representation
Gerrymandering
• The manipulation of electoral districts is known as gerrymandering.
Geopolitical Concerns
• In 1842, the Reapportionment Act required that congressional districts be contiguous and compact.
Compactness
Contiguity
Good Irregular
Minority Voting Strength
• Minority dilution– Weakening of the minority vote in an existing
district by splitting the minority vote among multiple new districts.
– Outlawed by the 1965 Voting Rights Act
• Minority packing– Taking existing minorities from multiple districts
and packing them into one new district. – Court cases have ruled against these districts.– But racial gerrymandering still occurs.
Equal Representation
• In 1962, the Supreme Court ruled that districts must follow the principle of "one man, one vote”
• Each district should have 646,952 residents
• Difficult to achieve in states with one representative (Ex: Montana)
But “One Man, One Vote” Does Not Hold in the Senate
• Residents in low population states receive more representation:– Sen. Feinstein (CA) represents 35 million people– Sen. Enzo (WY) represents 500,000 people
• Minorities under-represented:– 26 smallest states (in terms of population) have 11%
of the nation’s African-American and Latino residents– The 9 largest (population) states have a majority of
ALL people in the nation and 30% of the African-American and Latino population.
• Is there a principle that justifies entitlement to extra representation for some groups?
In Washington State• Until 1985, redistricting happened through
legislative action
• Legislature refused to redistrict through the 1970s
• Court-imposed redistricting in 1972
• Since 1990s, independent, bipartisan commission does redistricting