Congressional Redistricting Perry Wilson, Steffi Neill & Hannah Norton

What is Congressional Redistricting

Congressional Redistricting is the process of creating the electoral district boundaries

Terms to Know

Gerrymandering- practice that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating geographic boundaries to create partisan or incumbent-protected districts

Terms to Know (Cont.)

Malapportionment- some districts have too many people while others have too few people.

Terms to Know (Cont.)

Packing- to concentrate as many voters of one type into a single electoral district to reduce their influence in other districts

Cracking- involves spreading out voters of a particular type among many districts in order to deny them a sufficiently large voting bloc in any particular district

Wesberry vs. Sanders (1964)

Wesberry, a voter of the 5th District of Georgia, filed suit on the basis that his Congressional district had a population 2-3 times larger than other districts in the State, thereby debasing his vote. Plaintiffs sought an injunction to prevent any further elections until the legislature had passed new redistricting laws to bring the districts in line with population distribution. The case was dismissed at the district level, but reached the Supreme Court on appeal

Census

Every 10 years, the government conducts a census of all citizens of the United States. This information is used for many things, and one major thing it is used for is congressional redistricting.

Fundamental Question

Question: How does the current redistricting process contribute to the dominance of America’s two-party political system?

Answer: The boundaries for congressional districts are chosen to manipulate the population and vote to ensure someone’s reelection. The two parties that rule the political system are the one’s that create congressional districts.

Why Does Congressional Redistricting Occur

As the population in states change, so do the amount of representatives they can have in the House of Reps. So they have to redraw the congressional maps of states.

Issue #2 Ballot Initiative Results

Result: NO: 2,987,853- 63.45%

YES: 1,721,466- 36.55%

Significance- The results mean that there will not be a 12-man citizen commission to draw legislative and congressional maps.

Electoral College- Last 40 Years

1980- Ohio had 25 electoral points

Electoral College- Last 40 Years

1990- Ohio had 20 electoral points

Electoral College- Last 40 Years

2000- Ohio had 21 electoral points

Electoral College- Last 40 Years

2010- Ohio had 20 points

Ohio 1st Congressional District

Steve Chabot

Ohio 2nd Congressional District

Brad Wenstrup

Questions

1) What is Congressional Redistricting?

2) Does electoral points change?

3) How are the Congressional Districts manipulated?

4) Why is the census important?

5) Why do Congressional Districts change?