REDISTRICTING“Where We Vote”

SPRING 2012

Voting Districts

• State Legislatures draw voting district lines• This action is a part of a larger, more

cumulative apportionment process (BIG PICTURE definition)

• Takes Place every 10 years– Political power is redistributed

Three Step (RE)Apportionment ProcessMechanics and politics in each phase

1. Census (decennial year-2010)– US Census Bureau• Agency of the US Commerce Dept.• Obama Administration will conduct census• This matters

– Republicans & Democrats do this differently

– All of the people are counted

Politics of Census

• Democrats and Republicans count differently• Democrats focus on counting people in urban

areas that tend to support the Democratic Party

• Lawsuits, polling, illegal immigration– Bill Clinton’s 2000 plan

Three Step (RE)Apportionment ProcessMechanics and politics in each phase

2. Apportionment (January 25, 2011-US House formulas)

– 435 US House seats are distributed to states according to census counts

– Only impacts the US House totals- “a House thang”• Totals in State House (180) and State Senate (56) do not

change– States gain or lose based on census counts• Most stay the same• Projection for Georgia– 14 seats (9.5-10 million people)– up from 13 seats in 2000 (8 million people)

2010 Census, 2011 Reapportionment709,760 people per districtName the “at-large states”?

Politics of Apportionment• Not really a problem until 1911

– 1911-permanent number of US House seats capped at 435– 1920-no apportionment-left it alone– 1929-Reapportionment Act

• Formulas established to distribute seats– 1930-first Census under the new plan– 1940-method of equal proportions established

• Start with one for each state• Proportionally divide remaining 385 seatsSimple form of Formula used----- X / Y = ZX = state populationY = US populationZ = total US Seats

Three Step (RE)Apportionment ProcessMechanics and politics in each phase

3. Redistricting (summer 2011 or early 2012)--state legislatures-GA did theirs in Aug. 2011 special session…TX still in Court over their districts (see their primary date)– Census data used to remap US Congressional, State House, State

Senate, and State Judicial Districts– Local legislative officials are in charge of local maps such as BOE,etc.– Maps/Districts must conform to criteria established over time by

Congress and Supreme Court1. Contiguous2. Compact3. Congruent4. Equity— “one man, one vote”

– State legislatures will cheat1. Malapportionment2. Gerrymandering

Politics of Redistricting***State legislatures will cheat…How?***

• Malapportionment (omission)– Failure to redraw voting district lines– Historic; eradicated by Warren Court in 1960s

• Baker v. Carr (1962)—”one man, one vote”– Overturned Colgrove v. Green (Frankfurter-states rights case)

• Wesberry v. Sanders (1964)– GA’s one man, one vote case

– Disproportionate power to rural areas• Linked to failure to redistrict• Link to urbanization

– “One man, one vote” doctrine established

• Gerrymandering– Practice of cracking, slicing, breaking, dividing, and other means to dilute a certain part of

the population’s voting power– Active manipulation of voting district lines to disadvantage political opposition

• Racial• Partisan• Affirmative (good cheating)

Original Gerrymander

See your notes packet for details

Gomillon v. LightfootTuskegee, AL

Chicago “Earmuff”

District

Shaw v. RenoNC

Gerrymandering case

Louisiana “Z” District

•1991 GA Congressional Map

•Affirmative Gerrymandering (good cheating)

•Tried to draw districts to get a proportionate amount of Congressional representation to the state population (33% black---try to get 3 black districts)

•Whites in District 11 sued over reverse discrimination—Miller v. Johnson

•Congressional Map drawn by the US District Court in Augusta

•Clean, compact, easy to follow divisions

•Partisan Gerrymandering

•Roy Barnes (a democrat) was Gov. of GA and Democrats controlled the state legislature, so they tried to draw districts to get more Democrats in Congress

•Notice the creative shapes of the districts

•Republicans redrew the maps mid-decade

•Precedent had been set by Texas—said states had to redraw every 10 years, but can redraw other times as well

•Republican map is cleaner and not as drastic as Roy Barnes map in 2001

•Governor’s Election 2010• Why does it matter

who you vote for?

• What is taking place this year?

GA Redistricting 2011/2012Who drew the map? How do you know?